Jetstar International

[neil_gardner]

Does anyone know of any other routes? I really enjoy holidaying in Kota Kinabalu and have been in two minds about since AO stopping their direct service - and then stopping altogether.

I am glad that they have stopped because it keeps the beaches nice and empty of "bogan" Australians who have bee scared off going to Bali - I was in Fiji recently and it appears they are all going there now. Mrs G is happy as she has another excuse to fly via KUL and spend some quality time at KLCC Suria hitting the shops.

On the other hand a direct flight would be useful as we have an 18 month old and one on the way and those 8 hour flights are a pain in the @ss when all Master G wants to do is run around (he's flown to the UK 3 times already). We recently flew JQ to Cairns and bought him his own seat and took our car seat with us onboard and sat him in it. Best thing we have ever done. Much less of a handful, Shame the JQ staff didn't know how to fit it. They had never been taught. But that’s another topic entirely

 

[bambbbam2]

I have a very good friend who is a hostie for JQ.. they are pretty much as in the dark as anyone.

They have all been asked who would like to apply to become an international hostie.. the price you pay is that you must agree to have your max work hours extended to 13 hours, without a layover.

I will let you all know as soon as she has been told anything..

 

[bambbbam2]

<Playing SPAM rank card>

Woohoo.. 100 posts.. though my contribution is humbled by the likes of NM, KiwiFlyer, Dave Noble and of course the great Lindsay Wilson, amongst others.

Happy Flying All!

 

[straitman]

<Playing SPAM rank card>

Woohoo.. 100 posts.. though my contribution is humbled by the likes of NM, KiwiFlyer, Dave Noble and of course the great Lindsay Wilson, amongst others.

Happy Flying All!

Congratulations. Now on to 1000 :!:

 

[N860CR]

I honestly can't see how any form of "low cost" carrier can make any real differences to the fare prices on routes like SYD-BKK or SIN which are already very busy routes with a lot of airline options. Gulf Air have fares as low as $600 return from SYD-SIN and I can't imagine Jetstar being able to better them. Even BA/QF have fares from $800ish on both routes. There is only so much Jetstar can shave off the fares and with such strong competition, I can't see them doing anything dramatic. At the end of the day, if I'm not going to earn points on a Jetstar Intl flight I'd rather take a cheaper fare on Gulf Air, Royal Brunei, China Airlines etc and get the full service.

 

[NM]

I honestly can't see how any form of "low cost" carrier can make any real differences to the fare prices on routes like SYD-BKK or SIN which are already very busy routes with a lot of airline options. Gulf Air have fares as low as $600 return from SYD-SIN and I can't imagine Jetstar being able to better them. Even BA/QF have fares from $800ish on both routes. There is only so much Jetstar can shave off the fares and with such strong competition, I can't see them doing anything dramatic. At the end of the day, if I'm not going to earn points on a Jetstar Intl flight I'd rather take a cheaper fare on Gulf Air, Royal Brunei, China Airlines etc and get the full service.

I don't think the plan is for JQ to shave more off the discount airfares. But to allow the Qantas Group to participate in some of those cheap fares such as the example quoted from Gulf Air, and then to allow them to reduce the number of $800 seats they sell on the mainline services helping to increase the overall yield for the group.

I expect we will see less heavy discounting on QF mainline, meaning more seats available for people seeking full-service and flexibility at a price, while JQ is left to battle it out with the other discounters for the passengers seeking absolute minimum fare.

Its not about providing lower fares, but about getting a slice of the discount fare market and still being able to make a profit from it.

 

[Yada Yada]

I don't think the plan is for JQ to shave more off the discount airfares. But to allow the Qantas Group to participate in some of those cheap fares such as the example quoted from Gulf Air, and then to allow them to reduce the number of $800 seats they sell on the mainline services helping to increase the overall yield for the group.

I expect we will see less heavy discounting on QF mainline, meaning more seats available for people seeking full-service and flexibility at a price, while JQ is left to battle it out with the other discounters for the passengers seeking absolute minimum fare.

Its not about providing lower fares, but about getting a slice of the discount fare market and still being able to make a profit from it.

I assume then we should expect there to be an overall reduction in QF flights to places like SIN given that JQ will be taking low cost flyers from them and QF won't want to fly half empty?

 

[NM]

I assume then we should expect there to be an overall reduction in QF flights to places like SIN given that JQ will be taking low cost flyers from them and QF won't want to fly half empty?

I must have missed the announcement that JQ was planning operations to/from SIN.

