Originally Posted by
Guy Betsy
Many airlines restrict ticketing sales to point of origin. eg SQ/CX are prime examples.
Yeah, I've seen this done in third-world countries in Latin America. I would have never expected this in Asia, but I guess most of it is third-world (aka emerging economies).
My point however is that MH is not in a financial position to ignore the global internet and sites like Google Flights like CX/SQ, who are profitable and can play distribution games even if it results that some of their revenue leaking elsewhere. MH IIRC is losing $2m/day.
Originally Posted by
Guy Betsy
if you issue tickets from a SIN OTA, say zuji.com.sg, or expedia.com.sg , that may save you on the $40.
www.expedia.com.sg does indeed offer those convenient connections that are not being offered by MH's website (without the 15% surcharge).
This is another area that's totally puzzling -- that the OTA is a far better supplier of MH's own inventory than MH itself. OTAs cost MH much more than its own website.
I still do think that the new CEO will really have a lot of work to do to fix issues like these that hamper MH's revenue with no benefit to the airline.
For me, the lesson learned that in Asia you should always use the LOCAL version of
www.expedia.com or similar and NEVER the airline's own website, as in South America. Weird.