CheapTickets

The story of CheapTickets begins not with a grand vision for online travel, but with a problem. In 1986, an airline, Mid Pacific Air, paid its advertising firm with 3,000 inter-island flight tickets instead of cash. An executive at the firm, Michael Hartley, along with his wife Sandra, took on the task of selling these tickets. They placed classified ads in newspapers using a simple, powerful phrase: "cheap tickets". The tickets sold out in two weeks. This initial success led the Hartleys to found CheapTickets, building a business as an airline ticket consolidator. They bought unsold seats from airlines at low rates and resold them to the public for less than the airlines' published fares. The company expanded, opening its first call center in 1987. A pivotal moment came in 1997 when the company launched its website, becoming an early player in internet travel sales. By 2001, CheapTickets had grown significantly, handling millions in bookings. This attracted the attention of Cendant Corporation, a travel and real estate conglomerate, which acquired the company for approximately $280 million. This event marked a major milestone for the Hartleys, who had started the company to offload a surplus of tickets. CheapTickets was later included in the sale of Travelport to the Blackstone Group and eventually became part of Orbitz Worldwide, which was then acquired by Expedia Group, its current parent company.