JetBlue has a new offer, “Live Free or Fly!” where they will give you a chance for a free international ticket if your preferred candidate for President loses.
That way, you can “mak[e] good on an Election Protection promise: the chance..to freely leave the country (and return home!) if [you] need a break because [your] candidate doesn’t win.”
You register your preferred candidate and destination in advance, and then:
JetBlue will give away 1,006 roundtrip certificates to participants whose candidate lost. Tickets are good for roundtrip travel from any airport JetBlue services to 21 international, nonstop destinations including Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Mexico, St. Maarten, St. Lucia and Turks & Caicos.
And of course they promote their LiveTV offering (but not internet yet…) by saying you can watch the Presidential debates while onboard.
One thing I do note in their press release that I didn’t realize was an explicit policy of the airline: “JetBlue also serves unlimited free snacks and drinks, which are offered equally and without bias to customers on both sides of the aisle.” I love the framing, but if they promise unlimited does that mean I can shove their snack basket in my carry on?
Of course, if you want to maximize your chances of winning a free ticket, you probably don’t want to register your true choice for President. Instead, you want to play the odds, and consult the betting markets on the outcome before registering your selection.
Furthermore, the website for the offer says you can change your mind so you may want to wait to register or change your preference as the eleection nears closer and the betting markets move one way or the other.
As far as tracking their poll results, though, I expect this to skew much farther to Obama than the national elections will — and not just because of the current betting markets…. but rather because JetBlue’s strongest markets themselves skew heavily Democratic. In other words, not only isn’t this a scientific sample, it’s an unscientific sample of Blue states. But it’s still a lot of fun, and put a smile on my face this morning..
Wonder what Spirit has up their sleeves?
Their unofficial poll may be skewed towards Romney, because when he loses, everyone who chose him will have then have a chance to win a ticket!
This is a brilliant marketing move. Original, funny, all-around-solid.
What a great idea! My family has been Republican since the Civil War era in Indiana when the party aligned with the union. As a moderate, I have been disappointed by the radical nature of the part, particularly in the south.. Mysoginist comments (women who use birth control are “dirty”, you can’t get pregnant if you are raped,etc) and thinly veiled racist slurs early in the primary campaign disgust me. Even so, I decided to stay and fight for my party rather than leave. I’ll vote for Mitt Romney and hope he can go middle of the road when elected. I’m still believe it’s Abraham Lincoln’s party.
The dream lives on, even though I live in a swarm of tea partiers.I’m still GOP, but not one of the crazys.
Consult the betting markets — yeah, but in order to maximize the chance of winning a ticket you’d be wise to go AGAINST the expected election loser, if the jetBlue poll turns out to be more highly skewed than the expectation for the general elections: your candidate may be less likely to lose the election, but you’ll have a higher chance of getting a ticket if they do.