Goldorak

Here is my "list". Of course, the mandatory pre-requisites are :
- no more strikes in the coming months
- an adequate pricing policy for short/medium and long-haul flights

J & P in flight products
It is crucial to not delay (and even to accelerate if possible) the deployment of the new J and P new seats. Those seats are top notch and can constitute an efficient tool to gain new customers or not not loose some who could go away.

Flying Blue
A FFP is a very powerful tool to increase loyalty. Unfortunately, we all know here on this forum how much FB has been devaluated. I think it is very important to increase miles earnings and advantages in various ways :
- status : when a pax has a status, his/her loyalty is improved thanks to the advantages linked to the status. As an exceptional measure for year 2014, FB should lower the qualification thresholds for all customers but with a special efforts for the French customers (see below why). For the French customers, they should apply the non-French thresholds. And for the latter, they should lower the thresholds by 10,000 miles for Gold & Platinum and by 5,000 miles for Silver. By doing this, they make a gesture to customers who may miss (or not reach) their (re)qualification due to the strike, and for those who may want to fly another alliance, they have a chance to retain them by ensuring status-linked advantages for 2015 and use the whole year 2015 to regain customer confidence.
- miles earnings : as a gesture, until end march 2015 (end of winter season), the minimum earning on all short-, medium- and long-haul flights should be 50% (instead of 25%). And when I say 50%, it’s not 25% "regular" earning and 25% special bonus, but 50% all elite-qualifying miles. Additionally, re-do (as in the past) targeted or non-targeted special operations like "book and fly 3 return trips before DD/MM/YY and earn an exceptional bonus of 20,000 miles. Fly 2 additional trips during the same period and earn 10,000 additional miles".

French customers
I believe it will be the much affected customer base (no offense to our non-French friends on this forum who suffered a lot also during this strike, but the French base customers is of course specific and of huge importance for AF). And so AF has to worry a lot about this. On domestic flights, many pax have flown for the 1st time, during the strike, on U2 to NCE or TLS and many have probably concluded that it was not that bad, knowing that U2 has become much more "business-friendly" than they were before. And so a part of those customers may continue to fly U2 instead of AF, especially if the price difference is important. AF should see how they could change their fares and associated rules (especially flexibility), outside the fully flexible full fare. They should also not forget one new threat (for the entire EU market, not only the French one) : FR will be present on Amadeus from end october 2014. OK, FR is still an airline to avoid for most of us. But they have started their mutation, as U2 did 2 or 3 years ago, and they are starting to fly to/from big airports. Additionally, knowing that many companies have in their travel policy the "obligation" to choose the cheapest flight, FR becomes a new real theat to AF if they appear on the GDS/self-booking tool.

On european flights ex-France : same policy as for domestic flights

On long-haul flights : special promo fares in J and W seems mandatory to me to stimulate corporate bookings. Applicable for bookings in the next 2 months for trips until end march 2015. Also use the arguments of new seats deployment.

Non-French customers
Many actions to be done of course, especially in countries where strikes are very badly judged and where AF is strong, e.g. USA (+++ due to the transatlantic JV), Japan, etc. Promo fares will be important as for the French market.

That’s all folks for now !

KQ321

I wasn’t directly affected by the strike, as I wasn’t booked to fly on AF-metal over the past couple of weeks. However, my commiserations to everyone who was affected.

As other posters have said, it seems that strikes will inevitably have a negative impact on (potential) customers’ perceptions of an airline – although exact nature of that impact will vary.

In terms of rebuilding trust and custom after the strike, to build upon the suggestions from Goldarak and others:

Fares
It does seem that fares (ie: choose the lowest available) are an important criteria for many customers, and in a few weeks or months time, I suspect many people would choose AF it were the cheapest option for their journey, and not worry too much about the strike. So, being competitive on price will clearly be important.

Sales and promotional fares are the obvious way of doing this. However, relaxing fare conditions (eg: reducing change fees, or making the first change free on all fares, etc) may also be another way of making AF more attractive, without (directly) cutting revenue so much.

