First Class redemption on QF flights

[Dave Noble]

I guess in this situation, a 3rd level of service, possibly a truly Premium Service, might be the way an airline would go. Thus those of us prepared to pay a LITTLE extra dollars/loyalty) to get a better seat/experience can get it, while those like you, who are prepared to pay a lot more, get something rather special.

QF is introducing a premium economy cabin in 2008

Dave

 

[Platy]

The seat you are not buying, they are selling to someone else, so they aren't loosing....Rubbish, Every FF member has the same ability to get award flights

Apologies on confusing first/premium - I had misunderstood and thought the thread had drifted into premium cabin territory and that a premium cabin was referring to non economy...my mistake.

Perceptions are based on personal experience...

I fully accept that the routes you travel (eg PER-SYD/MEL etc) do fill up in business class if that is your observation. I assume you are confident that they are all, or predominantly, fully paid up seats (ie. no/few subload staff, upgrades, etc) in support of your point (that the the seats do indeed sell at an apparently high price, if I have understood correctly - I am assuming that maximum potential revenue is achieved at 100% loading with full J class paid tickets).

However, on the route I travel the most domestically (CNS-BNE), there are predominantly EMPTY seats in the J cabins (typically 19 empty out of 25). Clearly, QF would prefer to write them off rather than sell them at a price point the market will withstand (or, horror of horrors, make any available as redemption/upgrade seats).

Given the above, no, on such routes the seat I now don't buy cannot be said to be bought by someone else. Furthermore, if you apply that logic to your customer retention strategy you'll find that you are trying to feast from the magic pudding whilst losing grip on your market share - a classic example of Petch's point of QF playing the tactic and not the market.

Rubbish or not, if the good folk at the path lab perceive unequal access and limited access to FF scheme benefits to render the scheme immaterial to their purchasing decision, then QF is failing to win and retain their business.

I guess it doesn't really matter since QF will simply sell the seats they would have bought to someone else!

I assume that the $500,000 worth of lost business to QF that I am aware of within a select group of close friends over 2 years (predominantly first class international travel) also doesn't matter since the seats simply end up sold to an endless supply of alternative customers. Emirates has been happy to welcome them as Skywards FF customers and retained their business...so a win-win-win situation for customer, Emirates and QF!

 

[JohnK]

I am eagerly awaiting the entry of V Australia into the market in late 2008.

The type of impact they have on QF will depend on the price of airfares to the USA. If the airfares for premium cabins is similar to Virgin Atlantic then QF can expect to lose some business customers unless they reduce their airfares. Time will tell....

 

[Reggie]

I assume you are confident that they are all, or predominantly, fully paid up seats (ie. no/few subload staff, upgrades, etc)

I believe there could be some subload, but that would be in their agreement, I am pretty sure there is at least one award pax, and maybe even possibly 1 or 2 upgrades. However from your observations on Qantas policy with CNS-BNE,it is quite possible there are no upgrades. Also the difficulty in booking a fully paid J ticket to PER to east coast at short notice due to no availability is also evident.

Rubbish or not, if the good folk at the path lab perceive unequal access and limited access to FF scheme benefits to render the scheme immaterial to their purchasing decision, then QF is failing to win and retain their business.

Sorry, I read the unequal comment as a statment of fact, not quoted opinion, and yes you are correct that Qantas needs to fix this presumption of unequal access to awards when it isn't the case. The any seat arrangement should fix access problems, but yeas at a higher points cost.

I assume that the $500,000 worth of lost business to QF that I am aware of within a select group of close friends over 2 years (predominantly first class international travel) also doesn't matter since the seats simply end up sold to an endless supply of alternative customers. Emirates has been happy to welcome them as Skywards FF customers and retained their business...so a win-win-win situation for customer, Emirates and QF!

Well your first class friends would appear to not have left due to a lack of upgrades, as erm they are already flying in first class . They are your friends so I don't really know why they left, but I am pretty sure they left due to other reasons as well, like service, schedule, cabin etc, so implying it is due to lack of upgrade and award ability seems a long bow to draw.

 

[Platy]

Well your first class friends would appear to not have left due to a lack of upgrades, as erm they are already flying in first class . They are your friends so I don't really know why they left, but I am pretty sure they left due to other reasons as well, like service, schedule, cabin etc, so implying it is due to lack of upgrade and award ability seems a long bow to draw.

Yes, Reggie, of course you are right, simple issue of upgrade/awards is only part of a bigger picture. However, the FF scheme is the principle loyalty strategy of QF (and other airlines) and if it fails to deliver on customer expectations (fairly or unfairly) then QF have a problem. Obviously, service, personal experiences and preferences also are factors in airline chocie and churn.

I guess my point is that the airline cannot afford to have a "it doesn't matter if we lose this once loyal customer since we can always sell the seat" sort of attitude to its customer service and loyalty since it will eventually see its market share whittle away as customers become dissaffected for one reason or another. The $17k per year it has lost from me may be a droplet in the ocean compared with total revenue until you factor in "brand integrity" and common perceptions in the marketplace. However, shared perceptions (eg. "I love QF cos they gave me a coplimentary upgrade last week" or "I dislike DJ becuae they are too jokey in thye cabin demonstratins") can impact the brand and market share regressively!