Originally Posted by
San Gottardo
As I follow several airlines' threads on FT I start wondering about these "bye bye (airline XYZ)" and "never again will I fly (airline ZYX)" posts. You read on the EK forum how people will move on or have moved on. Fair enough, and I fully understand the reasons given and I share the observations. But I then wonder where they move to? Reading threads about other airlines most of them cannot be all happy places either. SQ is arrogant; BA has a bad F class and awards are never available; LH is just slipping in standards; LX is too small; QR is over-rated and has a terrible hub; EY is losing its pedigree; airlines from the US hire fat vulgar ladies as FAs and awards aren't available; Air France and KLM have lost any right to win premium business since a long time. So what is left?
This is not to say that I want to excuse EK for anything at all. DXB can be a very painful airport, I personally have a bad punctuality record with them (>60% of flights delayed), their staff are often not smarter than trained monkeys, the interior design of cabins is ugly, their 777 and 330 J product is sub-par, their FFP and status tiers not very attractive - but is there really an airline with a global reach that does at least most of these things substantially better?
There may be people with specific routes or particular preferences or tastes for whose specific needs another airline may be the better fit. But systematically shunning EK just to go somewhere else which isn't much better - huh?
Thus, my conclusion is that we should put these things in perspective.
I think that people who are giving up on EK (or any other airline) are giving up on loyalty to an airline in general. There are of course those who fly enough that it is no problem maintaining status on multiple programs, but I think as an airline you need to focus on wallet share as a measure of loyalty - someone who flies 50k a year on EK but 500k overall obviously isn't very loyal.
In that sense, I've also gone from a time I would only fly EK long haul, to a point where I really don't care anymore. Yes, EK has nice service in J. SQ has great schedules in SIN. CX has a good hard product. TG has good award availability. I'm happy to sample different products and am not focusing on building any loyalty right now, as I see how poor the benefits for so called loyal customers are.
I have friends who fly enough for LH HON, and while that is a program that takes care of its customers on the ground, in the air LH J is still a joke, and F is not practical for regular travel for most people.