WilcoRoger

I would take a small wager, that the number of Silvers are way higher than the extra number of Golds. The numbers increase marginally due to lowered thresholds - how many pax are there making over 80k but below 90k today? The gifted cards will increase again marginally the number of Golds - how many Plats are out there?*

* Actually I wanted to ask Johanna these figures (how many members, what is the elite distribution?) yesterday, but we ran out of time

TPJ

Which is equally full as it also caters for JL and TK - all departing at more or less the same time.

SPBanker

Nowadays almost@home also caters for SU, which I discovered last night.

Man, I had seven refills of wine on HEL-SVO. Tomorrow I continue to HKG, let's see if I survive that...

ffay005

And how many of those gifted Golds will actually use the services often enough to crowd them? If they were frequent fliers, then they would have status already and crowd the lounge anyway.

I think the Gold gift is a perfect example of giving out something that is truly valuable to the receiver but ends up costing AY very little.

Let's say the Plat travels frequently and sometimes brings the spouse along. When they travel together, the spouse can enjoy the benefits like lounge access or prio security. For those few times a year when the spouse might fly on their own, they can now enjoy (most of) the same perks thanks to the gifted Gold card, which will be nice for the customer, but the overall increase in costs for AY is minimal.

A similar "great value at no cost" perk would certainly be the limited same-day change policy that we suggested in the meeting with AY loyalty team. Say AY would have a limited policy allowing Golds and Plats to change their ticket to an earlier flight at the airport, on the day of travel, with hand luggage only, providing there is space, it would be a really nice gesture that would have virtually no cost effects – save for those random few who would risk it and always book the cheapest flights, counting on the possibility to change them at last minute. I for one would never count on that – most flights seem to be very full so it'd really be a hit-and-miss, too often a miss.

This could maybe be tested for some destinations only, say OUL, ARN, LHR, CDG. They all face direct competition from Norwegian (and BA), so by introducing this same-day change system, AY might even be able to attract more customers.

heatsink

I think those would actually be some of the worst destinations to implement it on. There are so many flights that you're virtually guaranteed some earlier seat if you book the cheapest flight, and a minimal amount of experience will let you easily predict load factors for the perfect flight. I would definitely be counting on it.

I still think it would be a good idea when it's already known that the later flight will be delayed, though.

Jainzar

If you want to know the amount of AY+ metal on your flight you can simply ask (especially when flying in J). I had on my leisure destination AGP 3 Plats, 2 Golds and 10 other Silvers on board. 16 out of roughly 180 pax.

WilcoRoger

That would make them viable. Destinations with 1 or 2 daily flights are not really making sense. Take BUD - 9:30 or 17:20 from HEL. Very few would go to the airport at 8 am in the hope of changing from the 5 pm flight. On the way back, even fewer.

heatsink

While that's also true, I can guarantee that I'd be booking the cheapest flight home from Oulu every time if this became an option.

Looking at next Wednesday, for example, I could select the 20:55 flight home for 89 € (light) vs 241 € (pro). Then I'd try to get my meeting to end by 14:10 (152 € light), and if that flight's full I'd just get on the 15:30, and if that flight's full I'd just get on the 17:30...

FFlash

While I could understand that on own dime, I really wonder if you really would do that on company expense. Say, if you know that your meeting would end latest 16 (so that you would get on at least the 17:30 flight), would you really book that 20:55 flight due to its price and let your luck gamble if you can catch any of those earlier ones? Wow.

Anyway, I think this sameday change is anyway a great system which works great in North America and would be easy to implement so why not AY. If and if there really would be some people who started gaming with the lowest option, that number would be so infinitesimal I dare to say, that the merit of the sameday booking would far outweigh the small number of gamblers and it would be win-win for AY and customers IMHO.

heatsink

Ok, I admit it was a bad example! I would not do this on a business trip

ffay005

Since I'm not Heatsink, I really cannot predict what he would or would not do. But somehow I would find it unlikely that someone who flies a lot would really start to gamble like this even if they are paying out of their own pocket. It might be fun to try it out, but to experience multiple failures sounds like a nightmare not to be relived. Think about it: you go to the airport at noon, hoping to catch an early flight. No seats. You wait for the next one. Same story. The same happens over and over again until the very last flight, for which you have that seat (which was perhaps a whopping €80 cheaper), actually departs. Now you've spent maybe eight hours at the airport for nothing...

I think the biggest loophole here would be those few pax who know some routes so well that they can accurately predict loads and "know" when to buy a cheaper later flight but board an earlier, not full one instead. This loophole obviously would cost AY some money, but probably a lot less than what will be gained because other pax chose AY in the first place only or mainly due to this perk that their competitors don't offer.

lkrt

Finnair is looking for a Head of Loalty Operations!

Anybody?

WilcoRoger

Is Johanna out?

lkrt

Nope, Johanna is now VP Brand, Marketing & Customer Loyalty and they're apparently looking for someone to replace her past position as the head of loyalty.

FFlash

Oh well, I might volunteer for that if they paid more than what I earn nowadays
In cash. Not in miles