Good Morning, Cafe Patrons.
I am serving up a special, extra strong shot of travel caffeine today, as I think we all need something potent to help clear our minds of what has been a truly befuddling week in the Australian air travel industry.
Virgin Blue was left hanging at both the US and Australian altars with two of their brides-to-be - Delta and Air New Zealand - as the US Department of Transportation rejected their proposed tie-up with Delta, and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission did the same with their Air New Zealand proposal. In both rejections, the hypocrisy seems quite evident as not only has the US DOT has approved a similar (but much larger) British Airways / American Airlines trans-Atlantic partnership but the ACCC in Australia actually approved the Virgin / Delta deal last year.
Ironically, on the very same day the US DOT rejected the Virgin / Delta marriage another Australian Government entity, the International Air Services Commission, approved a continuation of what now amounts to a duopoly on the Australia-South Africa route by extending the codeshare agreement between Qantas and South African Airways. This duopoly is thanks to V Australia (owned by Virgin Blue) recently pulling out of the AUS-SA route, leaving those two aforementioned code share partners the only direct services between the two countries.
Both regulatory bodies cited various anti-consumer sentiments in denying the partnerships, but in my mind (both as a corporate and consumer purchaser of travel) I certainly don't think either body was representing my interests. Why isn't the ACCC weighing in on the South African/Qantas code share for instance, instead leaving it to some other governmental body to ascertain the impact on the consumer? Isn't the 2nd "C" in ACCC all about the consumer?
Perhaps Virgin and Delta should hire the lobbyists that BA and AA used when petitioning the US DOT on their alliance across the Atlantic, as they obviously spun their message correctly whereas Virgin and Delta seemingly did not. Regardless, I can't fathom how the DOT could justify BA/AA getting in bed together but have decided with Virgin and Delta to, um, keep things virginal apparently.
Same for the ACCC here. They claimed that a Virgin and Air NZ partnership "...would lessen competition and increase the likelihood of ‘‘coordinated conduct’’ on the trans-Tasman route." Apparently the US DOT doesn't think the same logic applies over there, as I'm sure there will be a fair bit of "coordinated conduct" between the Brits at Waterside and the Yanks at DFW.
And just to add more insult to injury, Qantas has now stated publicly that they have a beef with Virgin's proposed partnership with Etihad. Let's not even bother with discussing the merits of airlines objecting to other airlines' plans, shall we? Of course Qantas now has issues with Virgin's plans, but does anyone have any issues with Qantas' codeshares through to Europe with BA/CX, etc? Sorry, I just said I wasn't going to go there...!
Now, I'm not advocating that all governmental bodies charged with consumer protection around the world should operate under the same guidelines when it comes to regulating things like air travel. However, I would hope that they would operate with at least the same logic. And I for one find all these rulings illogical. After all, if there is any industry on this planet that is excellent at trying new ways to fill a void in a particular part of the market, it's the airline industry (see: Southwest, Ryanair, AirAsia...and yes, even Virgin Blue circa 2001.)
If Virgin and Air New Zealand do link up and decide to start doing anti-consumerish type things like charging $1500 one-way across the Tasman, I'm sure Qantas, Tiger, Emirates or any number of future upstarts will be ready to step in and bring that consumer back with lower prices or better service or whatever will woo the customer. So why do we need endless bureaucracy combined with a lack of common sense dictating the market?
Perhaps one day I will be paying $1500 one-way across the Tasman, standing up for the entire flight, and paying a fiver to use the toilet thanks to "coordinated conduct." And if that day happens, Cafe Patrons, I may have to charge extra for that lid on your morning cuppa...
EXTRA SHOT FOR THE DAY
I'll be in Hong Kong all next week through Friday, and thanks to a jam-packed schedule and some "renovations" I'll be doing on the Cafe, we'll be closed next Friday, September 25th. I'll be back open on October 1st with a whole new look - come check it out!
Image courtesy www.commons.wikimedia.org
Showing posts with label Qantas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Qantas. Show all posts
Monday, September 13, 2010
Thursday, July 29, 2010
If You Want to Play Corporate Travel Leapfrog, Best to Have Strong Legs
Morning, everyone! This week I had the pleasure of attending the Asia Pacific Aviation Outlook Summit here in Sydney. A 3-day gathering of the airline and travel industry glitterati packed with presentations and pontifications about the future of air travel, and the travel industry in general.
After flying on, writing about and booking tickets with airlines for years it was great fun to go to a conference devoted to the business of air travel. And what became apparent to me is that when it comes to business travel, airlines are pretty tough to keep up with.
As Cafe regulars would know I've devoted a few Friday Mornings lately to talking about Virgin Blue's quest for the Australian corporate market. And if the presentations I heard this week prove to deliver what was talked about, any possible leap frog plans past Qantas that Virgin had could prove to be very tough to deliver on.
It boils down to simple economics: the Qantas Group is profitable, despite all the groaning about costs and constant (and very publicised) battles with some categories of employees. Qantas' CEO Alan Joyce at the conference this week put it in very plain terms: they are making money. And when you make money, you can spend money. And when you can spend more money than your competitors, you'll end up leapfrogging well out of their league.
Joyce spoke at length about the 8 to 9 figure investments (yes that's tens to hundreds of millions of dollars) in airport operations and passenger experience technologies they've started to just roll out, and it is obvious they are moving into a new generation of convenience for business travellers. I'm soon to get my new Qantas Frequent Flyer card (got my "personal" email from Alan himself letting me know it's on the way!) and after what I heard this week I can't wait to try it out.
I've written lately about comfy seats, in-flight entertainment, air staff that try to do wonderful things for you, and all that good stuff. But time after time, in study after study, the things that business travellers tend to rate as most important when choosing an airline (assuming they have a choice of course) is convenience, reliability and capacity - and Qantas is nailing those facets well beyond the rest of the market.
With the new virtual check-in, and soon-to-come personal bag tags, as a busy traveller I'll be able to waltz into the airport minutes before my flight, stroll past the RFID kiosks which will pick up my information from the radio chip embedded in my Frequent Flyer card, toss my bag with similarly ID'd bag tag attached onto the waiting conveyor, and voila - I'll be checked in and on my way. No stopping at a touch-screen, and certainly I won't have to stand in line and talk to a person (heavens no!) to check in. It doesn't get more convenient than that.
And it probably didn't come cheap - which again is why Virgin will continue to struggle to capture the corporate market as I would predict that this new technology will be a huge hit with road warriors. As Virgin ekes out a profit, Qantas' money train seems to keep rumbling along just fine- "tank you very musch" as the Jolly Irishman Mr. Joyce would say. Deep pockets can buy big things, and this "frog" has some big legs. Going to be tough to get the jump on this....
After flying on, writing about and booking tickets with airlines for years it was great fun to go to a conference devoted to the business of air travel. And what became apparent to me is that when it comes to business travel, airlines are pretty tough to keep up with.
As Cafe regulars would know I've devoted a few Friday Mornings lately to talking about Virgin Blue's quest for the Australian corporate market. And if the presentations I heard this week prove to deliver what was talked about, any possible leap frog plans past Qantas that Virgin had could prove to be very tough to deliver on.
It boils down to simple economics: the Qantas Group is profitable, despite all the groaning about costs and constant (and very publicised) battles with some categories of employees. Qantas' CEO Alan Joyce at the conference this week put it in very plain terms: they are making money. And when you make money, you can spend money. And when you can spend more money than your competitors, you'll end up leapfrogging well out of their league.
Joyce spoke at length about the 8 to 9 figure investments (yes that's tens to hundreds of millions of dollars) in airport operations and passenger experience technologies they've started to just roll out, and it is obvious they are moving into a new generation of convenience for business travellers. I'm soon to get my new Qantas Frequent Flyer card (got my "personal" email from Alan himself letting me know it's on the way!) and after what I heard this week I can't wait to try it out.
I've written lately about comfy seats, in-flight entertainment, air staff that try to do wonderful things for you, and all that good stuff. But time after time, in study after study, the things that business travellers tend to rate as most important when choosing an airline (assuming they have a choice of course) is convenience, reliability and capacity - and Qantas is nailing those facets well beyond the rest of the market.
With the new virtual check-in, and soon-to-come personal bag tags, as a busy traveller I'll be able to waltz into the airport minutes before my flight, stroll past the RFID kiosks which will pick up my information from the radio chip embedded in my Frequent Flyer card, toss my bag with similarly ID'd bag tag attached onto the waiting conveyor, and voila - I'll be checked in and on my way. No stopping at a touch-screen, and certainly I won't have to stand in line and talk to a person (heavens no!) to check in. It doesn't get more convenient than that.
And it probably didn't come cheap - which again is why Virgin will continue to struggle to capture the corporate market as I would predict that this new technology will be a huge hit with road warriors. As Virgin ekes out a profit, Qantas' money train seems to keep rumbling along just fine- "tank you very musch" as the Jolly Irishman Mr. Joyce would say. Deep pockets can buy big things, and this "frog" has some big legs. Going to be tough to get the jump on this....
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Virgin's Business Class Bliss - the V Australia Sky Try
Morning everyone! After a couple of weeks off the Barista is revived, refreshed and ready to tackle all things travel. And much of my refreshed state comes from a truly fantastic holiday to Fiji. Which, interestingly enough, started off with a flight experience that has (at least in my mind) led me to believe that Virgin Blue's new boss John Borghetti has the future right where he probably wants it.
As I've said in previous editions of the Cafe, I was struggling to figure out how Virgin's new boss was going to loosen the bear hug on the corporate travel market that Qantas currently enjoys. But thanks to a terrific experience on V Australia (or maybe it was too much Fijian kava) things have started to crystallise in my mind about some things that Virgin Blue can start using to make inroads into the business travel market.
As a first-time flyer on V Australia, I have to admit even though I had heard the advertising and some feedback from others who've travelled on them, I was expecting a more Virgin Blue-like experience. Imagine my pleasant surprise then after boarding the plane that besides a flight attendant crew who all looked younger than my son, there was very little Virgin Blue and a whole lot of something else.
That "something else" was what you just don't seem to get these days on other airlines, and that's a feeling that you're in for a whole new experience. Yes, the colour schemes are from Virgin Atlantic and so is the pop/rock music piped in (which sure beats hearing Qantas' "I Still Call Australia Home" anthem over and over again) but the plane itself just feels more cool, more comfortable, and more unique than anything I've been on lately. The other "something else" was the crew - just as young, laid back and better looking than I am as is the rest of Virgin's staff but they just seemed to adapt their approach to the passengers better than other crews I've travelled with lately.
For example, our flight was to Fiji so obviously it was a holiday-heavy flight. However in Business class, there were several travellers who looked as though they were either coming from or going to a business meeting. As opposed to assuming everyone was off on holiday, the crew in the cabin took the time to not only say hello but also stop and query the nature of the passenger's journey. With Mrs. Barista, Barista Junior and yours truly already in our shorts and sandals it was obvious what our story was, but not so obvious was what the gentleman across the aisle with the Tumi laptop bag and phone glued to his ear was up to. Just saying a quick hello is fairly Virgin Blue or Qantas-like, but a "what will make your trip with us more comfortable?" is what V Australia seems to be about.
