Being a travel agent and a OW SPH in SIN, here are some of my opinion in OW: -
- *A offers much much more choice than OW and ST in terms of intra-Asia flights, CX/JL is large yet neither covers the entire Asia well without connection or back track, with JL possibly leaving OW, customers will have less choice.. Where is their presence in China and SEA?
- Major cities in Europe and America is covered well by *A and OW, thanks to CX/JL/BA/QF.
- Most other carriers than CX/JL/BA/QF, we do not fly them unless we use it as a connecting flight (not entirely true for AA ex-NRT flights), e.g. AY/MA/IB/MX/RJ/LA.
- SIN is not exactly a OW hub, don't count 3K unless we can start earning miles on 3K flights accross all OW FFPs.
- OW FFPs are overly protective, mileage earning across OW is POOR! For example, AA - at least H class for CX to earn miles; CX - IB/QF/BA 50% for ENTIRE EY ecept full Y and Premium Y to earn 100% miles; QF - similar to CX FFP, earns 50% on CX EY cabin except full Y.
- With limited choice of carriers and overly protective FFP, we are often leave with no choice but to fly the carrier that we bank our FFP miles in, this is especially true for Y class travellers, unless otherwise its cheaper or more convenient to fly other carrier. For example, being a CX SPH, I may not want to fly SIN-MEL on QF in EY because promotional O class does not earn me any miles, but it is much cheaper to fly SIN-HKG-MEL and it saves more time. Also, SIN-PVG, SIN-PEK, SIN-ICN and more...
- Some comments:
Fill the Asian market gap! I have always thought OW is superior than ST, but is it true now? I do not leave in Australia and *A really seems to attracting most Asian flyers away.
Loosen up the stringent FFP earning rules. Limited choice + stupid rules will only keep people flying OW for a limited time only, sooner travellers will start swithcing to other programmes like TG/SQ/OZ/UA (Yes *A) in Asia region where the same booking code earns the same amount of miles across almost ALL *A FFPs.
May be adding additional perks for elite flyers like priority bags for all SPH/EMD members (doesnt cost much to member carriers) and additional baggages (this cost slightly more) - NEED to convince people that OW carriers are united as one, especially when we are still unsure if JL is leaving us...
my 2 cents..
