Great Promotional Stunt Of The Day

  The usually-insane 405 highway in Los Angeles needs to be widened by 2 lanes per side in order to handle the area's increased population. It's something that needs to occur on a fairly regular basis and it's not usually a big deal. However, unlike Toronto, for example, there aren't too many other options when the 405 shuts down. Instead of having 6 other freeways like Hogtown does, anytime shit hits the fan on the 405, you have the worst bottleneck in North America. And this weekend, the nastiest section of said highway will be closed completely for construction.

Angelenos will be forced to stay home or try to drive around the hell, and all of the mayhem will result in Carmageddon, and I'm not talking about the classic video game. However, the wise minds over at JetBlue have seized the opportunity to get a little cheap publicity.

  The discount airliner will be offering seats on flights from Burbank to Long Beach that are cheaper than a gallon of premium unleaded. The promo tickets go for $4 and $5 with taxes and fees and everything included- even a checked bag. The promo flights are set for Saturday and can be booked by phoning in, as the demand was huge on their website for obvious reasons.

  This is how you market when you are offering no-frills air travel to people who wouldn't otherwise consider it. So many people were driven to JetBlue's site by the cartastrophe that they'll notice $32 flights to Las Vegas or check out the nation's capital for $240. Even if JetBlue loses money on the promo flights, they'll be sure to gain new clients. Grocery stores use loss-leaders (idea hatched by Canadian Ed Mirvish) all of the time, and now the concept has come to air travel.

  Others, take notice. JetBlue is coming for your customers.