Now onto the actual experience on board: with mood lighting, cool colour schemes, big touch-screen TV's with on-demand content available for you right from the moment you sit down until arrival at the other end, and completely lie-flat seats, this biz class product is a real winner. Coupled with excellent food and, of course the requisite sit-down bar, the entire V Australia flying experience was a treat. As their adverts for the SYD-NAN route say, you'll wish the flight was longer. And I certainly did.
However - and this is the "Hey John, listen up!" moment- I was actually more impressed with the Premium Economy product. Not so much as saying its the best long-haul Premium Economy product in the sky, but rather that I believe that this product, installed in the first few rows of Virgin's domestic aircraft, would give Virgin Blue a differentiation in the domestic business class sector rather than the half-hearted attempts at doing so they currently have on board.
The V Australia Premium Economy seat is covered in very comfy, soft leather, has useful (ie- not painful) footrests on the seat in front, has generously-sized on-demand TV screens that, coupled with free on-board Foxtel, would really entertain the biz traveller and make it feel like a more international-type product rather than a rigged-up domestic seat with an extra drinks tray. Throw in a free welcome glass of bubbly in one of V Australia's cool and rather large champagne "schooners" (nothing like a big fat drink after a long day to calm the nerves!) then if I had the chance to fly biz class domestically this way I'd be all over it.
For certain, it will take a lot more than one comfy seat to send the corporate traveller who's drunk on Qantas Frequent Flyer status and points staggering over to Virgin Blue. But I'm sure John's got all those other aspects of engendering corporate loyalty all figured out. It's the actual flying experience on Virgin that I've said before still has a long way to go, but I think by taking a few pages out of their sister long-haul product then DJ could have a flying chance at it.
As I've said in previous editions of the Cafe, I was struggling to figure out how Virgin's new boss was going to loosen the bear hug on the corporate travel market that Qantas currently enjoys. But thanks to a terrific experience on V Australia (or maybe it was too much Fijian kava) things have started to crystallise in my mind about some things that Virgin Blue can start using to make inroads into the business travel market.
As a first-time flyer on V Australia, I have to admit even though I had heard the advertising and some feedback from others who've travelled on them, I was expecting a more Virgin Blue-like experience. Imagine my pleasant surprise then after boarding the plane that besides a flight attendant crew who all looked younger than my son, there was very little Virgin Blue and a whole lot of something else.
That "something else" was what you just don't seem to get these days on other airlines, and that's a feeling that you're in for a whole new experience. Yes, the colour schemes are from Virgin Atlantic and so is the pop/rock music piped in (which sure beats hearing Qantas' "I Still Call Australia Home" anthem over and over again) but the plane itself just feels more cool, more comfortable, and more unique than anything I've been on lately. The other "something else" was the crew - just as young, laid back and better looking than I am as is the rest of Virgin's staff but they just seemed to adapt their approach to the passengers better than other crews I've travelled with lately.
For example, our flight was to Fiji so obviously it was a holiday-heavy flight. However in Business class, there were several travellers who looked as though they were either coming from or going to a business meeting. As opposed to assuming everyone was off on holiday, the crew in the cabin took the time to not only say hello but also stop and query the nature of the passenger's journey. With Mrs. Barista, Barista Junior and yours truly already in our shorts and sandals it was obvious what our story was, but not so obvious was what the gentleman across the aisle with the Tumi laptop bag and phone glued to his ear was up to. Just saying a quick hello is fairly Virgin Blue or Qantas-like, but a "what will make your trip with us more comfortable?" is what V Australia seems to be about.
Now onto the actual experience on board: with mood lighting, cool colour schemes, big touch-screen TV's with on-demand content available for you right from the moment you sit down until arrival at the other end, and completely lie-flat seats, this biz class product is a real winner. Coupled with excellent food and, of course the requisite sit-down bar, the entire V Australia flying experience was a treat. As their adverts for the SYD-NAN route say, you'll wish the flight was longer. And I certainly did.
However - and this is the "Hey John, listen up!" moment- I was actually more impressed with the Premium Economy product. Not so much as saying its the best long-haul Premium Economy product in the sky, but rather that I believe that this product, installed in the first few rows of Virgin's domestic aircraft, would give Virgin Blue a differentiation in the domestic business class sector rather than the half-hearted attempts at doing so they currently have on board.
The V Australia Premium Economy seat is covered in very comfy, soft leather, has useful (ie- not painful) footrests on the seat in front, has generously-sized on-demand TV screens that, coupled with free on-board Foxtel, would really entertain the biz traveller and make it feel like a more international-type product rather than a rigged-up domestic seat with an extra drinks tray. Throw in a free welcome glass of bubbly in one of V Australia's cool and rather large champagne "schooners" (nothing like a big fat drink after a long day to calm the nerves!) then if I had the chance to fly biz class domestically this way I'd be all over it.
For certain, it will take a lot more than one comfy seat to send the corporate traveller who's drunk on Qantas Frequent Flyer status and points staggering over to Virgin Blue. But I'm sure John's got all those other aspects of engendering corporate loyalty all figured out. It's the actual flying experience on Virgin that I've said before still has a long way to go, but I think by taking a few pages out of their sister long-haul product then DJ could have a flying chance at it.
Thursday, July 1, 2010
The Most Useless Travel Blog Posting Ever
Good morning, everyone. I know (or at least I hope) your weekly visits to the Cafe are insightful, interesting and useful - but I think today I may just disappoint.
I'm intrigued by the recent moves in personnel and public statements being made by new Virgin Blue boss John Borghetti as he continues to reiterate that Virgin Blue's future is based on a significant growth in corporate business. Just this past week it was announced for example that he's poached a bunch of his former Qantas colleagues to take on senior roles in Brisbane. And given that he was instrumental in building up Qantas' business products over years down in Mascot I certainly am sure he knows what he's doing.
However, as a frequent business traveller, and someone who flew Qantas predominantly for nearly 6 years and recently started flying on Virgin Blue, my curiosity is based on wondering how on Earth Virgin Blue is going to take a slice of Qantas' stranglehold on the Australian business travel pie. Because much of that curiosity stems from the fact that having flown Virgin Blue nearly every week over the past few months I have absolutely no clue how they are going to pull this off.
I certainly do not profess to know what drives the satisfaction of every single business traveller out there. But having logged my fair share of miles all in the name of whatever organisation I happened to be working for at the time, I do think I have a good idea of what business travellers are looking for in an airline.
But I really, truthfully, have no idea what I would tell John and his old and now new cronies there at Virgin Blue how they're going to capture the business travel market. Thus, today's Cafe being the most worthless travel blog post ever.
What I can tell the Virgin Blue team however, are some things about travelling for business on Virgin Blue that I would think that, if changed/edited/deleted altogether would be a great start:
- Terminal experience: OK, so this is a tough one, given that airlines have only so much control and influence over Macquarie Airports (oops, sorry - I mean airport operators) to enhance the airside experience. That being said, the difference between Sydney Domestic Terminal 2 vs. 3 (Virgin vs. Qantas, basically) is significant. I'm not talking about shopping or food- I'm talking about feel. Most savvy business travellers today in an era of mobile/online check-in are breezing into the terminal with only minutes to spare before boarding and don't give a rats about shopping or eating. The light, airy feel of Qantas' Terminal 3 compared to the dark, low-ceilinged rabbit warren of Terminal 2 makes me want to cut those minutes down to one single minute. T2 in Sydney (and don't even get me started on Melbourne) needs a serious overhaul.
- The "fun" factor: I don't have any specific issue with this, as I enjoy a sharp-witted flight crew and genuinely friendly welcome as much as the next person. What I don't like is when those who are tasked with my safety and onboard comfort put that fun above their job. The problem with the flight crew on Virgin from a business perspective is that they don't pay enough attention to why I am travelling. I don't need a joke after a long day and I'm buried in my laptop as soon as the seat belt sign is off, I just need a "hi there, do you need anything?" and then move on. Even if Qantas' flight attendants aren't always the warmest (generalisation of course, there are some very nice ones) they at least have the "attend" part of the job down pat.
- Make a decision on the front of the plane: the current "Premium Economy" is neither Premium nor good economy. Let's face it: flights in Australia aren't all that long, so why have a product that doesn't really give you any significant difference in the on-board experience? Qantas' domestic business class may not necessarily be "worth it" (again, given relatively short flights) but at least the difference in the product is noticeable.
- Narrow planes = narrow opportunity: Virgin needs to get bigger planes on the more popular routes. Like the earlier points around the "light and airy" feeling in the QF terminal vs. the DJ terminal, there is still something infinitely more comfortable being in economy on board a plane with two aisles rather than one. Every flight on Virgin Blue just reminds me of travelling in the USA, aka: Boeing 737/Airbus A319 hell. No matter that the seats are leather, or that there is a seat-back TV in front of me, I would rather be on a wide-body jet any day of the week. Especially to Melbourne, which is such a short flight that having a wide-body plane for a 50-minute journey seems luxurious. Business travellers like luxury, no matter how small it may seem, and having to cram on board single-aisle aircraft when you could go on something bigger just doesn't cut it. And yes - I am saying I prefer a creaky old wide-body 767 to a brand-new 737.
- Free Foxtel: I would have to think that the most clear-cut differentiator is that Virgin offers 24 channels of live-to-air TV on the seat back in front of you rather than stale Channel 9 news updates with the ingratiating Deborah Hutton winking at you from out-dated overhead monitors. I'm sure JB has already thought of this, but if you want corporate loyalty - give us free Foxtel!
Again, as I have said numerous times, I can't imagine how difficult it must be for an airline to offer various pre-flight and on-board experiences and capture market share all in the name of profitability. So if John Borghetti ever did shimmy up to the Friday Morning Cafe and order up some advice from the Barista, I'm not sure I could truly help him out. But as an avid and well-seasoned traveller, I would hope that my useless advice could perhaps find some value somewhere, somehow. Like JB's goal to achieve 20+% share of the corporate market...we dare to dream....
I'm intrigued by the recent moves in personnel and public statements being made by new Virgin Blue boss John Borghetti as he continues to reiterate that Virgin Blue's future is based on a significant growth in corporate business. Just this past week it was announced for example that he's poached a bunch of his former Qantas colleagues to take on senior roles in Brisbane. And given that he was instrumental in building up Qantas' business products over years down in Mascot I certainly am sure he knows what he's doing.
However, as a frequent business traveller, and someone who flew Qantas predominantly for nearly 6 years and recently started flying on Virgin Blue, my curiosity is based on wondering how on Earth Virgin Blue is going to take a slice of Qantas' stranglehold on the Australian business travel pie. Because much of that curiosity stems from the fact that having flown Virgin Blue nearly every week over the past few months I have absolutely no clue how they are going to pull this off.
I certainly do not profess to know what drives the satisfaction of every single business traveller out there. But having logged my fair share of miles all in the name of whatever organisation I happened to be working for at the time, I do think I have a good idea of what business travellers are looking for in an airline.
But I really, truthfully, have no idea what I would tell John and his old and now new cronies there at Virgin Blue how they're going to capture the business travel market. Thus, today's Cafe being the most worthless travel blog post ever.
