Originally Posted by
the810
Airlines rely on certain groups of passengers buying higher fares. But many of these passengers are frequent fliers, thus get the perks of higher packages for free, and lack incentive to pay up. So they end up buying fares which were only meant to fill up the plane with price-sensitive customers who want nothing but a carry-on and a random seat.
If that’s the problem then AF is looking at the wrong place. AF can say all it wants about how great its business class in Europe is but it is not.
A way to increase margins is to do it the way British Airways does: have a proper service in Business Class Europe and people will pay to buy Business straight away or via OLCI.
British Airways Club Europe cabins can stretch to the emergency exit rows and that’s true for its Gatwick base where there are hardly any connecting passengers from Longhaul whatsoever.
AF should do the same and focus on its P2P passengers in that class as this generates more margins than connecting passengers to Longhaul.
There are a lot of us who when traveling to holiday destinations, would pay more to travel in style. My partner who is also an Aegean Airlines Gold member would never fly AF business class after having experienced once. Same for me. The service provided is basic and it is not worth it.
If I look at my stats from the last 4 years (since AF went with its new cold meals concept), a lot of my business class trips within Europe are with Aegean Airlines, Finnair, British Airways, Austrian Airlines, Lufthansa, Swiss, Iberia and even with TuiFly Deluxe Class. The only times I have booked AF in Business is where the fare difference between Economy and Business was negligeable. And it was more for the extra XPs than the service.
When AF quotes £229 for an OLCI upgrade to or from Tunis I would pass. I am not going to pay that amount for a cold fish and a quinoa salad and also a service that is completed in 15 minutes.
Today is Black Friday and I have already booked 6 round trips with Aegean Airlines for my summer flights to Greece. Some are in Business Class. And for what it is worth, I’d rather have a connecting flight in Athens with a great Business Class service than fly direct to Mykonos with AF.
Same for some flights I booked to Scandinavia, it is all SAS now. Better fares, and their Business Class is the better than AF it seems.
AF (and KL) has a big issue with unions and crewing agreements and it goes beyond Business Class Europe.
Look at the meal service in Premium and the second meal in Economy for longer routes (the infamous Bon Appétit bag): same issue, I find the service with AF/KL below the competition in Europe and I really try to avoid AF if I have to fly Economy and Premium on longer sectors. Throwing a Bon Appétit bag as a second meal on routes to and from HKG, JNB, HND, SCL, SIN is just a disgrace. FAs say it is to reduce waste and people can take the bag with them. But believe me, on a 11h plus flight, people in Economy are hungry and would appreciate a second meal tray not an insulting carb and sugar loaded bag.
And because it all seems to be a struggle for the crews, AF stopped the paid for upgraded meals in Economy Longhaul prepared by Le Notre. AF could also introduce other revenue generating options like ordering champagne with chocolate in Economy shorthaul, better meals, etc.. but that’s too much work for the crews.
It looks to me that AF is trapped by its crewing issues and agreements with unions so much so that it can’t really look at alternative ways of generating more revenues on the soft product side. So if it can’t generate revenue, it will look at improving margins by degrading the soft product and the perks as well…