Programs: Severals Golds (BA, BD, AB and LH), Highest tier with HH, SPG and ICRA, lawyer, sometimes a nice guy
Posts: 7,624
Insane earnings on Egypt Air
I agree, I do not really fancy flying Egypt Air.
But I just asked myself how they manage
(a) to offer these fares and
(b) paying DC for the vast amount of miles.
The ticket FRA - CAI - BKK - PEK on their so-called First Class (which is close to domestic US F/C) costs 1653 Euro all in as offered by a German specialized TA I am not allowed to name here. A stop-over in Bangkok is allowed, however, I did not find out whether there are any extra costs (I assume they will be in the range of he normal 100 Euro).
Now, lets calculate the earnings for such FRA - CAI - BKK - PEK for a BD 55+ Club member:
425% for FRA - CAI in C = 1815 * 4,25 * 2 = 15427
625% for CAI - BKK in F = 4643 * 6,25 * 2 = 58038
625% for BKK - PEK in F = 2057 * 6,25 * 2 = 25712
This adds up to close to 100k miles for a 1653 Euro ticket. I do not understand how Egypt Air can manage this - but well, the offer is real.
__________________
Do not feel offended by my posts - remember, I am a simple minded litigation lawyer.
Given the volume of publicity the MS fares have now had on FT I wonder how much longer they will last. Not a pop at the OP, just an observation (and perhaps an implicit suggestion to others too).
Programs: Severals Golds (BA, BD, AB and LH), Highest tier with HH, SPG and ICRA, lawyer, sometimes a nice guy
Posts: 7,624
Quote:
Originally Posted by Swanhunter
Given the volume of publicity the MS fares have now had on FT I wonder how much longer they will last.
I do not believe FT to be so important for MS, we always have a tendency to overestimate our importance.
However, fares ex CAI are driven by the local market and even SQ sells CAI - SIN - PEK in their C-Class on the local market for about 12k EGP (which is about 1500 Euro) and which is certainly a premium product compared to Egypt Air F/C.
This is the first time that a Star Alliance carrier has a hub in CAI and takes pax into that hub for the long distance flights. We all know, that feeder flights are normally sold "for free" or for "close to free". However, the hub is a little bit away from the beaten tracks and this makes the mileage attractive. There will not be an aweful lot of people detouring through the most aweful airport in the region (CAI) and fly on a dry and second class airline.
The fares will be in place for long. The question is, how long the mileage will be that generous.
__________________
Do not feel offended by my posts - remember, I am a simple minded litigation lawyer.
I would rather fly BD to CAI and book a SQ/KE/CX C ticket ex CAI- don't fancy sitting on Egyptair for a long haul flight. Have flown them LHR-CAI-JNB once in C (rerouted due to missed connection by EK)- never again
Programs: SPG Plat, HH Diamond, PC Plat Amb, BMI *G
Posts: 6,611
Quote:
Originally Posted by Flying Lawyer
The ticket FRA - CAI - BKK - PEK on their so-called First Class (which is close to domestic US F/C)
First Class on MS offers old style seats, but 60" compared with 38" which is typical for US F/C. Now did you mean MS J class, which is 42" as a comparison?
Anyway, back to your main point which I agree completely with. Potenitally their are insane earnings to be had. Personally I'm not sure I'd want to do an MS milage run in J as the seats look pretty awful. However First Class looks ok and with 3x miles for F, it is worth the extra investment based on your figures.
My logic would be that MS pays only for 300% of miles to BD since BD technically converts the other 300% status into destination miles after 55K, which is purely BD's business, just as their 25% bonus.
On the other hand, you sparked another question - does MS pay a different rate to each airline or does it pay a set amount to BD, UA, LH, etc and they instead foot the mileage in the appropriate denomination? This is probably more of a Star Alliance question, but would be interesting to know.
The ticket FRA - CAI - BKK - PEK on their so-called First Class (which is close to domestic US F/C) costs 1653 Euro all in as offered by a German specialized TA I am not allowed to name here. A stop-over in Bangkok is allowed, however, I did not find out whether there are any extra costs (I assume they will be in the range of he normal 100 Euro).
This information is incorrect. The MS fare only allows for a stopover in CAI, it does not allow for a stopover in BKK without actually beaking the fare there. Also, the MS fare only allows for one transfer (which is being utilized in CAI and thus not available anymore in BKK).
So your mileage earning will be based on FRA-CAI (1815 BIS miles) and CAI-PEK (4683 BIS miles) at the fare you quoted.
To achieve your mileage earnings, you need to purchase two tickets - FRA-CAI-BKK r/t and BKK-PEK-BKK r/t which will end up costing more than 2000 EUR.
Information current as of today and verified in two reservation systems (I got access to both Amadeus and Galileo).
Programs: LH SEN, BD*G, KF, IC Amb/PC Plat, Hyatt Plat, HH Gold, SPG Gold
Posts: 2,759
I don't know but maybe it is just me but even though price is attractive and I could live with MS in F or even C (hey I'm clocking 200K mls in Y this year) for a leisure trip back to Europe there is this nagging concern about safety.
Honestly, I have no idea about MS's safety record (only remember this one plane coming from the US that went down) and every major airline has had problems, but I mean just from the point of thorough work of technicans and adherence to strict safety regulations, proper spare parts, maintenance cycles etc. I can't shake of concerns. Maybe I'm paranoid but it sticks.
Anyway, certainly attractive earnings rates. Get's you a decent free trip in C or F C+M and nice for a status run. My mom & my GF would freak out though and my employer won't book MS as it is not approved by our global office. Oh well.
__________________
"Customers who complain are the company's best friends." (Nirmalya Kumar - Prof. of Marketing, LBS)
Programs: Severals Golds (BA, BD, AB and LH), Highest tier with HH, SPG and ICRA, lawyer, sometimes a nice guy
Posts: 7,624
I was told different. However: I you were correct would result in surcharge of about 400 Euro for the Stop-Over and not 100 Euro. Big difference and still absolutely insane. 100k miles for 2000 Euro. The Fare FRA - CAI - BKK is priced with 1611 Euro
__________________
Do not feel offended by my posts - remember, I am a simple minded litigation lawyer.
Ignoring the extra miles you get due to BD's generosity (25% for Silver/Gold + status miles converted to destination miles for 55K), it's only 47,460 miles for the BIS plus COS bonus. This works out to slightly over 5 cents per status mile if I did my math correctly. This is no where near a good deal as far as many MRs go being you can find 3 cents per status mile deals on UA and/or US. Though it certainly is a very easy MR as most of the good deals are in Y. I don't see that they're being overly generous with the miles given UA and US can offer much more mileage for the equivalent money, so don't see that they will see any need to change their current offerings.
First Class on MS offers old style seats, but 60" compared with 38" which is typical for US F/C. Now did you mean MS J class, which is 42" as a comparison?
(Nirmalya Kumar - Prof. of Marketing, LBS)
and still absolutely insane. 100k miles for 2000 Euro. The Fare FRA - CAI - BKK is priced with 1611 Euro