What I can tell the Virgin Blue team however, are some things about travelling for business on Virgin Blue that I would think that, if changed/edited/deleted altogether would be a great start:
- Terminal experience: OK, so this is a tough one, given that airlines have only so much control and influence over Macquarie Airports (oops, sorry - I mean airport operators) to enhance the airside experience. That being said, the difference between Sydney Domestic Terminal 2 vs. 3 (Virgin vs. Qantas, basically) is significant. I'm not talking about shopping or food- I'm talking about feel. Most savvy business travellers today in an era of mobile/online check-in are breezing into the terminal with only minutes to spare before boarding and don't give a rats about shopping or eating. The light, airy feel of Qantas' Terminal 3 compared to the dark, low-ceilinged rabbit warren of Terminal 2 makes me want to cut those minutes down to one single minute. T2 in Sydney (and don't even get me started on Melbourne) needs a serious overhaul.
- The "fun" factor: I don't have any specific issue with this, as I enjoy a sharp-witted flight crew and genuinely friendly welcome as much as the next person. What I don't like is when those who are tasked with my safety and onboard comfort put that fun above their job. The problem with the flight crew on Virgin from a business perspective is that they don't pay enough attention to why I am travelling. I don't need a joke after a long day and I'm buried in my laptop as soon as the seat belt sign is off, I just need a "hi there, do you need anything?" and then move on. Even if Qantas' flight attendants aren't always the warmest (generalisation of course, there are some very nice ones) they at least have the "attend" part of the job down pat.
- Make a decision on the front of the plane: the current "Premium Economy" is neither Premium nor good economy. Let's face it: flights in Australia aren't all that long, so why have a product that doesn't really give you any significant difference in the on-board experience? Qantas' domestic business class may not necessarily be "worth it" (again, given relatively short flights) but at least the difference in the product is noticeable.
- Narrow planes = narrow opportunity: Virgin needs to get bigger planes on the more popular routes. Like the earlier points around the "light and airy" feeling in the QF terminal vs. the DJ terminal, there is still something infinitely more comfortable being in economy on board a plane with two aisles rather than one. Every flight on Virgin Blue just reminds me of travelling in the USA, aka: Boeing 737/Airbus A319 hell. No matter that the seats are leather, or that there is a seat-back TV in front of me, I would rather be on a wide-body jet any day of the week. Especially to Melbourne, which is such a short flight that having a wide-body plane for a 50-minute journey seems luxurious. Business travellers like luxury, no matter how small it may seem, and having to cram on board single-aisle aircraft when you could go on something bigger just doesn't cut it. And yes - I am saying I prefer a creaky old wide-body 767 to a brand-new 737.
- Free Foxtel: I would have to think that the most clear-cut differentiator is that Virgin offers 24 channels of live-to-air TV on the seat back in front of you rather than stale Channel 9 news updates with the ingratiating Deborah Hutton winking at you from out-dated overhead monitors. I'm sure JB has already thought of this, but if you want corporate loyalty - give us free Foxtel!
Again, as I have said numerous times, I can't imagine how difficult it must be for an airline to offer various pre-flight and on-board experiences and capture market share all in the name of profitability. So if John Borghetti ever did shimmy up to the Friday Morning Cafe and order up some advice from the Barista, I'm not sure I could truly help him out. But as an avid and well-seasoned traveller, I would hope that my useless advice could perhaps find some value somewhere, somehow. Like JB's goal to achieve 20+% share of the corporate market...we dare to dream....
Thursday, June 24, 2010
The Sky Try: Singapore Airlines "Sofa" Class
Greetings, everyone. Apologies for last week's unexpected closure of the cafe, but a trip to India with limited Internet connectivity and a limited ability to stay 100% healthy made for a tough task opening the cafe doors last week. I love curries....it's just that sometimes they don't love me back, apparently.
Anyway, let's move on shall we? Onto a long-awaited journey for the Barista in what I used to think was the most ridiculous-looking business class seat in the sky, on board Singapore Airlines. This not-so-new-now product certainly has made waves in the community that travels further up front of the plane, as the advertisements for the product has been exhaustive in the Australian market. Most everyone has seen them: pictures of smiling people curled up in what looked like a sofa-sized piece of furniture, obviously enjoying their experience in what is likely accurately billed as "the world's biggest business class seat."
And that's where I struggled with this product somewhat. Yes, it's big, but is it good?
Certainly the pictures convey the sense of space that you do feel when you get to your seat. Compared to other airlines' products, the width of the seat seems almost ridiculous. And as you sit down and figure out where to put your elbows to read your pre-flight newspaper or book, you realise indeed this sucker is as wide as a soccer goal. And like a soccer goal, it may look easy to score points but the reality is something else altogether.
Let's cut to the chase: as a seat, it's pretty lousy, actually. You can't figure out which side to sit on as it's so wide, there's not a very good recline or foot rest setting, and for a tall fellow like myself if you cross your legs your knee bumps into the shell of the seat in front of you. You can tuck yourself into one corner of the seat and prop your feet up on the built-in "shelves" that are in the back of the seat in front of you as a sort-of ottoman, but that is only comfortable for so long. However as compensation there is an amazingly large screen for movies and TV shows and you can plug your iPod directly into the entertainment system and listen to your own tunes if you want. That's cool.
But when it's time for lights out - then things start to change.
It starts with changing the seat itself. With one flip of a lever, the huge backrest folds over to lay flat and magically the aforementioned shelves become integrated with the back of the seat to form what looks like an acre of space. Flat, flat space. Like the Australian Outback or Great Plains of America, just seemingly uninterrupted great swathes of space. Unreal.
And when you lay down, although your head and your feet end up at an angle across that great open space (your feet are near the window and your head is near the aisle) there is still so much room to toss and turn it's pretty remarkable, actually. Yes, your feet are in sort of a "cave" tucked into the seat shell in front of you, but unlike other "lie-flat" products (this means you Qantas) you actually have room for them.
So on an all-too-short 5 hour, overnight flight from Delhi to Singapore where sleep was THE only thing on my mind - I loved it. On a 10+ hour daytime flight? I might bring some extra sleeping pills....
DISCLAIMER: The Barista appreciates that ANY business class product beats travelling in economy 8 days out of 7. Therefore my review was in the spirit of assisting companies understand the return on investment for those that do spend the money for the well-being and productivity of their employees travelling for business. Everyone OK with that? :-)
Anyway, let's move on shall we? Onto a long-awaited journey for the Barista in what I used to think was the most ridiculous-looking business class seat in the sky, on board Singapore Airlines. This not-so-new-now product certainly has made waves in the community that travels further up front of the plane, as the advertisements for the product has been exhaustive in the Australian market. Most everyone has seen them: pictures of smiling people curled up in what looked like a sofa-sized piece of furniture, obviously enjoying their experience in what is likely accurately billed as "the world's biggest business class seat."
And that's where I struggled with this product somewhat. Yes, it's big, but is it good?
Certainly the pictures convey the sense of space that you do feel when you get to your seat. Compared to other airlines' products, the width of the seat seems almost ridiculous. And as you sit down and figure out where to put your elbows to read your pre-flight newspaper or book, you realise indeed this sucker is as wide as a soccer goal. And like a soccer goal, it may look easy to score points but the reality is something else altogether.
Let's cut to the chase: as a seat, it's pretty lousy, actually. You can't figure out which side to sit on as it's so wide, there's not a very good recline or foot rest setting, and for a tall fellow like myself if you cross your legs your knee bumps into the shell of the seat in front of you. You can tuck yourself into one corner of the seat and prop your feet up on the built-in "shelves" that are in the back of the seat in front of you as a sort-of ottoman, but that is only comfortable for so long. However as compensation there is an amazingly large screen for movies and TV shows and you can plug your iPod directly into the entertainment system and listen to your own tunes if you want. That's cool.
But when it's time for lights out - then things start to change.
It starts with changing the seat itself. With one flip of a lever, the huge backrest folds over to lay flat and magically the aforementioned shelves become integrated with the back of the seat to form what looks like an acre of space. Flat, flat space. Like the Australian Outback or Great Plains of America, just seemingly uninterrupted great swathes of space. Unreal.
And when you lay down, although your head and your feet end up at an angle across that great open space (your feet are near the window and your head is near the aisle) there is still so much room to toss and turn it's pretty remarkable, actually. Yes, your feet are in sort of a "cave" tucked into the seat shell in front of you, but unlike other "lie-flat" products (this means you Qantas) you actually have room for them.
So on an all-too-short 5 hour, overnight flight from Delhi to Singapore where sleep was THE only thing on my mind - I loved it. On a 10+ hour daytime flight? I might bring some extra sleeping pills....
DISCLAIMER: The Barista appreciates that ANY business class product beats travelling in economy 8 days out of 7. Therefore my review was in the spirit of assisting companies understand the return on investment for those that do spend the money for the well-being and productivity of their employees travelling for business. Everyone OK with that? :-)
Thursday, June 3, 2010
The Premium Conundrum Continuum...
Good morning, cafe patrons. I hate to serve up the same brew two weeks in a row, but I can't help but be flummoxed by this back-and-forth going on in the Antipodean market at the moment with regards to first/business class strategies.
In last week's cafe I talked about the new IATA report showing that premium traffic globally seems to be picking up, and the Asia Pacific region in particular is looking fairly healthy. However, during the last few months all we seemed to hear from Qantas, Air New Zealand, BA and a few other airlines was that the days of premium travel were drawing to a close. Or that at least a future much closer to economy class would be the new norm.
Although I'm pretty sure Qantas execs aren't yet frequenting this humble little cafe for their Friday Morning cuppa, I feel a bit vindicated following some of the comments QF leadership has been saying over the past few days. But I'm also a bit confused, to be honest. Which is easy to do, I get up early to open the cafe so sometimes I'm a bit bleary-eyed with all this airline stuff.
At the Australian Tourism Exchange this week in Adelaide, Qantas CEO Alan Joyce and Executive Manager Rob Gurney both made statements about the importance of premium products as they talked about deploying more A380's in the coming months complete with the new first and business class products. In addition, Stephen Thompson who is Qantas' GM of International Sales also stressed the importance of the premium product and the business travel market within Qantas' overall strategy.
So which direction is this going? I think it's safe to say that the A380's coming on line soon will of course have the new first and business (and premium economy, for that matter) products as part of the service as those cabin configurations have been set for a while.
But then in another article this week from Travel Daily Australia, according to travel agent GDS queries the Sydney-Buenos Aires and Sydney-San Francisco services will not get First Class back on those routes until late September - more than three months later than previously planned.
And I've also not yet heard any mention of putting the B747 back onto the SYD-JFK service, so as of early July it will still be a downgraded A330 on that route. Sure, I've flown that half-empty plane from LAX to JFK but I've also experienced every return flight from JFK-LAX as completely full so I would think that Qantas would prefer customers on QF metal rather than on feeder flights via American Airlines.
As I've always said, you couldn't pay me enough to be an airline revenue manager and certainly I'd be lousy at it anyway. However I'm sure whoever's running that department, along with the head of on-board products for Qantas, must be scratching their heads as much as I am as to what the premium strategy for Qantas really is.
EXTRA SHOT FOR THE DAY
Today's extra shot is taking a shot at cranky taxi drivers. Especially ones in Sydney who seem to not want to take passengers from the airport to the Inner West.