I was only aware of the following planned JQ destinations:

Bangkok, coughet, Osaka, Ho Chi Minh City, Bali and Honolulu

However, Geoff Dixon did make a statement along the lines of "Jetstar will be grown aggressively over the next three years while we continue to expand Qantas' international operations", so perhaps SIN will feature in the mix at some stage.

Yes, we may see some QF routes moved to JQ - but they will be the routes that struggle for high fare yields. HNL is an example of where the JQ plans complement the existing QF3/4 service.

Obviously some JQ seats will be filled by people who would have otherwise flown on a QF flight. But I think adding JQ into the mix will mean QF will allow the Qantas Group to grow the overall capacity while maintaining the premium mainline QF routes. Ten 787s is a lot of capacity to be adding to the network, so I hope that means some new and interesting direct routes rather than dilution of the current mainline operations.

 

[JohnK]

I assume then we should expect there to be an overall reduction in QF flights to places like SIN given that JQ will be taking low cost flyers from them and QF won't want to fly half empty?

Why do I get the feeling that there is only 1 winner out of this deal.

It looks like cheapest fare as we know it will be replaced by JQ. No FF points or SC's. Want FF points and SC's on JQ then buy a jet flex or * class fare. One would think that this would be similar to current JQ domestic fares where it simply is not worth it to fly JQ jet flex fares for the FF points and SC's.

So no more cheap fares on mainline QF for selected routes like BKK and SIN which means purchasing more expensive fares to earn same FF points and SC's we are earning now.

Wow!

 

[Yada Yada]

It will be interesting to see how they manage the separation between each airline's offerings.

Assuming that most people want the lowest fare on offer, I would expect that JQ will eat away at QF's WHY business - many pax won't pay a premium for QF WHY if the seat pitch is the same, the planes are older, and you get whatever food they are dishing up. At least on JQ you can choose what you want to eat and initially the planes will be newer. While they may not be flying the same routes, why wouldn't pax take a cheaper JQ fare to another city and then hop on Air Asia or similar to get to their desired destination?

Unless they really improve the service in QF WHY so that there is some differentiation between that and JQ, I can't see how this will work well for them. Unless as we've discussed before this is simply a way to get staff for lower cost, in which case JQ will only last as long as it takes to get QF staff to accept new employment contracts.

 

[NM]

It will be interesting to see how they manage the separation between each airline's offerings.

Especially on routes like SYD-HNL where noth will operate (at least initially)

Assuming that most people want the lowest fare on offer, I would expect that JQ will eat away at QF's WHY business - many pax won't pay a premium for QF WHY if the seat pitch is the same, the planes are older, and you get whatever food they are dishing up.

I wonder if this will give QF the opportunity to fit more J seats onto some aircraft? Move the Y passengers onto JQ with cheaper fares, and sell more premium cabin space at higher rates?

There are many times when J is sold out on QF flights. Even on QF3 today.

 

[Yada Yada]

I wonder if this will give QF the opportunity to fit more J seats onto some aircraft? Move the Y passengers onto JQ with cheaper fares, and sell more premium cabin space at higher rates?

I hope so. Or maybe introduce an "economy plus" cabin?

There are many times when J is sold out on QF flights.

...or filled up with staff. :wink:

 

[N860CR]

Although I've been saying it since JQ started (and have so far been proven incorrect), I can see this move into low cost long haul coming back to bite Qantas in the behind. There is only so much that can be shaved off the cost of a long haul ticket and most airlines already offer discount priced tickets on the routes JQ is looking at. While the domestic model has worked in Australia largely due to Qantas "forcing" passengers onto the JQ service, on long haul international flights to, for example, Bangkok, people have a large selection of other airlines offering full service at probably about the same fare as JQ will have.

From my view, for JQ to be sucessful they need to pick only routes they will exclusivly own. Most passengers would happily fly with Gulf Air, Air China, Royal Brunei etc knowing they'll get a full service carrier at around the same price as JQ will have. My personal opinion is that Qantas will need to continue their plan of "forcing" passengers onto JQ flights for this move to work. So far most attempts at long haul discount flight have failed. coughet Air tried it out of Bangkok and that ended quite dramatically (that being just one example I can think of right now)

But then again.... I've been wrong so far so maybe this will work for them. Overall all however all I can see happening is a reduction in the number of QF operated flights, more JQ services and a continuation of Qantas' decline in customer service.

 

[jakeseven7]

another thought, brought up briefly by another post but not expanded on is the view by a few people I know in the industry who think JQ international will be a true price fighter brand of the QF Group, thus if managed correctly will enable QF to move to a much more premium positioning - across all classes...

wishful thinking perhaps... a very tricky job for qf to manage