Originally Posted by
tth6133
Competitions are great for consumers, but I wonder how long they're going to last. Would the economics work for JX, for example, relying completely on its own flights at TPE? It doesn't fly to Chinese mainland (other than MFM), unlike the other two Taiwanese carriers, to benefit from the passenger traffic to and from the Chinese mainland.
Apparently JX and IT have decided not to open TPE-HKG S24 with the slots they received after BR and CI have relinquished some of their rights. The reason cited was hilarious: Due to government's limited policy on Chinese group travelers.
Originally Posted by
lolstebbo
4 airlines fly SFO-TPE right now with up to 8 flights a day (up to 6 of them being around midnight or 1am westbound, so it's not like there's scheduling variety either), and that hasn't had a noticeable effect on fares as far as I can tell. I don't really know what other benefit for consumers there would be besides sheer capacity (although that hasn't exactly translated into a plethora of award seats either) since the Taiwan-based airlines are all pretty similar experience- and service-wise especially if you're in Y or PE.
The fares have decreased. At least none of the airlines are charging 40-65K for Economy round trips during the summer this year (unlike last year). If we want to see the fares drop below 30K then there needs to be more flights between China and US and/or CX bringing up their capacities. CX hasn't recovered (just 2 flights to LAX, SFO and not yet returned to SEA).
Seattle will definitely shake things up cause Delta will be competing with UA on the domestic passengers to Taiwan and SEA doesn't have that large market in comparison to LAX and SFO. We are looking at double capacities here, not 1 additional flight from UA at SFO (+0.5 from JX) or 1 additional flight from JX at LAX.
Originally Posted by
tth6133
Yes, there're a few flights to a few big cities on the east coast. But after spending their previous night on a long TPE-SEA flight (assuming they didn't have to take a connecting flight to TPE), I'm not sure they want to spend another night on another flight within the US.
Taiwanese are quite price sensitive as well (just not to the point of VIP), I am sure some of them will take those AS codeshares to the east coast if they want to transfer here.
Originally Posted by
tth6133
For passengers in J, there're also few good options on lounges at SEA. Many lounges are closed, or about to close, by that time. The few remaining ones are crowded with passengers bound for Asia on late flights.
I would assume some of those lounges will get extended hours for all these 0150 or 0215 flights. Would not CI use the Sky Club? JX is likely using AS lounge. At worst there is the Club.
Originally Posted by
lolstebbo
Yeah, but that's not something that changed as a consequence of JX entering the market (or even UA increasing their frequencies out of SFO). The only thing that's really changed is BR's gotten even stingier than before with regards to releasing award capacity.
I think BR only went stingy on Star Awards (1 per flight). People have reported finding seats fairly easy using BR miles in comparison to the past when K Chang was still in BR.
Originally Posted by
tth6133
Yes. It'd be interesting to watch how JX does on that route if it turns out there's excess capacity, because it has the weakest network in Asia around TPE compared to the other two Taiwanese airlines.
...and they are not going to inaugural HKG after they received 15 weekly flights. Maybe they will after they launch SEA and find they don't have enough customers.