A friend of mine claims 5 straight journeys home with drivers who have given him all sorts of grief about waiting at the airport for hours only to get a "short fare." I've had this before as well, but not nearly as much as this gentleman has. And as he actually probably is going a bit further than I do in terms of how far the crow flies, I certainly can't understand why any cabbie has a gripe about "not far enough."
It's not like they have the right to gripe anyway, as the taxi charter clearly states that a passenger has the right to go to pretty much any destination in the Sydney metro area.
Not to mention that how do we know whether the cabbie's fare TO the airport wasn't a nice big fare so he's just annoyed he couldn't double up the success?
To be fair, I have to say that although this has happened to me in Sydney by far the worst city in the world for cabbie grumbling is New York, thanks to the flat fare from JFK to Manhattan. It's not like I set the price guys, so don't take it out on me!
Ah, if only we all could have London Black Cabs...the world's greatest form of public transportation. Clean, very comfy, with a driver who knows exactly where to go and the best way to get there. Happy to pay a premium for that level of service every time...take note, "Silver" Service!
In last week's cafe I talked about the new IATA report showing that premium traffic globally seems to be picking up, and the Asia Pacific region in particular is looking fairly healthy. However, during the last few months all we seemed to hear from Qantas, Air New Zealand, BA and a few other airlines was that the days of premium travel were drawing to a close. Or that at least a future much closer to economy class would be the new norm.
Although I'm pretty sure Qantas execs aren't yet frequenting this humble little cafe for their Friday Morning cuppa, I feel a bit vindicated following some of the comments QF leadership has been saying over the past few days. But I'm also a bit confused, to be honest. Which is easy to do, I get up early to open the cafe so sometimes I'm a bit bleary-eyed with all this airline stuff.
At the Australian Tourism Exchange this week in Adelaide, Qantas CEO Alan Joyce and Executive Manager Rob Gurney both made statements about the importance of premium products as they talked about deploying more A380's in the coming months complete with the new first and business class products. In addition, Stephen Thompson who is Qantas' GM of International Sales also stressed the importance of the premium product and the business travel market within Qantas' overall strategy.
So which direction is this going? I think it's safe to say that the A380's coming on line soon will of course have the new first and business (and premium economy, for that matter) products as part of the service as those cabin configurations have been set for a while.
But then in another article this week from Travel Daily Australia, according to travel agent GDS queries the Sydney-Buenos Aires and Sydney-San Francisco services will not get First Class back on those routes until late September - more than three months later than previously planned.
And I've also not yet heard any mention of putting the B747 back onto the SYD-JFK service, so as of early July it will still be a downgraded A330 on that route. Sure, I've flown that half-empty plane from LAX to JFK but I've also experienced every return flight from JFK-LAX as completely full so I would think that Qantas would prefer customers on QF metal rather than on feeder flights via American Airlines.
As I've always said, you couldn't pay me enough to be an airline revenue manager and certainly I'd be lousy at it anyway. However I'm sure whoever's running that department, along with the head of on-board products for Qantas, must be scratching their heads as much as I am as to what the premium strategy for Qantas really is.
EXTRA SHOT FOR THE DAY
Today's extra shot is taking a shot at cranky taxi drivers. Especially ones in Sydney who seem to not want to take passengers from the airport to the Inner West.
A friend of mine claims 5 straight journeys home with drivers who have given him all sorts of grief about waiting at the airport for hours only to get a "short fare." I've had this before as well, but not nearly as much as this gentleman has. And as he actually probably is going a bit further than I do in terms of how far the crow flies, I certainly can't understand why any cabbie has a gripe about "not far enough."
It's not like they have the right to gripe anyway, as the taxi charter clearly states that a passenger has the right to go to pretty much any destination in the Sydney metro area.
Not to mention that how do we know whether the cabbie's fare TO the airport wasn't a nice big fare so he's just annoyed he couldn't double up the success?
To be fair, I have to say that although this has happened to me in Sydney by far the worst city in the world for cabbie grumbling is New York, thanks to the flat fare from JFK to Manhattan. It's not like I set the price guys, so don't take it out on me!
Ah, if only we all could have London Black Cabs...the world's greatest form of public transportation. Clean, very comfy, with a driver who knows exactly where to go and the best way to get there. Happy to pay a premium for that level of service every time...take note, "Silver" Service!
Thursday, May 27, 2010
I Told You So...Didn't I?
At the risk of saying I told you so to Qantas and other airlines who recently announced they were cutting back on premium products...ah, why bother stating the obvious?
IATA's recently published Premium Traffic Monitor shows that "The number of first and business class airline passengers in March increased 10.8 percent worldwide, marking a fourth consecutive month of growth and the largest year-over-year increase measured for any month in at least two years. As business confidence and world trade have turned up sharply business travelers have returned," IATA said, while noting particularly strong growth in Asia.
Sure, there still are some trouble spots (indeed I am talking about Europe - can you say "Greeced" lightning?) and the Kangaroo route from Australia to the UK is not faring all that well, but for the most part premium demand is up. Way up.
And yes, these numbers are coming off of an abysmal 2 year stretch where no one seemed to be turning left when boarding an aircraft.
But who are we to believe - a few airlines, corporate buyers and travel agencies saying the days of premium travel are dead? Or numbers coming from the association made up of actual airlines themselves which would seem to indicate otherwise?
In previous editions of the Cafe I've lamented what I saw was the too-quick reaction by Qantas and Air New Zealand to start ripping out premium products as they said the demand for them was plummeting. If IATA's numbers are to be believed, the only thing plummeting will be those airlines' profits if they continue to pull back on premium services.
To be fair to Air New Zealand, their trimming of premium products is mainly across the Tasman. Depending on how Trans-Tasman flights are classified by IATA the numbers could be confusing as "Within SW Pacific" shows a negative March '10 vs. '09 but a higher YTD '10 vs. '09; yet "SW Pacific" is showing huge growth of premium traffic - 19.9% growth in March '10 vs. '09 and 26.7% growth year-over-year.
The Barista, is, of course, happy to pour his words in to a double espresso and swallow them quickly if I end up being wrong...but for now I'll stick with the "I told you so" to the airlines who were throwing out the premium passenger with the gently scented bubble bath water. Not sure which airline will offer on-board bubble baths first but I wouldn't put it past a few of them....
(Thanks to IATA: www.iata.org/economics and for the full report go to http://www.iata.org/whatwedo/Documents/economics/Premium-Monitor-Mar10.pdf)
IATA's recently published Premium Traffic Monitor shows that "The number of first and business class airline passengers in March increased 10.8 percent worldwide, marking a fourth consecutive month of growth and the largest year-over-year increase measured for any month in at least two years. As business confidence and world trade have turned up sharply business travelers have returned," IATA said, while noting particularly strong growth in Asia.
Sure, there still are some trouble spots (indeed I am talking about Europe - can you say "Greeced" lightning?) and the Kangaroo route from Australia to the UK is not faring all that well, but for the most part premium demand is up. Way up.
And yes, these numbers are coming off of an abysmal 2 year stretch where no one seemed to be turning left when boarding an aircraft.
But who are we to believe - a few airlines, corporate buyers and travel agencies saying the days of premium travel are dead? Or numbers coming from the association made up of actual airlines themselves which would seem to indicate otherwise?
In previous editions of the Cafe I've lamented what I saw was the too-quick reaction by Qantas and Air New Zealand to start ripping out premium products as they said the demand for them was plummeting. If IATA's numbers are to be believed, the only thing plummeting will be those airlines' profits if they continue to pull back on premium services.
To be fair to Air New Zealand, their trimming of premium products is mainly across the Tasman. Depending on how Trans-Tasman flights are classified by IATA the numbers could be confusing as "Within SW Pacific" shows a negative March '10 vs. '09 but a higher YTD '10 vs. '09; yet "SW Pacific" is showing huge growth of premium traffic - 19.9% growth in March '10 vs. '09 and 26.7% growth year-over-year.
The Barista, is, of course, happy to pour his words in to a double espresso and swallow them quickly if I end up being wrong...but for now I'll stick with the "I told you so" to the airlines who were throwing out the premium passenger with the gently scented bubble bath water. Not sure which airline will offer on-board bubble baths first but I wouldn't put it past a few of them....
(Thanks to IATA: www.iata.org/economics and for the full report go to http://www.iata.org/whatwedo/Documents/economics/Premium-Monitor-Mar10.pdf)
Friday, April 30, 2010
Ah Technology - the Highest of Highs...Followed by the Lowest of Lows.
My fellow cafe fiends, I write to you today with a heavy heart. OK, perhaps that's a bit much...let's just say I've been betrayed.
Yesterday I heralded the long-awaited coming of truly mobile check-in, using my Blackberry as a boarding pass with Qantas. Well, it's time to silence the trumpets as my return experience wasn't so exciting.
When I repeated the process of checking in for my return flight (in the cab on the way to the airport - had to keep up the image of "man on the move") after clicking the "Check In" button on the Qantas mobile site I was left with this crushing message: "Boarding pass expired. Please call 13 13 13 for assistance."
But I don't want to talk to anyone. I want my robot fingerprint!
Alas, apparently there is some bug in the system where if you check into your outbound flight, sometimes it checks you in for the return flight at the same time. Or so the Qantas staff on the help line told me.
Actually, it wasn't all bad - I've never had such excited Qantas people on the phone with me helping out with a problem. When I rang in and described my plight, the agent on the phone couldn't have been more excited. "Ooh, you're my first call who's used the service! Let me get out my new manual and see what we can do." A few calls back and an escalation to a supervisor only got me to the above conclusion - a bug - but hey, at least the human element of technology was nice to work with.
But I have to say that my earlier effusiveness has waned somewhat...let's see how things go next time as I'll likely be using Virgin Blue's new "Checkmate" system for my next trip. Here's hoping it will bring back that "high" - well, high-tech anyway - feeling from before!
Yesterday I heralded the long-awaited coming of truly mobile check-in, using my Blackberry as a boarding pass with Qantas. Well, it's time to silence the trumpets as my return experience wasn't so exciting.
When I repeated the process of checking in for my return flight (in the cab on the way to the airport - had to keep up the image of "man on the move") after clicking the "Check In" button on the Qantas mobile site I was left with this crushing message: "Boarding pass expired. Please call 13 13 13 for assistance."
But I don't want to talk to anyone. I want my robot fingerprint!
Alas, apparently there is some bug in the system where if you check into your outbound flight, sometimes it checks you in for the return flight at the same time. Or so the Qantas staff on the help line told me.
Actually, it wasn't all bad - I've never had such excited Qantas people on the phone with me helping out with a problem. When I rang in and described my plight, the agent on the phone couldn't have been more excited. "Ooh, you're my first call who's used the service! Let me get out my new manual and see what we can do." A few calls back and an escalation to a supervisor only got me to the above conclusion - a bug - but hey, at least the human element of technology was nice to work with.
But I have to say that my earlier effusiveness has waned somewhat...let's see how things go next time as I'll likely be using Virgin Blue's new "Checkmate" system for my next trip. Here's hoping it will bring back that "high" - well, high-tech anyway - feeling from before!
