Loyalty to one airline. A thing of the past?

[MarkD]

I know exactly what you mean, and that's why I'll never fly another Chinese airline, no matter how cheap.

Ha. Forgot about squat toulets

 

[dfcatch]

No i havent. However have read plenty of reviews and reviews have similar positives and negatives to other airlines. Im prepared to try anything once and hopefully im not disapointed ðŸ

Well then those reviews are, how do you say.... A little "rose tinted".

Paging Tony Hancock to the white courtesy phone..

 

[MarkD]

I will report back if/when i try ðŸ

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I'm just saying that if you've never flown on a Chinese airline - then you're not comparing apples with apples.

Or lavatories that are usable vs ones you'd rather hold it till you land.....

Chinese airlines? A flat bed is a flat bed. Paying an extra $3000-$4000 for a couple hours of meal service on QF or SQ? That's a pretty expensive meal.

A flat bed for the price of premium economy on another airline? Seems fairly easy to choose.

Not sure about the toilet issues on Chinese carriers. YMMV, but I've been on dozens of them and never had anything out of the ordinary. Maybe the amenities can be a bit lacking (might not have all the lotions and potions), but always reasonably clean.

 

[JohnK]

Not sure about the toilet issues on Chinese carriers. YMMV, but I've been on dozens of them and never had anything out of the ordinary. Maybe the amenities can be a bit lacking (might not have all the lotions and potions), but always reasonably clean.

How about economy? I keep seeing fantastic economy airfares from China Southern and China Eastern to various destinations but don't want to risk it.

I seriously start to worry when I see someone bend down to smell the muesli/corn flakes bowl at the breakfast buffet.

 

[bad]

Ha. Forgot about squat toulets

slippery yes therefore dangerous yes and let's not look down the hole! If your gold chain falls in that's it bye!

 

[MEL_Traveller]

How about economy? I keep seeing fantastic economy airfares from China Southern and China Eastern to various destinations but don't want to risk it.

I seriously start to worry when I see someone bend down to smell the muesli/corn flakes bowl at the breakfast buffet.

Yeah - economy is probably where paying a bit extra is going to make your flight a bit more comfortable in terms of seat selection, IFE, food and beverage selection - and where status comes in to play for lounges, check-in etc. Toilets in economy though are just the same as any other carrier (in my experience).

 

[dfcatch]

Yeah - economy is probably where paying a bit extra is going to make your flight a bit more comfortable in terms of seat selection, IFE, food and beverage selection - and where status comes in to play for lounges, check-in etc. Toilets in economy though are just the same as any other carrier (in my experience).

You seem to be the 1 in 10 with nothing bad to say. As you say - YMMV.....

But I'll play the odds based on the pretty horrible experiences I keep hearing about from the other 9 in 10.....

 

[TonyHancock]

Paging Tony Hancock to the white courtesy phone..

Moi?

Actually I have only flown internally in China, so no long haul with Chinese Airlines.........but I can report only satisfactory experiences over five years and 30 flights.......and even better priority boarding works perfectly. (Thanks to our ScaryTeam Elite General Manager. )

 

[eastwest101]

Yeah - I think you may be on the right track MarkD - as others have said before - retaining Gold on VA and either positioning to somewhere in Asia and using other carriers from there or at least trying out China Southern or other China based airlines and getting J seats for PE prices (or PE seats for Y prices) to avoid the Australia Tax/ price gouge is worthy of consideration. The VA links with SQ are nice but prices starting to get a bit silly and with the relationship between CX and QF so poor that sort of rules out the domestic QF and International CX combo. I haven't tried China Southern myself, I know people who have in J class and they said its not as polished as say CX or SQ but its still very good value for money, and the only thing holding me back from them (and other China based carriers) is the sometimes inconvenient transit in mainland China compared to say SIN or HKG.

Your plan and your thinking is pretty much what I would be thinking if I did more international flying than I currently do.

 

[freakyfly]

I just had a family trip to Copenhagen with SQ for 3 VA gold members and regret it. I had the SQ booking number so could use the SQ app to pre-select seats Syd-CPH but that ddidn't work for the return trip. SQ 777 200ER seats were harder than a church pew and the Krisflyer Gold lounge in Singapore is crowded and filthy like a school canteen. We then got seats in row 55 on check in to return home in Copenhagen with no express pass or lounge access. Absolutely zero benefits of status on a partner airline. Loyalty is definitely not worth the premium ticket prices. Next trip will be by best available fare probably excluding the Chinese airlines.

 

[trippin_the_rift]

The VA 'partnerships' are great for VA and their partners but like you've seen not so great for travellers.

Perhaps look at points redemptions next time - they render status a thing of the past.

 

[DaveB]

With warehousing FF points and the CC providers seemingly taking turns to give reward haircuts, took the opportunity of a drizzly Sunday to analyse which FF programs had been using the past 18 months. Surprised myself with following results:
KF/SQ 29.9%
VA 25.5%
HH 3.2%
DL 28.8%
QF 12.6%

 

[Wingin..it]

The whole point of loyalty to a program and airline is to benefit you rather than them .They will sell tickets etc regardless.If you don't fly in a country or an airline regularly you probably won't get too many benefits ;maybe some from partner airlines,some more than others.In them instances especially travelling economy etc sales and yes points matter most .
Loyalty to what you are doing and where you going 90% of the time is worth the loyalty.
I wouldn't have joined VA but they have family pooling .

 

[esseeeayeenn]

It can be a trap.
Fly enough to earn gold status and start to enjoy the lounge etc..
Fly a bit more and upgrade to Platinum. Love the F lounges and extra privileges.
Become reluctant to lose status. Start paying for business fares to earn more status credits.
Then realise if you're flying business then you don't need really status as much anyway.