Originally Posted by
Aerosett
Accept a few of these points, in particular 1 and 2, some elements are subjective though. Curious about the claim that QF elites don't get as good recognition in North America? In what respect?
On the flip side though, with respect to corporate traffic, I'd suspect QF would have a lot of the Australia-US market through corporate deals anyway. On that basis, how much of the high yielding traffic does NZ actually have ex BNE/MEL? Don't forget that there are daily services MEL-LAX, non-stop on QF, 1 stop on UA, plus QF's BNE-LAX non-stop is 6 times a week.
Interesting to note that Australia & Pacific Islands are 14% of NZ's revenue according to
this ASX release.
Qantas elites really only have access to good connections and lounges at DFW in North America, and while then can fly QF to JFK, the have to fly AA elsewhere which is a poor carrier even by American standards.
In contrast, NZ elites have a better onward network and product not just at LAX but also at HNL and especially at SFO.
Lastly, Qantas frequent flyers have no non-stop option from either MEL or BNE to get to SFO or YVR or HNL, and the experience of flying Air NZ and connecting at AKL is far preferable to SYD. Which is why I'm doing it on Friday!!
And on Friday I'm part of a party of four in Business Class on an A320 to get to AKL. It can happen!