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Checking Out the New Checking In
Mobile phones have been around for ages it seems. And yes, mobile technology providers, handset manufacturers and software companies have been saying for years that the process of getting on an airplane is going to be revolutionised.
But until yesterday, this particularly well-travelled Barista had yet to really and truly have his travel experience altered by the mobile world.
How did this happen? It only took a little squiggle of lines looking much like a robot's fingerprint, scanned on the screen of my mobile, to change everything.
Recently both Qantas and Virgin Blue announced the availability of mobile check-in along with a suite of other mobile-device enabled services - mainly geared towards iPhones and Blackberries. Virgin Blue in particular has made much noise about their Blackberry-specific application which from my limited exposure to the "App World" seems to be a big deal as it appears to me that nearly everyone else is building Apps for the iPhone. As a Crackberry addict I'm pleased someone is looking out for us who crave real buttons on our smartphones rather than vapourous touch screens. Luddites unite!
But, back to the real action, and how do these much-vaunted applications work in the real world? I can honestly say they work a treat. The night before my flight to Melbourne on Qantas, I logged into their mobile site, found my booking, checked-in on my phone and received a 2-dimensional (in techspeak it's actually called "2D") barcode via SMS and on the Qantas mobile site. Today I just strolled past the check-in queues and kiosks, through security, and straight to the gate where I flashed my phone under the scanner and voila- a beep and a green light later and I'm on my way down the jetway.
I should point out that it's not a completely paperless process- you do get a little ATM-receipt sized piece of paper which you need to produce at the door of the plane to prove that you've used a paper-less process to get that far. An added layer of security, the flight attendant assures me. No problem, I'm all for a bit of tree sacrifice for safety.
But as I write this post, I find myself strangely excited about the prospect of repeating the process on my way home tomorrow. Perhaps not so much because the mobile check-in has finally found it's day in the sun, but more so that I am hoping that I'm again the only person on my flight tomorrow who will be able to whip out their phone and scan my way onto a flight.
As with all new technologies, it's only as cool as long as you're the only one who knows about it. After everyone starts doing it, I'm sure it'll be as boring as in-flight food in no time.
But until yesterday, this particularly well-travelled Barista had yet to really and truly have his travel experience altered by the mobile world.
How did this happen? It only took a little squiggle of lines looking much like a robot's fingerprint, scanned on the screen of my mobile, to change everything.
Recently both Qantas and Virgin Blue announced the availability of mobile check-in along with a suite of other mobile-device enabled services - mainly geared towards iPhones and Blackberries. Virgin Blue in particular has made much noise about their Blackberry-specific application which from my limited exposure to the "App World" seems to be a big deal as it appears to me that nearly everyone else is building Apps for the iPhone. As a Crackberry addict I'm pleased someone is looking out for us who crave real buttons on our smartphones rather than vapourous touch screens. Luddites unite!
But, back to the real action, and how do these much-vaunted applications work in the real world? I can honestly say they work a treat. The night before my flight to Melbourne on Qantas, I logged into their mobile site, found my booking, checked-in on my phone and received a 2-dimensional (in techspeak it's actually called "2D") barcode via SMS and on the Qantas mobile site. Today I just strolled past the check-in queues and kiosks, through security, and straight to the gate where I flashed my phone under the scanner and voila- a beep and a green light later and I'm on my way down the jetway.
I should point out that it's not a completely paperless process- you do get a little ATM-receipt sized piece of paper which you need to produce at the door of the plane to prove that you've used a paper-less process to get that far. An added layer of security, the flight attendant assures me. No problem, I'm all for a bit of tree sacrifice for safety.
But as I write this post, I find myself strangely excited about the prospect of repeating the process on my way home tomorrow. Perhaps not so much because the mobile check-in has finally found it's day in the sun, but more so that I am hoping that I'm again the only person on my flight tomorrow who will be able to whip out their phone and scan my way onto a flight.
As with all new technologies, it's only as cool as long as you're the only one who knows about it. After everyone starts doing it, I'm sure it'll be as boring as in-flight food in no time.
Thursday, April 1, 2010
I’m “Fee” To Do What I Want...Any Old Time...
Travellers don’t understand them. Corporate travel managers loathe them. And airlines love them.
What are they? Fees. Lots, and lots, of fees.
US carriers have elevated the auxiliary fee to an art form, finding all sorts of ways to charge the traveller extra for things that used to be standard. Checked bags. Choosing your seat. Nabbing an exit row. Food (bad, good or otherwise.) And my personal favourite- pillows and blankets. Laying your head down for a snooze and paying for the privilege is no longer just the business model of hotels apparently.
But what really is driving me nuts is not so much these numerous fees (which, unfortunately, are obviously here to stay and will be leveraged by more and more Asia Pacific carriers in the near future- more on this in a moment) but the fact that both airlines and the distribution systems which help sell seats for those airlines really don’t seem to be making things easy for those people buying and booking their product.
Case in point: Abacus recently announced the findings of the Abacus Merchandising Survey 2010 after interviewing Asian airline executives about their plans for capturing ancillary revenue through new fees charged to their customers (read the article courtesy of TravelMole here. http://www.travelmole.com/stories/1141434.php?mpnlog=1) Abacus vice president of marketing, Brett Henry, said, “The survey has made it clear that airlines in all segments across Asia, not just LCCs, are making ancillary revenues a key component of their future revenue growth strategies.” Well surprise, surprise.
But what’s troubling for everyone who works in the trenches in booking, tracking and reporting on airline costs for corporations (read: travel management companies and corporate travel buyers) is that there was very little Abacus said about what they plan to do about finding automated solutions for managing these fees. In fact, if you read the article closely – they said absolutely nothing about what they plan to do in terms of offering travel agencies solutions for being able to book, track and manage such fees so that corporations have a clear understanding of how they impact their business travel expenditure.
To be fair to Abacus, I’ve not heard or read anything from the other GDS’ with respect to their plans about ancillary fee management/automation/process improvements in Asia Pacific. For US and European markets, the major GDS’ are spending millions on developing solutions for airlines to help them merchandise, market and sell all these extra “services” with fees attached. But there seems to be very little in the way of how travel management companies are going to muddle through in the interim. Especially in Asia Pacific where this is an issue that is yet to really hit the radar of regional travel buyers and agencies, but I’m sure will be a front-of-mind migraine very, very soon.
So on that level, kudos to Abacus for the wake-up call to the Asia Pacific corporate travel community.
But now the challenge is- will Abacus now back up their research with solutions? And if not them, who else will step up?
And in the meantime – to all the TMC’s and corporate buyers out there – to paraphrase the Rolling Stones: be free, to do you want...for now, because pretty soon there will be no freedom from fees.
EXTRA SHOT FOR THE DAY:
Last week I questioned the seemingly full-on retreat by airlines like Qantas, BA and Air New Zealand with respect to traditional premium on-board products given what seems to be a relatively healthy rebound in demand in Asia Pacific at least. Since then, Qantas is reportedly reducing their SYD-JFK services to remove the daily B747 SYD-LAX-JFK services and replace it with an A330 service, but only 5 days a week.
The reduction is frequency is one thing, but it also means that there will no longer be First or Premium Economy products offered through to JFK from SYD as they only exist on the B747. And that may turn out to be a bad idea, given that many companies who have used the GFC to pull back their air spend and ask travellers move from Business down to Premium Economy (or even Economy.) And now Qantas is eliminating that “step-down” option for corporate travel buyers. So now all you QF Freaky Fliers, if you want to go to the Big Apple, it’s either the A380 then transfer to American Airlines (ugh) or scramble for limited business class seats on an A330. Things that make you go hmmm....
AND NOW FOR A DOUBLE EXTRA SHOT:
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced that February 2010 international scheduled air traffic showed a 9.5% year-on-year rise in passenger demand. Even more surprising, given that February isn’t usually a high-traffic month, IATA reported that adjusted for seasonality passenger traffic then translates to an all-time record February load factor of 79.3%.
So, some would think the airlines should be breaking out the bubbly rather than the doom-and-gloom quarterly earnings they’ve actually been preparing the investment community for. Yes, comparing February 2010 to February 2009 is like comparing apples to worms (ie- 2009 was an aberration) nonetheless the adjusted load factor record is somewhat astonishing.
So if you’re like me and have experienced packed airports, crammed planes, and waitlisted flights recently, you’re probably scratching your head like I’m scratching mine wondering: how on Earth can’t these airlines be making money????
I love the travel industry, but you couldn’t pay me enough to be in airline revenue management. When the numbers show that things are bad, but the “physical” indicators like the aforementioned packed planes make one think that times are rather good, would make for quite an unsatisfactory job I’d think. Not that I’d be very good at it anyway....
What are they? Fees. Lots, and lots, of fees.
US carriers have elevated the auxiliary fee to an art form, finding all sorts of ways to charge the traveller extra for things that used to be standard. Checked bags. Choosing your seat. Nabbing an exit row. Food (bad, good or otherwise.) And my personal favourite- pillows and blankets. Laying your head down for a snooze and paying for the privilege is no longer just the business model of hotels apparently.
But what really is driving me nuts is not so much these numerous fees (which, unfortunately, are obviously here to stay and will be leveraged by more and more Asia Pacific carriers in the near future- more on this in a moment) but the fact that both airlines and the distribution systems which help sell seats for those airlines really don’t seem to be making things easy for those people buying and booking their product.
Case in point: Abacus recently announced the findings of the Abacus Merchandising Survey 2010 after interviewing Asian airline executives about their plans for capturing ancillary revenue through new fees charged to their customers (read the article courtesy of TravelMole here. http://www.travelmole.com/stories/1141434.php?mpnlog=1) Abacus vice president of marketing, Brett Henry, said, “The survey has made it clear that airlines in all segments across Asia, not just LCCs, are making ancillary revenues a key component of their future revenue growth strategies.” Well surprise, surprise.
But what’s troubling for everyone who works in the trenches in booking, tracking and reporting on airline costs for corporations (read: travel management companies and corporate travel buyers) is that there was very little Abacus said about what they plan to do about finding automated solutions for managing these fees. In fact, if you read the article closely – they said absolutely nothing about what they plan to do in terms of offering travel agencies solutions for being able to book, track and manage such fees so that corporations have a clear understanding of how they impact their business travel expenditure.
To be fair to Abacus, I’ve not heard or read anything from the other GDS’ with respect to their plans about ancillary fee management/automation/process improvements in Asia Pacific. For US and European markets, the major GDS’ are spending millions on developing solutions for airlines to help them merchandise, market and sell all these extra “services” with fees attached. But there seems to be very little in the way of how travel management companies are going to muddle through in the interim. Especially in Asia Pacific where this is an issue that is yet to really hit the radar of regional travel buyers and agencies, but I’m sure will be a front-of-mind migraine very, very soon.
So on that level, kudos to Abacus for the wake-up call to the Asia Pacific corporate travel community.
But now the challenge is- will Abacus now back up their research with solutions? And if not them, who else will step up?
And in the meantime – to all the TMC’s and corporate buyers out there – to paraphrase the Rolling Stones: be free, to do you want...for now, because pretty soon there will be no freedom from fees.
