Plat bumped out of Economy X - Twice.

[Rich]

Perhaps it was to improve social distancing. Makes sense to bump the person not paying extra.

 

[dk4]

Makes sense to bump the person not paying extra.

Not really. I think it makes sense to bump the passenger who is worth the least to the airline, over the course of their entire life-time relationship.

Transactional businesses only view a customer's worth by today's purchase price. This is standard LCC mentality.

Holistic businesses view a customer's worth by how much money they will make over the course of their entire life relationship.

If you travel frequently, you generally want to deal with the latter rather than the former. If you travel infrequently, you generally want the best price from the former rather than the latter.

This gets to the crux of the worry many Virgin frequent fliers have about the future;
1) Bain, like all capital raiders, are transactional by their very nature (they don't stick around for the long term),
2) Jayne Hrdlicka's CEO airline management skills come from a transactional airline model (Jetstar),
3) VA is cutting staff, and reducing their focus on maintaining relationships, but increasing focus on transactional pricing. (And presumably doing the same this with their suppliers too.)

As the new VA is very light on detail about where it is heading service-wise, I think observing their tactics at a micro level, gives some idea about their macro future. Hence, why I think many of us are interested to know why this happened!

 

[Rich]

Not really. I think it makes sense to bump the passenger who is worth the least to the airline, over the course of their entire life-time relationship

I knew someone would give a DYKWIA explanation.
I simply meant it makes sense from a practical point of view (no refund required) and also for fairness.
If I paid for my seat ($ or pts) and the person next to me paid less, I would expect they were the ones moved, regardless of their status or who they were. The P1 benefit is surely subject to availability anyway.

 

[Bagpuss]

1) Bain, like all capital raiders, are transactional by their very nature (they don't stick around for the long term),
2) Jayne Hrdlicka's CEO airline management skills come from a transactional airline model (Jetstar),
3) VA is cutting staff, and reducing their focus on maintaining relationships, but increasing focus on transactional pricing. (And presumably doing the same this with their suppliers too.)

As the new VA is very light on detail about where it is heading service-wise, I think observing their tactics at a micro level, gives some idea about their macro future. Hence, why I think many of us are interested to know why this happened!

1) Bain are in for for a short term or long term profit, like any investor / company owner. Unless you are part of the Bain team you would not know their desire only assume them. You maybe surprised to learn some of these investors have various long term investments, big and small.
2) Jayne has held many roles, including Qantas Loyalty. No matter who you are as a CEO you can't just rinse and recycle from your previous role. If you can adapt to each company you will fail and fail quickly. Virgin is a challenger brand, Jetstar Low Cost.
3) VA like any airline would be conducting a full review into all operations. Pretty sure they are very much focused on Singapore Airlines and Delta, their key international partners.