Originally Posted by
cohenyf
I was talking about the marketing, not the interior design
Let's take a look at their logic. They can't sell F. They axe F. They don't think they will be able to fill a business class of BA style lie-flat seats. But they need it because they want the prestige of an airline providing lie-flat seats. Solution - let's have a J+ and a J- (or Y++). It's not just the seats. it will also be the food, service, #FA/seat etc.
Maybe someone who is more familiar in LY pricing can verify the data I am providing:
Y class to NYC (S class) = $2000
J class to NYC = $4152 (sounds too high, but that's what I found).
BA CW to NYC = $3500
(For a random 3 day,mid-week trip in may I just checked).
I don't think LY will be able to charge more than $4500 for J+ (I actually doubt they can charge more than CW, even though it's n/s). For differentiation reasons, they will need to make J- prices significantly lower (around $3000 list price). Should they reduce the price, they will also need to reduce the service,food, and perheaps seat pitch as well. I think this will eventually make J- into Y+.
I actually think they had really good intentions to offer a really good J class product from the start. I know they even considered the new seats like in VS, CX, NZ, Ac and DL. Those seats are single seats, ut they thought that Israelis prefered seating next to someone.
I am have a feeling one of the main reasons they are keeping a regular business class is so that they can still say they offer the last minute upgrades from Y to C class.
Regarding your last statement, I dont think they will have a problem charging the same and even more then BA for their J+. They now offer it as the same price and even higher and the flight are packed to NYC and LHR and they have no trouble filling them, so i dont think they will have aproblem once they upgrade the product. Whatever this J+ class will be, it will be much better then the current Platinum Class. From what i understand even the regular business will be much better then the current Platinum seats in the 777 and 744 if its true and they are going to install similiar seats that they have in the 767. The 767 have lie flat seats made by "weber" that are very comfortable with 55 and 60 inch pitch. I even think they are more comfortable then the current F class seats.