EXTRA SHOT FOR THE DAY:
Last week I questioned the seemingly full-on retreat by airlines like Qantas, BA and Air New Zealand with respect to traditional premium on-board products given what seems to be a relatively healthy rebound in demand in Asia Pacific at least. Since then, Qantas is reportedly reducing their SYD-JFK services to remove the daily B747 SYD-LAX-JFK services and replace it with an A330 service, but only 5 days a week.
The reduction is frequency is one thing, but it also means that there will no longer be First or Premium Economy products offered through to JFK from SYD as they only exist on the B747. And that may turn out to be a bad idea, given that many companies who have used the GFC to pull back their air spend and ask travellers move from Business down to Premium Economy (or even Economy.) And now Qantas is eliminating that “step-down” option for corporate travel buyers. So now all you QF Freaky Fliers, if you want to go to the Big Apple, it’s either the A380 then transfer to American Airlines (ugh) or scramble for limited business class seats on an A330. Things that make you go hmmm....
AND NOW FOR A DOUBLE EXTRA SHOT:
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced that February 2010 international scheduled air traffic showed a 9.5% year-on-year rise in passenger demand. Even more surprising, given that February isn’t usually a high-traffic month, IATA reported that adjusted for seasonality passenger traffic then translates to an all-time record February load factor of 79.3%.
So, some would think the airlines should be breaking out the bubbly rather than the doom-and-gloom quarterly earnings they’ve actually been preparing the investment community for. Yes, comparing February 2010 to February 2009 is like comparing apples to worms (ie- 2009 was an aberration) nonetheless the adjusted load factor record is somewhat astonishing.
So if you’re like me and have experienced packed airports, crammed planes, and waitlisted flights recently, you’re probably scratching your head like I’m scratching mine wondering: how on Earth can’t these airlines be making money????
I love the travel industry, but you couldn’t pay me enough to be in airline revenue management. When the numbers show that things are bad, but the “physical” indicators like the aforementioned packed planes make one think that times are rather good, would make for quite an unsatisfactory job I’d think. Not that I’d be very good at it anyway....
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Aussie, Aussie, Aussie....or U-S-A, U-S-A, U-S-A?
Ok, so in last week’s Cafe I said that after my relatively enjoyable A380 experience on Qantas, I wasn’t even going to bother evaluating the forthcoming US domestic flight as I had assumed it would be “completely awful.” Well, I was wrong.
It was worse.
But I’m not going to use this week’s Cafe (writing it as I am during a lovely 4-hour layover in LAX, but thankfully the relatively new Qantas lounge is my refuge rather than having to deal with the atrocious American Airlines “Admirals” Club...which should be court-martialled) as a rehash of American Airlines’ tiny seats, tiny flop-down TV screens, tiny inventory of pay-for-the-privilege onboard food (they ran out) or apparently tiny baggage staff at O’Hare (took 40 minutes to get my bags.)
Rather, I’d like to use this opportunity to comment on what I see are the glaring differences between flying in the Australasian region, and flying in the USA. You may think that this would be quite a simple exercise (Australasia good, USA bad.) Not so fast, person squished into seat 23B - which on some American planes is actually an aisle seat thanks to a silly 2-3 configuration which I thought is what I was booked into but on flight AA1006 from LAX-ORD actually is a B737 which makes 23B a middle and therefore why didn’t American move me to an aisle seat as I am an Emerald One World frequent flier for the love of all things human...don’t you even care about your most loyal customers?
But I digress.
My thoughts and ruminations on the differences – note not just the good vs. the bad – of flying in the USA vs. Australasia:
It’s better in Australasia because:
- Many flights – even domestic Australian flights - will find you on wide-body planes. I don’t care if the Qantas CityFlyers from SYD-MEL are on thousand-year-old B767’s, it beats a single-aisle plane any day of the week. And flying an A330 across Australia from Sydney to Perth is like a Rolls Royce compared to the Yugo-like B757’s I usually get flying from Philadelphia to Los Angeles in the US. Opinion: the B757 is the most diabolical aircraft on the planet. Discuss.
- People. Or rather, a lack thereof. Barring a domestic Chinese flight, or trying to get a bowl of cereal at 8am or a sandwich at 5pm in any Qantas Club in Australia, most of the time it just seems like flying around Australia and Asia seems less crowded. Maybe it’s because the airports are bigger, or the planes are bigger, or most likely its because the USA is still by far the largest travel market in the world. Whatever the reason, I just think that travelling in this part of the world gives you room to breathe. Dissenting opinions, anyone?
- Lounges that actually are relaxing, productive and inviting, rather than justifying their existence by basically having an ambiance that says “well at least you’re not out in the main terminal.” Frankly, many US airport terminals loaded with fast-food outlets are actually more welcoming than the airline lounges.
- Cross-alliance frequent fliers matter. I never joined their frequent flier program, but Cathay Pacific ALWAYS acknowledged my OneWorld status and made sure I had the seat I wanted and/or offered upgrades. Hey American – please remember you are part of the OneWorld Alliance, now can my Emerald status please allow me into this lounge I don’t want to come into anyway?
It’s better in the USA because:
- Choice. Yes, it’s often the best of a bad lot, but let’s face it – on any given route you likely have a dizzying array of airline choices. And if the US carriers ever get their act back together and sort out where they are good and where they are not, a plethora of competitive options will always be a good thing for travellers.
- Decent carry-on food options in the terminal. Now, you may argue that this is just a by-product of the removal of free food on flights, but at the end of the day, if I can get a huge roast turkey sandwich with all the fixings which was made fresh by Chili’s just an hour ago, pop it into my carry-on, and nosh on it during the flight, that’s not a bad thing. And although I still appreciate a free beer on Qantas CityFlyer flights between 4-7pm, no amount of Qantas’ “bento boxes” they’re passing off as onboard meals these days is going to get me to give up my Chili’s roast turkey sandwich. Mmmmm.....
- Camaraderie. It’s amazing – back when airlines in the US started charging for bags, all the travel blogs and news articles were speaking of “air rage” and “passengers bills of rights” to deal with all the headaches resulting from people bringing on board their bags rather than checking them. A couple of overstuffed overhead bin years later, and I am seeing quite an interesting development – what I’m calling the “Air Team” mentality. It now seems as though everyone dealing with the drudgery of US air travel now is realising everyone’s in this mess together, and the cooperation and team work I saw this past week was quite interesting. I’m talking fire bucket brigade-type operations where the guy in 7D has to put his laptop bag back by 27D due to no more space above his seat, and people were passing his bag down the aisle to the flight attendant in back. When we landed, process reversed and voila- by the time the door opened Mr. 7D had his bag and we all zipped off. Beautiful.
- Politeness. Sorry Aussies, but when it comes to apologising for bumping your head with a laptop bag while squeezing down a tight aisle, Americans come up trumps with politeness. I got smacked on my Qantas flight with such a bag and although the guy did turn around to see what got in his bag’s way, no acknowledgement of the shiner on my head was forthcoming. When stuck in my middle seat from LAX-ORD, the guy in the middle seat in front of me actually turned around and ASKED ME if I minded if he put his seat back a bit. Why not at all my good man, go right ahead. See how easy that is?
Anyway, enough of my drabbling on...did I mention I have a 4-hour layover? So, Cafe regulars, what do you think? Who’s got the better flying environment? And what are your observations about what’s good and what’s bad about air travel in your parts of the world? Let’s hear it. And I’ll see you in Sydney after I land in what seems to be about 5 days from now....
It was worse.
But I’m not going to use this week’s Cafe (writing it as I am during a lovely 4-hour layover in LAX, but thankfully the relatively new Qantas lounge is my refuge rather than having to deal with the atrocious American Airlines “Admirals” Club...which should be court-martialled) as a rehash of American Airlines’ tiny seats, tiny flop-down TV screens, tiny inventory of pay-for-the-privilege onboard food (they ran out) or apparently tiny baggage staff at O’Hare (took 40 minutes to get my bags.)
Rather, I’d like to use this opportunity to comment on what I see are the glaring differences between flying in the Australasian region, and flying in the USA. You may think that this would be quite a simple exercise (Australasia good, USA bad.) Not so fast, person squished into seat 23B - which on some American planes is actually an aisle seat thanks to a silly 2-3 configuration which I thought is what I was booked into but on flight AA1006 from LAX-ORD actually is a B737 which makes 23B a middle and therefore why didn’t American move me to an aisle seat as I am an Emerald One World frequent flier for the love of all things human...don’t you even care about your most loyal customers?
But I digress.
My thoughts and ruminations on the differences – note not just the good vs. the bad – of flying in the USA vs. Australasia:
It’s better in Australasia because:
- Many flights – even domestic Australian flights - will find you on wide-body planes. I don’t care if the Qantas CityFlyers from SYD-MEL are on thousand-year-old B767’s, it beats a single-aisle plane any day of the week. And flying an A330 across Australia from Sydney to Perth is like a Rolls Royce compared to the Yugo-like B757’s I usually get flying from Philadelphia to Los Angeles in the US. Opinion: the B757 is the most diabolical aircraft on the planet. Discuss.
- People. Or rather, a lack thereof. Barring a domestic Chinese flight, or trying to get a bowl of cereal at 8am or a sandwich at 5pm in any Qantas Club in Australia, most of the time it just seems like flying around Australia and Asia seems less crowded. Maybe it’s because the airports are bigger, or the planes are bigger, or most likely its because the USA is still by far the largest travel market in the world. Whatever the reason, I just think that travelling in this part of the world gives you room to breathe. Dissenting opinions, anyone?
- Lounges that actually are relaxing, productive and inviting, rather than justifying their existence by basically having an ambiance that says “well at least you’re not out in the main terminal.” Frankly, many US airport terminals loaded with fast-food outlets are actually more welcoming than the airline lounges.
- Cross-alliance frequent fliers matter. I never joined their frequent flier program, but Cathay Pacific ALWAYS acknowledged my OneWorld status and made sure I had the seat I wanted and/or offered upgrades. Hey American – please remember you are part of the OneWorld Alliance, now can my Emerald status please allow me into this lounge I don’t want to come into anyway?
It’s better in the USA because:
- Choice. Yes, it’s often the best of a bad lot, but let’s face it – on any given route you likely have a dizzying array of airline choices. And if the US carriers ever get their act back together and sort out where they are good and where they are not, a plethora of competitive options will always be a good thing for travellers.
- Decent carry-on food options in the terminal. Now, you may argue that this is just a by-product of the removal of free food on flights, but at the end of the day, if I can get a huge roast turkey sandwich with all the fixings which was made fresh by Chili’s just an hour ago, pop it into my carry-on, and nosh on it during the flight, that’s not a bad thing. And although I still appreciate a free beer on Qantas CityFlyer flights between 4-7pm, no amount of Qantas’ “bento boxes” they’re passing off as onboard meals these days is going to get me to give up my Chili’s roast turkey sandwich. Mmmmm.....
- Camaraderie. It’s amazing – back when airlines in the US started charging for bags, all the travel blogs and news articles were speaking of “air rage” and “passengers bills of rights” to deal with all the headaches resulting from people bringing on board their bags rather than checking them. A couple of overstuffed overhead bin years later, and I am seeing quite an interesting development – what I’m calling the “Air Team” mentality. It now seems as though everyone dealing with the drudgery of US air travel now is realising everyone’s in this mess together, and the cooperation and team work I saw this past week was quite interesting. I’m talking fire bucket brigade-type operations where the guy in 7D has to put his laptop bag back by 27D due to no more space above his seat, and people were passing his bag down the aisle to the flight attendant in back. When we landed, process reversed and voila- by the time the door opened Mr. 7D had his bag and we all zipped off. Beautiful.
