maninblack said:
Then here is some advice to Virgin Blue. Put Business class seats (no frills required) in your aircraft or else neither myself, my family or any of my collegues are likely to ever fly with you. If you introduced a Business class product you would give QF a hiding.
When I had the opportunity to meet Brett Godfrey a few months back I suggested that I'd like to see some business class seating on their planes - just better seating (e.g. 2+2 config with extra legroom), not a full service business class like QF offers. He mentioned that it is something they have considered and continue to think about, so there is hope.
I'm not certain QF would get a hiding if this happened because their capacity, frequency and network is superior, but it
might force them to begin offering some D class fares on the main trunk routes, as happened when OzJet was briefly flying SYD-MEL.
However I wonder if the economics of such a move actually work? Consider the situation if they created a business class cabin at the front of their 737's with 4 rows of 2+2 seating. They'd probably have to take out 2 rows of Y seating to create the additional legroom so in a 2+2 config that would make a total loss of 20 seats.
On a typical SYD-MEL sector, assuming an average fare of $180, this would be a loss of income of approx $3,600. To make this up, they'd have to charge about $400 per J seat ($180 + $3,600÷16), and that's before offering anything else such as free food or access to the VLounge.
So perhaps they might charge between $420 and $450 for business class inclusive of free on-board food and beverage and free VLounge access. This is assuming they can fill the J cabin. If they cannot find 16 paying pax on every flight, they risk loss of income. Perhaps this could be overcome this by using convertible style seating (like AN used to have) but I guess that would also increase turnaround time at the airports with crew having to reconfigure the cabin.
Nonetheless, $420-$450 is a good price for SYD-MEL in J compared with QF's full Y fare of $410 and their full J fare of $610. However, I've just noticed that the QF booking engine
does still offer discounted business class airfares on SYD-MEL. Have a look at tomorrow's schedule (e.g. QF437, 451, 400, 424, et al). These are not peak time flights but obviously when it gets close to the day QF is prepared to discount. The price is around $445 per seat, remarkable similar to the price I calculated above for DJ.
It's easy to see why introducing a business class cabin would be a PITA for Virgin Blue. And as soon as they did, QF would likely match them and perhaps even push it just a bit lower to introduce some pain for DJ.
The more I think about it, the more I'd be happy with something simpler, e.g. pay the $30 for Blue Zone and perhaps a bit more to ensure an empty seat in the middle. Great leg room, plenty of arm room, and to hell with the silver service. Add live2air and the already decent "a-la-cart" food served, and it's a good product.
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