Rex to fly between Australian capital cities

[Melburnian1]

ZL42, the Wednesday 1000 hours MEL - SYD on 9 February 2022 had all eight J seats occupied but only 50 in whY.

 

[jakeseven7]

You don't take Qantas on by playing the game the same way - you need to exploit its weaknesses and downplay your own (like network/frequency/lounges). The business model for "free upgrades" is there, some of the largest airlines in the world use it, and it is the antithesis of the way Qantas does business, AND in my opinion, it WILL poach frequent flying high value economy customers from the competition.

High value Y passengers are generally not making their own booking / travel policy decisions, they are made higher up the food chain in the land of senior management and procurement who do very much consider highly network and frequency (less so lounges lol though employee satisfaction is important especially at the moment with practically zero unemployment and staff leaving for whatever reason these days....) as well as cost of course. So this could apply to both Rexy and VA2 given their current respective challenging but in common issue they share in what to do with their J class cabins.

 

[Harrison_133]

ZL42, the Wednesday 1000 hours MEL - SYD on 9 February 2022 had all eight J seats occupied but only 50 in whY.

Comparatively it looks like VA833, also a 1000 departure, had 8 J occupied and 164 in Y. QF didn’t have a 1000 flight today to compare.

 

[Brissy1]

Rex flying bne to syd?

 

[AIRwin]

Rex flying bne to syd?

Route launched in December - refer post #1223 by @Andrew Curran above

 

[Brissy1]

Route launched in December - refer post #1223 by @Andrew Curran above

Silly me, wasn't following. Although I did check rex booking site for dep bne before posting but looked at destination alphabetically. Syd is at top, didn't see that, more embarrassment. Anyway, explains why I've been paying so little for bne-syd for the last month!

 

[Fortunatecrow]

ZL258 MEL/BNE was somewhere between half and two-thirds full today.

On business class upgrades. In the early days a bit of chat at check-in gave you a good chance on an upgrade. The same lines don't work as they used to! I think they are getting pickier and it would be wrong to assume that all J pax are freebies....

 

[Harrison_133]

ZL258 MEL/BNE was somewhere between half and two-thirds full today.

On business class upgrades. In the early days a bit of chat at check-in gave you a good chance on an upgrade. The same lines don't work as they used to! I think they are getting pickier and it would be wrong to assume that all J pax are freebies....

I don’t think they’re giving out the upgrades at the check-in desk. Tried my luck checking in at the normal counter in MEL when EF showed an empty J cabin. Instead forced to use the self serve kiosks, as were other passengers. Then before boarding commenced they randomly approached 8 people to “re-assign” their seats into Row 1 & 2.

 

[Mattg]

Then before boarding commenced they randomly approached 8 people to “re-assign” their seats into Row 1 & 2.

I wonder what the logic is of giving 8 free upgrades. Unless Economy is oversold, what is Rex trying to achieve? (Unless they've already catered the flight with 8 perishable J meals, in which case the marginal cost would be low I guess...)

Do people who've been randomly upgraded at the gate still get full J meal service, wine, etc?

I guess those 8 people would have been happy either way.

 

[jase05]

I wonder what the logic is of giving 8 free upgrades. Unless Economy is oversold, what is Rex trying to achieve? (Unless they've already catered the flight with 8 perishable J meals, in which case the marginal cost would be low I guess...)

Do people who've been randomly upgraded at the gate still get full J meal service, wine, etc?

I guess those 8 people would have been happy either way.

I guess it might give some people a taste of J in the hope that they won’t go back to Y and will book J from now on. Its not at a huge cost to them I wouldn’t think so perhaps worth a try

 

[Harrison_133]

I wonder what the logic is of giving 8 free upgrades. Unless Economy is oversold, what is Rex trying to achieve? (Unless they've already catered the flight with 8 perishable J meals, in which case the marginal cost would be low I guess...)

Do people who've been randomly upgraded at the gate still get full J meal service, wine, etc?

I guess those 8 people would have been happy either way.

I was in Row 3 Rextra legroom (which I got at no extra charge on the self-serve kiosks I’d add), so could see straight into J, and they got the full food and drinks offering. A few weeks later I saw someone post on social media about their upgrade, and the photo of their boarding pass had a “catering not assured” stamp. So I guess it depends on what catering is loaded for each flight.