- Politeness. Sorry Aussies, but when it comes to apologising for bumping your head with a laptop bag while squeezing down a tight aisle, Americans come up trumps with politeness. I got smacked on my Qantas flight with such a bag and although the guy did turn around to see what got in his bag’s way, no acknowledgement of the shiner on my head was forthcoming. When stuck in my middle seat from LAX-ORD, the guy in the middle seat in front of me actually turned around and ASKED ME if I minded if he put his seat back a bit. Why not at all my good man, go right ahead. See how easy that is?
Anyway, enough of my drabbling on...did I mention I have a 4-hour layover? So, Cafe regulars, what do you think? Who’s got the better flying environment? And what are your observations about what’s good and what’s bad about air travel in your parts of the world? Let’s hear it. And I’ll see you in Sydney after I land in what seems to be about 5 days from now....
Thursday, March 11, 2010
The "Sky Try" - Qantas A380 from SYD-LAX
OK, so I’ve wanted to fly this behemoth for ages, not so much because it’s big, but mainly because I’ve heard more about the onboard experience than anything else. The A380 gets lots of press for being big, but let’s face it – there hasn’t been a brand new aircraft that’s come out for ages and so forgetting all the hype about size – what’s cool about it inside?!
So I booked myself a QF Frequent Flyer ticket in Economy, and with the economy the way it is nowadays, more and more of my flying companions in the back of the bus (well, in the A380’s case, it’s the lower deck of the bus) are business travellers whose companies have cut back on travel costs. So mingled in with the holiday makers’ bags of stuffed koalas and duty free hauls are wheelie computer bags stuffed with laptops and travel gear, so this “Sky Try” perspective is from that of the poor business traveller who’s previously enjoyed flying a bit more towards the front/top deck of the airplane.
Which brings me to the first comment about the A380 – finally, power points in Economy! It’s ridiculous that it’s taken a brand new aircraft for Qantas to put this incredibly valuable feature in on their long-haul product but hey, there it is. And to be fair to Qantas, most other airlines have missed this trick as well but given QF’s volume of biz travellers it would have been good to have a long time ago. For those business travellers who also need to work the entire trip, they’ve taken a few pages out of the Business class product and put them into Economy like serve-yourself food and drinks all throughout the flight (great for the all-night Powerpoint cram sessions) as well as pinpoint-accurate lighting for each individual seat.
Now, speaking of seats, these new Economy seats finally have a design element to them that Qantas’ much loved designer Marc Newson actually HAS done right – when you recline, the bottom slides out a bit to give you an feeling of more “flatness” in the seat. Very comfy by Economy standards. Mr. Newson has received much praise in the design press (and of course from Qantas) for his Skybed Business Class product but I’ve always thought it was way over-rated. With the A380 Economy seat, however, he seems to have gotten it right. Integrated netting-style foot rests are also quite a nice touch, mounted under the seat in front of you.
Where Mr. Newson goes wrong again quickly, however, is in the overall cabin design. In a word- boring. In two words, boring and drab. I was in the second of three economy sections and apparently he thought it was a good idea to break up the monotony of dark red seat colours by adding in a section of hideous “gecko green” seats. Yikes. Thank God most of the flight is at night because having to look at those green seats in the daylight could give you a headache.
But once we get away from the design elements the Qantas A380 really is a good aircraft and a good on-board product. Topping the list of good improvements is the new “iQ” entertainment system, which is very easy to use, has an outstanding and extensive list of movies, TV shows and music, and has a very sharp screen with good picture quality. The “A to Z” search feature was great to quickly scan all the movie choices without having to determine whether “Inglourious Basterds” is categorised as a comedy, new release or Oscar nominee. (FYI, I’m not quite sure on the first point, definitely it’s not the second, but indeed it was the third.)
But the “way coolest” feature by far is the tail-mounted camera which gives you a birds-eye view looking down the fuselage from above, which you can dial up on screen during take-off and landing. Finally we get to see something like what the pilots see. Like I said – way cool!
So, overall the A380 itself is a beautiful, big, well-built, quiet and excellent aircraft. Qantas has taken this opportunity to (at least in Economy) create a much better flying experience for the traveller but as with all new Qantas products they’ve left a few things off that would have been much better. A more warm and welcoming cabin with better colour schemes would have made a huge difference in the feel of the airplane, and given all the space they had to play with I’m surprised they couldn’t come up with a Skycouch-type product like Air New Zealand has done. The closest thing to a sky couch was my actual seat -71D, which as reported in the inaugural Friday Morning Cafe indeed has no seat in front of it and makes for a “luxurious” Economy class experience. Now on to a US domestic flight which I won’t even bother to comment on as I know it will be completely awful.
CAFE OPENING HOURS UPDATE: Next week’s (March 20) Cafe is likely to be either a bit early or a bit late, as I’ll be on the return flight from LAX next Thursday. Apologies in advance if the Cafe isn’t open first thing on Friday! Cheers.
So I booked myself a QF Frequent Flyer ticket in Economy, and with the economy the way it is nowadays, more and more of my flying companions in the back of the bus (well, in the A380’s case, it’s the lower deck of the bus) are business travellers whose companies have cut back on travel costs. So mingled in with the holiday makers’ bags of stuffed koalas and duty free hauls are wheelie computer bags stuffed with laptops and travel gear, so this “Sky Try” perspective is from that of the poor business traveller who’s previously enjoyed flying a bit more towards the front/top deck of the airplane.
Which brings me to the first comment about the A380 – finally, power points in Economy! It’s ridiculous that it’s taken a brand new aircraft for Qantas to put this incredibly valuable feature in on their long-haul product but hey, there it is. And to be fair to Qantas, most other airlines have missed this trick as well but given QF’s volume of biz travellers it would have been good to have a long time ago. For those business travellers who also need to work the entire trip, they’ve taken a few pages out of the Business class product and put them into Economy like serve-yourself food and drinks all throughout the flight (great for the all-night Powerpoint cram sessions) as well as pinpoint-accurate lighting for each individual seat.
Now, speaking of seats, these new Economy seats finally have a design element to them that Qantas’ much loved designer Marc Newson actually HAS done right – when you recline, the bottom slides out a bit to give you an feeling of more “flatness” in the seat. Very comfy by Economy standards. Mr. Newson has received much praise in the design press (and of course from Qantas) for his Skybed Business Class product but I’ve always thought it was way over-rated. With the A380 Economy seat, however, he seems to have gotten it right. Integrated netting-style foot rests are also quite a nice touch, mounted under the seat in front of you.
Where Mr. Newson goes wrong again quickly, however, is in the overall cabin design. In a word- boring. In two words, boring and drab. I was in the second of three economy sections and apparently he thought it was a good idea to break up the monotony of dark red seat colours by adding in a section of hideous “gecko green” seats. Yikes. Thank God most of the flight is at night because having to look at those green seats in the daylight could give you a headache.
But once we get away from the design elements the Qantas A380 really is a good aircraft and a good on-board product. Topping the list of good improvements is the new “iQ” entertainment system, which is very easy to use, has an outstanding and extensive list of movies, TV shows and music, and has a very sharp screen with good picture quality. The “A to Z” search feature was great to quickly scan all the movie choices without having to determine whether “Inglourious Basterds” is categorised as a comedy, new release or Oscar nominee. (FYI, I’m not quite sure on the first point, definitely it’s not the second, but indeed it was the third.)
But the “way coolest” feature by far is the tail-mounted camera which gives you a birds-eye view looking down the fuselage from above, which you can dial up on screen during take-off and landing. Finally we get to see something like what the pilots see. Like I said – way cool!
So, overall the A380 itself is a beautiful, big, well-built, quiet and excellent aircraft. Qantas has taken this opportunity to (at least in Economy) create a much better flying experience for the traveller but as with all new Qantas products they’ve left a few things off that would have been much better. A more warm and welcoming cabin with better colour schemes would have made a huge difference in the feel of the airplane, and given all the space they had to play with I’m surprised they couldn’t come up with a Skycouch-type product like Air New Zealand has done. The closest thing to a sky couch was my actual seat -71D, which as reported in the inaugural Friday Morning Cafe indeed has no seat in front of it and makes for a “luxurious” Economy class experience. Now on to a US domestic flight which I won’t even bother to comment on as I know it will be completely awful.
CAFE OPENING HOURS UPDATE: Next week’s (March 20) Cafe is likely to be either a bit early or a bit late, as I’ll be on the return flight from LAX next Thursday. Apologies in advance if the Cafe isn’t open first thing on Friday! Cheers.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Here's Johnny!
So perhaps the least surprising announcement in the Australian travel industry came earlier this week when Virgin Blue introduced former Qantas Executive GM John Borghetti as the new boss at Virgin. I think pretty much everyone who’s in the business here knew that as soon as Borghetti’s 12 months of non-compete time were up he’d likely pop up at another carrier, and even more likely at Virgin since Brett Godfrey announced his departure last year.
What will be very, very interesting to watch as Borghetti takes over the reins is whether he can deliver on his ultimate boss’ (Sir Richard Branson) statement that Australia’s number two airline will need to “go after the business market in a big way.” Borghetti was a big driving force behind Qantas’ business products, including the launch of their new business class early in the past decade as well as overhauling the QF flagship lounges – all critical to attracting the high-yielding corporate traveller dollar.
Virgin has done a nice job in recent years of slowly but surely adding on more features to woo business travellers, from upgraded lounges to increased flights amongst top city pairs to special seating to a greatly enhanced Velocity rewards program. These are the “fab four” of what attracts the business traveller: frequency, points, lounges and perks.
If we focused on just the fab four factors, then the good money would likely be on Qantas to continue to enjoy dominance in the business market as although Virgin has indeed greatly improved their products over the past few years, by and large they still are a bit behind Qantas in terms of frequency (although they are very close, especially on SYD-MEL) loyalty (QFF is still the biggest loyalty program in Australia),and lounges (newly refurbished domestic lounges and let’s not even try to compare the Qantas International First Class lounge to anyone else.)
With respect to perks I’ve not been able to experience Virgin Blue’s approach to upgrades, special seating requests, better meals, etc. as I’ve just not flown them enough to have an opinion, so for the sake of this discussion I’ll just call that even.
However, where things get interesting is thanks to the new frugality brought on by the GFC, and that is with fares. DJ has enjoyed strong growth since taking over from Ansett as the antipodean #2 carrier and much of that is due to their aggressive fare discounting in the leisure sector attracting cost-conscious holiday makers. Well guess what – CFO’s and corporate travel managers are the new “holiday makers” in that they too are now seeking out the best deals, the cheapest seats, and any airlines who will give that to them.
I’m afraid that like the original Fab Four, the aforementioned fab four of business travel are about to be broken up and go on solo careers as many companies aren’t concerned about who gives out the most points anymore or who has Cararra marble in their lounge bathrooms (guess which carrier that distinction belongs to?)
