Originally Posted by
Trav1970
Interesting ideas. So basically:
a) Make the standard product more inferior, to increase the attractiveness of the J upgrade. I am sure this would drive away quite a few tier members.
b) Invest in the J offering to actually make it better.
I wonder which would make better business sense.
...
I meant tier members will not ever feel SH J is worth it (via upgrade or as revenue), unless something more radically changes. Besides, what is in a) case is not "the standard product". It is the standard product plus almost everything from the premium product for free. Removing some of the free stuff will still result in something better than the standard product.
I do think tier member benefits will be reduced over the coming years, yes.
And yes, it is a decent business case.
Revenue from tickets is under pressure. They have a goal to increase "ancillary revenue". They simply cannot afford to exclude their most frequent customers from the buyer circle.
Will hordes of tier members really leave AY if they can't choose seat or get free drink? They will moan about it, but I find it very unlikely they are in a position to change travel pattern on a scale that matters to AY. Company policy, enterprise contracts, limited competition on route etc. limits the choice for many of the frequent travellers.
Compare BA - no seat selection and no bags on light ticket for tier members. Was there a lot of moaning? Yes. Did BA go bust over all the valuable tier members leaving? No.