Jet Blue Alleviates L A Freeway Disaster Offers $4 Flights in Carmaggedon

by hearit

It's pure marketing genius: While news outlets won't shut up about the oncoming point of certain disaster that's been dubbed "Carmageddon", Jet Blue makes the wise move to profit off the free exposure. After all, anchors across the nation are going to continue talking about the potential "disaster" that's going to bring absolute ruin to L.A. Someone might as well benefit from it.
 
News outlets continue to refer to the coming 405 freeway closure, slated for July 15-17, as "traffic-crippling". It's an event dubbed "Carmageddon" -- not by potentially panic-stricken Los Angeles residents themselves, but by the media outlets who continue to report on an event of such epic proportion that the rest of the nation surely believes the city's going to be struck by actual disaster. Even news anchors are sick of reporting on the event that's been included in daily reports for the past month. The eye roll and occasional sarcasm are indicators.
 
Jet Blue is the smart one: the airline's added four flights to its regular Saturday, July 16 schedule -- for flights between Burbank and Long Beach. It's just 35-miles but, if it's as bad as Los Angeles news outlets would have the nation believe, it's going to save travelers in certain days they would have otherwise been spending on the ground during the crippling event that's going to leave L.A. in an absolute stall.
 
The Jet Blue flight special consists of two flights from Burbank Airport to Long Beach Airport, at 12:20 p.m. and 6:35 p.m., and two flights from Long Beach to Burbank, at 1:50 p.m. and 7:55 p.m. The only downside in "Carmageddon" flights: Jet Blue sold them out pretty much instantaneously.
 
Either the media sufficiently scared L.A. locals into believing they'd actually need to take to the air in order to escape traffic doom -- or travelers decided to take a flight for the novelty of it all. How often do you get to say you took a commercial flight between two cities easily reachable in minutes by freeway? Until the horrific "Carmageddon", air destinations from the Los Angeles area to Las Vegas or San Jose were about the most least time in the air anyone could accomplish.
 
Airline fliers were offered flights for just four bucks each way between Burbank and Long Beach. A 25% fare increase -- a whopping $5 dollars -- was even offered, to allow customers an upgraded, luxury "Even More Space" seat. 20 minutes in the air can be grueling after all.
 
According to Jet Blue reps: "We're helping Angelenos get over the gridlock altogether and enjoy the Valley or the beach, their favorite soccer match or a food festival, without having to brave the traffic jams to get there," claims Mark Rogers, JetBlue's L.A. marketing manager. Note: He's the marketing manager. Surprise, surprise.
 
The reality for the forthcoming "Carmageddon" event: Experts believe the amount of traffic will be about equal to freeway traffic related to the 1984 Olympics, when the media convinced Los Angeles residents and the nation of certain, backed-up disaster. What really happened? Things were pretty much clear -- better than an average traffic day.
 
For the rest of Los Angeles -- a city additionally dubbed one of the most dangerous places in the nation to live, based on blown-up news reports -- there's only four more days to hear about "Carmageddon" (plus two, for aftermath coverage).
 
For news outlets, some other potential disaster's going to need to come to the forefront to replace "Carmageddon". Maybe the city and nation will get to hear more about L.A. gang problems -- that will do, at least for the interim.

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