Flying Blue
I agree with Goldarak that an FFP could and should be an important tool to increase loyalty. However, it seems there are two slightly different goals here:
1) To compensate people who were directly affected by the strike (eg: who may miss out on achieving an expected status level due to not being able to fly); and:
2) To attract and retain all (potential) customers, whose view of AF may have been damaged by the strike (regardless of whether they were actually trying to fly during the strike period).

The first point could be addressed by decreasing elite qualification levels, or giving an across-the-board top-up of status miles*. However, this could be seen as a somewhat blunt instrument – for someone who had a particularly long trip (or several short trips) cancelled, the change in level thresholds may not be adequate compensation; and yet it would a significant benefit to those who weren’t affected by the strike at all. In theory, it should (or might) be possible to search through all reservations from the strike period, and ensure that any FB member whose trip was cancelled or otherwise affected is given the amount of miles (level and award) that they would have expected to earn (plus, ideally, an additional percentage on top, as a gesture for the inconvenience).

For the second point, I would agree with Goldorak in suggesting increasing the earning percentages (for level miles, as well as award miles) for a certain time period. However, I would even go further and suggest that all earning percentages on AF could be temporarily increased (doubled?). By helping customers, who might otherwise be wavering about flying AF, to accrue award miles and gain status, it would hopefully encourage longer-term loyalty and minimise the negative impact of the strike. Use of the ‘faster miles’ promotions (again, ideally for level miles as well as award miles) could also be a wise idea (ideally available to all FB members, albeit perhaps with the amounts targeted to individual’s flying patterns). As we are about to enter the final quarter of the year, encouraging people to achieve or maintain status now, so they then have a reason to fly AF (and partners) throughout 2015, could be a very shrewd move. (I would normally be hesitant to suggest diluting elite / elite plus status too much, but on this occasion, perhaps even a carefully targeted status match promotion could be useful?)

Of course, if AF do struggle to fill seats with paying pax in the short-term, then some generous FB Promo awards would have multiple benefits (ensure seats are not left empty; decrease the number of outstanding accrued award miles; and get pax accustomed to flying on AF again).

IRROPs
As I, and no doubt others, have said before, ‘the real measure of an airline is not what they do when things go well, but what they do when things go wrong’. As noted above, I don’t have first-hand experience of how irrops were handled during the strike, but any relevant lessons (positive or negative) should be learnt and applied in future. I would support orbitmic’s comments on treatment of FB E+s, including rebooking on other carriers or in higher classes. (Ideally, this should be built into SkyTeam’s harmonised 'service recovery standard' (which I have heard about, but never seen details of).)

And does the AF (or KL) app allow pax to directly rebook themselves? Delta’s app immediately presents re-routing options in the event of irrops, which means a) pax can choose (within reason) the option that suits them best, and b) they can rebook themselves immediately, without having to queue (either in person or on the phone). Admittedly, Delta’s network is somewhat different (so there are often lots of different DL-metal routings available for domestic travel) but including this functionality on the AF/KL apps would be very useful.

I also wonder if a response to irrops could be automated through FB. For example, if your arrival at your final destination is delayed by more than X hours (where X may vary depending on whether the flight is short, medium or long-haul), you automatically receive an increased (doubled?) number of miles (level and award) for that journey. At least in some cases (especially if the balance of miles awarded for hours delayed is set correctly), knowing you would receive increased mileage could significantly ease the annoyance at the irrops.


* There is some precedent for this: in 2003, in response to the impact of on flying caused by the Iraq war and SARS, Flying Dutchman did a status-mile promotion, and then what could be described as a ‘soft cruise’ (as opposed to soft landing ) at the end of the year – as long as you had made at least one qualifying flight during the year, your previous year’s status was maintained.