So, which approach will Borghetti use to woo Sir Richard’s expected corporate travellers – the QF method of providing “addictive” travel perks like swish lounges and Platinum cards, or will he go after the bottom-line minded travel buyers and CFO’s as after all, they’re the ones really holding the purse strings? Only time will tell (Borghetti apparently starts in May) but I’m sure it will be an interesting matchup to watch.
EXTRA SHOT FOR THE DAY : “AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT STIMULATES THE CORPORATE TRAVEL INDUSTRY”
Sorry if the headline is misleading, because I’m sure billions of dollars are not about to be put into the corporate travel industry. But about $500 million or so of government "money" is actually out there for the taking...
Talk is starting to heat up around the impending (apparently within the next 3-4 weeks) announcements by the Australia Federal Government around who wins and who loses across their $500M+ annual expenditure in travel. Airlines, hoteliers, travel agencies and technology providers are all on pins, needles and lobbyists’ hotlines waiting to hear how the Qantas dual stronghold (on air and travel management services) will be reallocated. Note that I said “how” rather than “whether” as I will be extremely surprised and not a little dismayed if nothing changes out of this process.
What’s great about this whole thing is that everyone and their mother thinks they’re going to get a slice of this enormous pie. Even Etihad is wading into the fray, as the Middle-Eastern airline’s CEO James Hogan was recently quoted as saying the six-year old carrier is fully into the bidding process. Given Qantas often complains about Mid-East carriers enjoying government subsidisation that QF hasn’t had for years, it would be slightly ironic if any of them got a slice of the Australian Government’s spend. As a taxpayer, however, I’m more than happy to have the Government fly on more cost-effective suppliers - assuming Etihad or any other carrier will indeed be cost-effective of course....
What will be very, very interesting to watch as Borghetti takes over the reins is whether he can deliver on his ultimate boss’ (Sir Richard Branson) statement that Australia’s number two airline will need to “go after the business market in a big way.” Borghetti was a big driving force behind Qantas’ business products, including the launch of their new business class early in the past decade as well as overhauling the QF flagship lounges – all critical to attracting the high-yielding corporate traveller dollar.
Virgin has done a nice job in recent years of slowly but surely adding on more features to woo business travellers, from upgraded lounges to increased flights amongst top city pairs to special seating to a greatly enhanced Velocity rewards program. These are the “fab four” of what attracts the business traveller: frequency, points, lounges and perks.
If we focused on just the fab four factors, then the good money would likely be on Qantas to continue to enjoy dominance in the business market as although Virgin has indeed greatly improved their products over the past few years, by and large they still are a bit behind Qantas in terms of frequency (although they are very close, especially on SYD-MEL) loyalty (QFF is still the biggest loyalty program in Australia),and lounges (newly refurbished domestic lounges and let’s not even try to compare the Qantas International First Class lounge to anyone else.)
With respect to perks I’ve not been able to experience Virgin Blue’s approach to upgrades, special seating requests, better meals, etc. as I’ve just not flown them enough to have an opinion, so for the sake of this discussion I’ll just call that even.
However, where things get interesting is thanks to the new frugality brought on by the GFC, and that is with fares. DJ has enjoyed strong growth since taking over from Ansett as the antipodean #2 carrier and much of that is due to their aggressive fare discounting in the leisure sector attracting cost-conscious holiday makers. Well guess what – CFO’s and corporate travel managers are the new “holiday makers” in that they too are now seeking out the best deals, the cheapest seats, and any airlines who will give that to them.
I’m afraid that like the original Fab Four, the aforementioned fab four of business travel are about to be broken up and go on solo careers as many companies aren’t concerned about who gives out the most points anymore or who has Cararra marble in their lounge bathrooms (guess which carrier that distinction belongs to?)
So, which approach will Borghetti use to woo Sir Richard’s expected corporate travellers – the QF method of providing “addictive” travel perks like swish lounges and Platinum cards, or will he go after the bottom-line minded travel buyers and CFO’s as after all, they’re the ones really holding the purse strings? Only time will tell (Borghetti apparently starts in May) but I’m sure it will be an interesting matchup to watch.
EXTRA SHOT FOR THE DAY : “AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT STIMULATES THE CORPORATE TRAVEL INDUSTRY”
Sorry if the headline is misleading, because I’m sure billions of dollars are not about to be put into the corporate travel industry. But about $500 million or so of government "money" is actually out there for the taking...
Talk is starting to heat up around the impending (apparently within the next 3-4 weeks) announcements by the Australia Federal Government around who wins and who loses across their $500M+ annual expenditure in travel. Airlines, hoteliers, travel agencies and technology providers are all on pins, needles and lobbyists’ hotlines waiting to hear how the Qantas dual stronghold (on air and travel management services) will be reallocated. Note that I said “how” rather than “whether” as I will be extremely surprised and not a little dismayed if nothing changes out of this process.
What’s great about this whole thing is that everyone and their mother thinks they’re going to get a slice of this enormous pie. Even Etihad is wading into the fray, as the Middle-Eastern airline’s CEO James Hogan was recently quoted as saying the six-year old carrier is fully into the bidding process. Given Qantas often complains about Mid-East carriers enjoying government subsidisation that QF hasn’t had for years, it would be slightly ironic if any of them got a slice of the Australian Government’s spend. As a taxpayer, however, I’m more than happy to have the Government fly on more cost-effective suppliers - assuming Etihad or any other carrier will indeed be cost-effective of course....
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Turkish Delight?
Welcome back to the Cafe, everyone. Got a treat to accompany your morning coffee today - a bit of Turkish Delight.
No, not the pink, rosy-flavoured treat, but new direct flights between Sydney and Istanbul on Turkish Airlines. The Australian Federal Government has reportedly agreed to an air-services deal with Turkey which would allow TK and QF to go head-to-head on this route.
Of course, "head-to-head" may be a bit of a misnomer as Qantas hasn't flown to Istanbul since it was Constantinople and reportedly has no plans to any time soon. But that hasn't stopped Qantas execs from complaining about this new agreement citing the usual story about their profitability suffering due to more competition. Apparently there are only 60,000 passengers annually flying between Australia and Turkey, so I really don't think this is much yield for QF to be missing out on.
I have to say that I'm not quite sure that another Middle Eastern carrier joining the fray at Kingsford-Smith is going to do much good, what with Etihad, Emirates and Qatar all now flying into Sydney. Turkish is initially proposing only 3 flights per week, so it's not like they're going to dominate the market like Emirates has tried to do. Having never flown TK myself I have no idea how good their product is, but I'm pretty sure that the aforementioned 3 airlines' products are pretty tough to beat in any case.
Regardless, if Turkish does come to Sydney I am sure that Qantas will again roll out the sentiment that too much competition is a bad thing for Australia and Australian travellers. Having had my own personal costs for flying to the US drop by 50% in the time since V Australia and Delta have begun flying the California-Australia routes I can't say I'm in agreement.
If this is is really about competition from a consumer standpoint, this argument never has and never will stack up. If it's really about protecting Qantas' profits, then so be it, we should not begrudge a company from making money as after all that's what business is all about. But it should be done for the right reasons and not keep saying "anti-competitive" each time someone else tries to do things better or different.
(Thanks to the SMH Business Day for some facts noted in the above. Link to story: http://www.smh.com.au/business/deal-adds-turkey-to-qantas-competitors-20100221-onv9.html)
EXTRA SHOT FOR THE DAY - Webjet and Amex make things easy
(Barista's disclaimer: I used to work for Amex and and am a personal friend of the Membership Rewards director for Australia. My opinion on this however is as a traveller rather than being a "plant" for either company but just so everyone's clear on my position!)
Coming from literally nowhere, in just about 5 years Webjet has become a major player in the online travel space in Australia and now are attempting to launch in the US later this year. Good luck on that one guys...not like there aren't a million other online travel agencies all vying for the US market...but I digress.
I just booked a trip on Webjet to Fiji for a family holiday and was quite pleased to be able to use Amex Membership Rewards points to pay for part of my trip. Didn't matter which airline (V Australia in case anyone's wondering - the onboard experience review coming in a July edition of the Cafe!) I chose nor what flights I booked - no blackouts, no restrictions. Finally - an easy to use way to burn up points without having to have "enough" to get the full cost of a trip covered. I was able to split the cost of the flights between MR points and charged the rest to my card. Couldn't have been easier. Well done Webjet and Amex. Now if only Webjet would only lose that silly logo...
No, not the pink, rosy-flavoured treat, but new direct flights between Sydney and Istanbul on Turkish Airlines. The Australian Federal Government has reportedly agreed to an air-services deal with Turkey which would allow TK and QF to go head-to-head on this route.
Of course, "head-to-head" may be a bit of a misnomer as Qantas hasn't flown to Istanbul since it was Constantinople and reportedly has no plans to any time soon. But that hasn't stopped Qantas execs from complaining about this new agreement citing the usual story about their profitability suffering due to more competition. Apparently there are only 60,000 passengers annually flying between Australia and Turkey, so I really don't think this is much yield for QF to be missing out on.
I have to say that I'm not quite sure that another Middle Eastern carrier joining the fray at Kingsford-Smith is going to do much good, what with Etihad, Emirates and Qatar all now flying into Sydney. Turkish is initially proposing only 3 flights per week, so it's not like they're going to dominate the market like Emirates has tried to do. Having never flown TK myself I have no idea how good their product is, but I'm pretty sure that the aforementioned 3 airlines' products are pretty tough to beat in any case.
Regardless, if Turkish does come to Sydney I am sure that Qantas will again roll out the sentiment that too much competition is a bad thing for Australia and Australian travellers. Having had my own personal costs for flying to the US drop by 50% in the time since V Australia and Delta have begun flying the California-Australia routes I can't say I'm in agreement.
If this is is really about competition from a consumer standpoint, this argument never has and never will stack up. If it's really about protecting Qantas' profits, then so be it, we should not begrudge a company from making money as after all that's what business is all about. But it should be done for the right reasons and not keep saying "anti-competitive" each time someone else tries to do things better or different.
(Thanks to the SMH Business Day for some facts noted in the above. Link to story: http://www.smh.com.au/business/deal-adds-turkey-to-qantas-competitors-20100221-onv9.html)
EXTRA SHOT FOR THE DAY - Webjet and Amex make things easy
(Barista's disclaimer: I used to work for Amex and and am a personal friend of the Membership Rewards director for Australia. My opinion on this however is as a traveller rather than being a "plant" for either company but just so everyone's clear on my position!)
Coming from literally nowhere, in just about 5 years Webjet has become a major player in the online travel space in Australia and now are attempting to launch in the US later this year. Good luck on that one guys...not like there aren't a million other online travel agencies all vying for the US market...but I digress.
I just booked a trip on Webjet to Fiji for a family holiday and was quite pleased to be able to use Amex Membership Rewards points to pay for part of my trip. Didn't matter which airline (V Australia in case anyone's wondering - the onboard experience review coming in a July edition of the Cafe!) I chose nor what flights I booked - no blackouts, no restrictions. Finally - an easy to use way to burn up points without having to have "enough" to get the full cost of a trip covered. I was able to split the cost of the flights between MR points and charged the rest to my card. Couldn't have been easier. Well done Webjet and Amex. Now if only Webjet would only lose that silly logo...
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