FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - What will be JOON's first [last] routes?

Sep 25, 2017 | 12:23 pm

#46

orbitmic

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Quote:

Originally Posted by San Gottardo

I *really* don't get it.

There is a website for a new airline whose main proposition is that FAs are dressed in casual chic and that they have to wear white sneakers (the ones that get dirty easily). They add that there will be buy-on-board without saying so, but to be millenial-compatible they emphasise that some will be "bio".

They also advertise a couple of destinations, such as Berlin and Lisbon. So I tried a booking for CDG-TXL and CDG-LIS in March and May of next year (I presume that by then things should be in full swing).

During the loading of the fares the "normal" AF image pops up (=the same you would see when you do a booking on the traditional AF website). Then schedules and fares are displayed, on a traditional AF website layout, with just some blue coloured stain and the word JOON added on top. The flights: all say "operated by Air France", schedules and fares look very much like what used to exist. Fare structure is LIGHT, STANDARD and FLEX in Eco. Business Class is all BUSINESS FLEX.

To check, I went to the main AF website and searched for fares for the same dates. Result: the same schedules, the same fares come up, but also with the blue JOON frame. In both cases flight numbers are AF.

In other words: it's the same flights as today, the same fares as today, the same airline code as today...

BUT: if you search for Porto, either through the AF or the JOON website, you don't get the blue coloured blob. But same fare structure, schedules, AF flight numbers on both sites.

So, what is this JOON thing? I fly on the same flights as before, except that I have a big blue blob of paint on the booking engine site. If I access through the JOON site I in addition get some hype about their dress code, but I still get booked on the same flights at the same fares as when going through the traditional AF website.

The other thing I don't get: I thought that JOON was supposed to take over routes in the AF network that traditional AF couldn't run profitably? But how does flying to *new* destinations such as Fortaleza and Seychelles improve the profitability of existing AF routes like Bangkok, Lima or Havana (which I presume are not very profitable, but I could be wrong. Insert any others that are)?

This entire JOON smells like an Air France idea from the old days:

A CEO without balls has to create some "usine a gaz" to please the unions
some bureaucrats/civil servant types who get their ideas about what customers need from some commonplace blabla ("Millenials are the thing now")
are concerned about the brand perception ("not low cost", "has to be young", "has to show our heritage") and therefore spend a lot of time on finding a grandiose name
spend a lot of time and money on the looks (colour, dress code)
no time is spent on properly thinking through how this is being set up and executed, operations is improvised

I like the USB ports, can we please have that on all planes, not just promised for JOON flights which in the end will still be the old AF planes without them. I like having flights to Fortaleza and the Seychelles in some comfort. Fair enough.

But does it require the creation of a new airline to have USB ports and flights to Fortaleza? Or isn't this a new airline? Or is it, and they will have separate JOON staff at airports, separate counters, separate customer service, separate call centre staff? Hence my initial thought, I *really* don't get it.

I know this is early days and things may evolve, and I in fact expect distinct JOON planes to fly the flights. I know that existing routes will be added to the JOON longhaul network (do I remember correctly KIX?).

But still, from what we have seen from AF in the past and with some business sense my hunch is that this has "bad idea" written all over it. Over-complex conceptually, too much reliance on flamboyant marketing and meaningless design elements, half-baked operational setup. The old AF.

I'll probably fly them when I need to go to those places, nothing wrong with it. This comment is purely from the standpoint of a confused customer and armchair CEO.

Totally agree. The whole white trainers cool look reminds me of the origins of Southwest except that un peu d'eau a coule sous les ponts depuis, and Southwest was not only new to the concept but also came up with it in house whilst AF probably paid some ridiculous consulting firm huge fee to come with the idea.

Joon is AF with Buy on Board though they are thankfully less radical than BA and still offer water, juice, tea and coffee for free.

Joon is AF trying to compete with low costs but maintaining a 'business class' though a seemingly ghastly one which promises warm croissants for breakfast (just the same old croissants as in domestic Y before? But warmed? I mean if any bakery warmed their croissants before selling them to me they wouldn't see my face a second time. A warm croissant is oven-fresh, not re-warmed, that's a complete no-no, millennial or not). A business class that returns to that fabulous concept of only offering soft drinks or wine. Rings a bell? Yep, they did that a few years ago at the bottom of the service standards curve and had to come back, their tail between their legs, reintroducing spirits a couple of years later.

Joon is a new airline which is launched without even being launched. You go there and the message for most of the intercontinental offer is 'we're still working on it'.

This is frankly an empty shell, a silly venture. If AF wanted to rejuvenate their style then why split the brand and do it on some routes but not others and make the silly complicated offer even sillier and more complicated?

I think Dr Frankenstein is at play somewhere here...