 

[Melburnian1]

Comparatively it looks like VA833, also a 1000 departure, had 8 J occupied and 164 in Y. QF didn’t have a 1000 flight today to compare.

VAd has (like QFd) cut its flight frequencies on many routes, especially the major ones.

However the general pattern seems to be many QFd flights are half full if that, while VAd flights are (surprisingly) close to full. The ZL ones vary with routes like MEL-SYD a disaster but MEL-OOL and perhaps a bit less, MEL-ADL OK for passenger numbers. Yield per seat for ZL is however allegedly poor, and it can't be profitable (but then neither are the others, with QF's finances close to basket case levels. VA is privately held so information is sprase).

 

[Harrison_133]

The ZL ones vary with routes like MEL-SYD a disaster but MEL-OOL and perhaps a bit less, MEL-ADL OK for passenger numbers.

ZL definitely perform better over the weekend. Fridays & Sundays in particular they can fill the MEL-SYD flights to capacity, suggesting they’re finding a niche in the weekend leisure crowd. Rest of the week, especially Tuesdays & Wednesdays, are pretty quiet and nowhere near full even with just 2 flights between MEL & SYD currently. In comparison, even with the recent reductions, VA have basically maintained an hourly frequency with pretty good loads.

while VAd flights are (surprisingly) close to full.

This would come at a surprise to some, but VA flights are usually pretty full these days. Flew MEL-LST most recently. 169 out of 176 seats occupied. The lounge was absolutely packed so had a look at EF and basically every flight was departing with over 160 or 170 passengers.

VAd has (like QFd) cut its flight frequencies on many routes, especially the major ones.

True, but if you look at routes like MEL-OOL, VA are still running up to 11 flights on peak days, which is more than they ever used to pre-covid. And from observation, they almost always go out with over 170 seats filled and their last minute ticket prices can be eye-watering.

MEL-OOL does seem to be Rex’s best performing route. They have consistently maintained 2 flights a day and haven’t taken an axe to its capacity like other routes. I was looking at a last-minute trip to the Gold Coast not long ago, and many Rex flights were sold out in Y. Maybe they should shift capacity around and beef up the MEL-OOL frequencies. They seem to be finding a footing in the leisure market, they just need to exploit that a bit better.

 

[Harrison_133]

Interesting article. Rex targeting a fleet of 30 737s in the next 5-7 years.

Rex seeks to drastically expand 737 fleet from 6 to 30

 

[Must...Fly!]

Go big or go home, why not have 30 empty jets flying around instead of 6....

 

[jakeseven7]

Go big or go home, why not have 30 empty jets flying around instead of 6....

They truly and honestly believe they can run VA2 down - a friend went to an investor strat meeting and they had a slide of a bullseye with a VA2 plane image in it.

I wonder if they are angling for a takeover when VA2 is sold down?

 

[clifford]

They truly and honestly believe they can run VA2 down - a friend went to an investor strat meeting and they had a slide of a bullseye with a VA2 plane image in it.

I wonder if they are angling for a takeover when VA2 is sold down?

They're dreaming...

 

[PineappleSkip]

Interesting that Bonza is touting similarly big plans. Doubt they're both doing this on a whim and they both appear to see similar opportunities. Suspect there are prophesies of overall growth in the marketplace rather than just the idea of elbowing out established players in a static market. Two airlines doing the same suggests it will get harder for them both, however, as I bet the advice to each doesn't factor in the plans of the other.

Cheers skip

 

[HS-TQE]

They truly and honestly believe they can run VA2 down - a friend went to an investor strat meeting and they had a slide of a bullseye with a VA2 plane image in it.

I wonder if they are angling for a takeover when VA2 is sold down?

Better chance of a REX/Bonza merger to be honest.

Perhaps 777 could offer a decent amount of money for their Singapore PE rival (PAG) to exit the hypothetical merged company.

 

[MooTime]

I think there's a few PE knobs with very deep pockets pissing this up with each other.

No way in the wide world AUS can sustain QF, JQ, VA, Rexy & Bonza.

The amount of $$$ that will be wasted/lost, once any take over happens there'll be lot of burnt $$$ to get to that point.

VA already match Rexy on their routes for fares.
Bonza have many loss making routes & I imagine JQ will match them where they see fit.

I just hope Rexy don't shut down their regional routes when the bulk of their funding runs out.