Travel Industry Joins Lost Job Promotional Trend: Deals for the Laid Off

Business WomenIn today’s tough economic times, airlines, cruise lines and tour operators are laying out promotions for the recently laid-off.

Intrepid Travel, an Australian-based tour operator, is offering its tours at a 15 percent discount to the recently laid off through its “Laid Off Takeoff” promotion.

Though it may seem counterintuitive to try to sell tours to those who recently lost their primary source of income, Patrick Lavin of Intrepid said that approximately 60 people have taken advantage of the offer since it was launched.

“A lot of people don’t have time to travel when they’re working full-time, so losing their job is actually a blessing in disguise,” he said. “It gives them the opportunity to do something they may have always wanted to do.”

Last week JetBlue announced that it would give refunds to passengers who bought plane tickets for travel between February 1 and June 1, but later lost their jobs. The “Promise Program,” applies not only to the person who was laid off, but to up to nine people who booked on the same reservation.

The budget airline’s fares are usually non-refundable, but company executives said they wanted to be more flexible in the face of the worst recession the country has faced in decades.

“This price promise allows them to book early and take advantage of our low fares without worrying they will lose their money if they need to cancel their trip due to job loss,” said Robin Hayes, executive vice president of JetBlue.

UnemployedJust today Norwegian Cruise Line launched its own program to help travelers who’ve been hit by layoffs. The company’s BookSafe Travel Protection plan allows customers to get a refund of their cancellation fees if they need to back out of a cruise. The offer carries the stipulation that the passenger must have been laid off from a firm that they worked for at least one year.

Norwegian and JetBlue are just two of the latest companies to jump on the recession-refund bandwagon.

FLyBe, the low-budget British air carrier, is also offering travel cancellation insurance that covers “redundancy” (British for “layoff”), but they have set the bar a little higher—you must have two years of continuous employment with your company, and you can’t take advantage of the offer if you’re self-employed.

SkyRoll, a luggage manufacturer which specializes in carry-on baggage that lets you roll your clothes up instead of folding them, is offering its products at half price to those who can prove they’ve been laid off.

These promotions represent a new trend in the travel industry, which in the past, was notoriously tight-fisted when it came to holding onto customers’ travel dollars.

But now, travel companies are becoming more flexible in a bid to entice customers and boost their bottom line—not to mention garner to some positive PR.

Related links: USA Today, Washington Business Journal, Flybe, Skyroll, Intrepid Travel

By Karen Elowitt for PeterGreenberg.com.

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