Finally! Qantas sale - companion for travel in premium classes.

[amaroo]

To save $200. Is there any benefit to booking direct vs an online TA?

I've booked through an agent a few times when they can beat the price.....which is often.

 

[ReLoad]

To save $200. Is there any benefit to booking direct vs an online TA?

Avoiding finger pointing. Often when things go pear shaped or you need to change you have to go back through the agent instead of direct.
They also often charge their own change/cancellation fees etc.

 

[rogerkambah]

It is no different to EDR and Flybuys sending out different offers to different people. My rewards offer pretty much suck while others get great offers. JohnK, your offers are always way better than mine.

Agreed (What's with this 10 character minimum)

 

[Must...Fly!]

To save $200. Is there any benefit to booking direct vs an online TA?

Avoiding finger pointing. Often when things go pear shaped or you need to change you have to go back through the agent instead of direct.
They also often charge their own change/cancellation fees etc.

If it's cheaper, then go for it, but ReLoad is right. They will have their own change/cancel fees to throw on top of the airline fees and if there is an issue with the ticket then the airport agents will be powerless to help and you will have to contact the agent which can cause no end of issues.

but that said, it's a decent saving so if you go through with it, just make sure your name is 100% correct in the booking before you get to the airport.

 

[trippin_the_rift]

Their problems are far greater and deeper than marketing.....

Marketing can attract dollars which stimulates revenue growth. Makes sense right?

Problem is, this was a spray and pray marketing effort - which could have been much more effective by targeting offers directly at what type of fares members book. <rant> For example I get stupid "see the world" type emails from QF with international economy deals. I rarely fly intl economy. Those emails just annoy the fk out of me. Plenty of other easy wins here that QF CRM totally fails hardcore at identifying. You can have all the data in the world but when you don't know how to best harvest it's value - it's one giant waste of money. </rant>

All other airlines have similar pricing now so the only folks booking on QF are those who feel QF is the best (which lets face it is a declining number of people) or those that are trying to keep/retain status.

What this sale has done is alienated those who travel solo or have paid top dollar for similar flights. It's also damaged the CRM system by sending offers to those who would never in a million years book a seat or forward it to a friend to purchase.

No doubt there is a short term gain for QF/QFF here; however the overall effect is that this sale will hurt long term profitability of the business because it's:
- 50% discount. Discounting is a great way to **** an established business up.
- When prices jump back to 'normal' levels, nobody (aka: those who would usually buy under a 2 for 1 deal) will want to purchase because they're perceived as too expensive. Other airlines look attractive because their standard pricing looks reasonable.
- When premium bookings fall as a result of this in 6-12 months, people try other airlines, other FFP and ultimately will like a competing product.
- Those who don't fall inside the duo booking fly another airline. EG: next week for 1 person SYD-LAX-SYD is $10K... virgin is $4.7K....

For this to not hurt their future bookings QF basically has to lower the 'standard' (ie: not discounted I/D class) pricing.

Just silly... so so silly.

 

[will2rob]

All other airlines have similar pricing now so the only folks booking on QF are those who feel QF is the best (which lets face it is a declining number of people) or those that are trying to keep/retain status.

What this sale has done is alienated those who travel solo or have paid top dollar for similar flights. It's also damaged the CRM system by sending offers to those who would never in a million years book a seat or forward it to a friend to purchase.

No doubt there is a short term gain for QF/QFF here; however the overall effect is that this sale will hurt long term profitability of the business because it's:
- 50% discount. Discounting is a great way to **** an established business up.
- When prices jump back to 'normal' levels, nobody (aka: those who would usually buy under a 2 for 1 deal) will want to purchase because they're perceived as too expensive. Other airlines look attractive because their standard pricing looks reasonable.
- When premium bookings fall as a result of this in 6-12 months, people try other airlines, other FFP and ultimately will like a competing product.
- Those who don't fall inside the duo booking fly another airline. EG: next week for 1 person SYD-LAX-SYD is $10K... virgin is $4.7K....

For this to not hurt their future bookings QF basically has to lower the 'standard' (ie: not discounted I/D class) pricing.

Just silly... so so silly.

What a load of tosh.

Disregarding your statements about why people fly QF (unless you can reference some actual research as opposed to a feeling in your bunions), lets look at the fallacies in your arguments:

"No doubt there is a short term gain for QF/QFF here; however the overall effect is that this sale will hurt long term profitability of the business because it's:
- 50% discount. Discounting is a great way to **** an established business up."

Unlike a shop selling goods which are non perishable, Any airline offers seats on a particular date, route and class of travel. That flight will take off, fly to its destination and land at a particular time and date regardless of whether its half full, quarter full or chockers. Naturally the airline wants to maximise its return by filling the aircraft, particularly the premium seats which give it a better return. A companion sale is not unlike any other deal that offers you a discount if you purchase more than one item at the same time. Qantas aren't offering a 50% discount or two for one, just a discount when you purchase two seats on the same flight together which on a SYD-LAX fare is around a 27.5% discount per seat. Even if Qantas were offering 50% discount, 50% of something is better than 100% of nothing. I have flown several flights recently where I was either the only person in J or it was less than 30% full. Better for Qantas to fill those seats because they can never recoup the lost revenue from an empty seat no matter how many seats they fill on the next flight.

When prices jump back to 'normal' levels, nobody (aka: those who would usually buy under a 2 for 1 deal) will want to purchase because they're perceived as too expensive.

No, its not that simple. People will want to travel on particular routes at particular times for various reasons. If I need to be in say, Hong Kong on 8 June to go lounge crawling with a team of other reprobates, flying out on any other date defeats the purpose, no matter how cheap the fare is. So delaying a purchase because there are no sale fares is not an option. People travelling on business in particular, will be more captive to timetables than chasing a cheap fare at the next sale.

When premium bookings fall as a result of this in 6-12 months, people try other airlines, other FFP and ultimately will like a competing product.

Your evidence? The reality is that the premium airline market in general is in decline as a slew of low cost airlines take the business away from full service carriers. However, the problem for airlines is that make a lot more out of Mrs Headley-Smyth-Bowles sipping Bollinger in F or J than Mr & Mrs will2rob and the tin lids munching on TV dinners or whatever slop is served up in Y these days. As for trying other FFP, it depends on your status with your current program and how many points you're holding. If you're a QF P1 with a million FFP, you'll be less inclined to jump ship than a NB holding 20K points. Status matches do entice some, but starting from scratch in another program is not so appealing to the higher tiers.

Those who don't fall inside the duo booking fly another airline. EG: next week for 1 person SYD-LAX-SYD is $10K... virgin is $4.7K....

Probably right, except that Qantas is constantly throwing up sales at present, so that scenario can change quite rapidly

And that would be the reason Qantas is in great shape at the moment?

Qantas' problems have nothing to do with marketing or whether they offer you the opportunity to buy a seat on this particular sale at the price you want.

[OT] Probably the best analysis I have read to date on the issues facing Qantas can be found here:

http://www.airlineratings.com/news/184/what-is-wrong-with-qantas-and-australia#.UtSZKi-2jck.gmail

 

[serfty]

...

[OT] Probably the best analysis I have read to date on the issues facing Qantas can be found here:

http://www.airlineratings.com/news/184/what-is-wrong-with-qantas-and-australia#.UtSZKi-2jck.gmail...

interesting article ... This stood out:

The final words are for former Virgin CEO Brett Godfrey who said in 2004: “This year we will carry as many passengers as Ansett, with one third the staff.” And that staff was being paid approximately half the average of Ansett employees. Perhaps today Qantas is Ansett Mark 2 but the difference is there is still time for Qantas to reinvent itself.