San Gottardo

Haven't read all the posts so can't comment (yet), but here are some ideas on how to regain the trust:

1) Continue to improve customer service (ground, handling of IRROPS, communication, etc). The handling of the strike was a very very big step forward. Continue on that trajectory, and don't wait for the next strike to happen
2) Continue to act in customers' interest when in doubt or when some generosity might help. For instance when dealing with compensation requests, lounge access for families (i.e. more than 1 guest), crediting miles despite BP not found anymore by pax, etc.
3) Loyalize your top tiers! Bring on some real benefits for Platinums for instance. Ideas are plenty, just look through this forum
4) Make sure people understand that the strike and its economic consequences will not reduce in scope or slow down the roll out of new Premiere and Business cabins. On the contrary, speed them up if operationally possible!
5) Use both open and subtle PR means to make the traveling public understand that the pilots are the baddies and that the company has done a lot to keep the impact on pax as little as possible
6) Start a charm campaign of travel agents and corporate customers

Some of these things will cost money, surely. But the most important point is to send a clear message that AF is committed to path to be a higher quality airline doing more for customers. Throwing some cheap J seats onto the market may fill some planes - which helps the top line in the short run, but will not create the loyalty and trust effect that AF now needs so badly. It will only reduce yields

brunos

Many valid suggestions.
But let me introduce a further segmentation in two sets of pax:

1) Those who fly under corporate contracts and do not care that much about fares as they mostly do not pay. They welcome any additional FB miles and benefits.

2) Those who are fully flexible in selecting their airline/flight. They care about the full value proposition.
Of course, the segmentation is not that strict and many lie somewhere in-between.

I agree with KQ321 that FB could and should be a powerful tool. But it is not. If anything it is a deterrent to fly AF compared to other programs (let's not argue this again but this is a view shared by many). AF reduced the attraction of FB to reduce costs, so increasing benefits will be costly and AF should be sure that it does lead to financial benefit for them. And AF will has to go a long way from their "necessary evil" concept.

I also agree that a campaign based on quality will be difficult. Will the move from mainline to Transavia be regarded as improved quality. Will the slow retrofit in longhaul J (P is really marginal) be regarded as quality. In any case, I agree with all that the retrofit should be accelerated rather than put on hold because of financial difficulties that will arise with the strike.

orbitmic

I also agree with everyone else that J refurbishment, higher quality, better FFP overall etc are badly needed -- but to me this is not "remedial action" this is what to do anyway.

In my view, the remedial action issue is different, it is about a shorter but powerful signal to send with the aim of superseding the impression left by the strike. It is meant to address many of those "hesitant" flyers and make them fall on the positive side of the fence, and it will even address some of the "never again" people who will end up reconsidering whether the offer is really one that they are so very principled about refusing.

I agree with NickB that the pre-requisite is a sense of stability and that no further strike will occur soon because there is no point in going through great lengths to repair something that is going to be broken again a few days later. However, when the situation is stable indeed, I think that this is a crucial step to take. I actually do not believe in a very lasting damage myself. I think that even without doing anything, passengers would go back to normal in 2 years, but AF does not have the time.

Goldorak

even less than that IMO. But as you said, they don't have time and the crucial period is the next 6 months.

Zembla

As said before I am avoiding to book AF in the coming 6 months, although I can't avoid AF all together. If the situation stays unstable for longer I will prolong that. However, some bonus miles scheme is certainly something that could change my mind in the coming months.

I am not sure if the threshold for status should be lowered if the extra bonus miles on AF flights will be qualifying. Also, lower threshold is difficult to implement. Why should lower threshold also be given to people who are loyal to KLM or Tarom, and seldomly or never fly on AF?

irishguy28

Because the people who are loyal to KLM or Tarom are not giving that particular business to Lufthansa, BA, Air Berlin, Iberia, SWISS, Easyjet, etc???

Rather than "lowering the threshold", I would expect Flying Blue to be more pragmatic - and to renew status next year for certain targetted customers who had failed to reach the renewal targets. BA quietly did this in recent times after periods of strike upheaval.

Air France IT should be at least capable of generating lists of the worst-affected passengers, so that such "largesse" could be concentrated only on those that they know had had travel plans disrupted.

Of course, this wouldn't catch those who "left" AF, having made the decision to switch business away from Air France, thereby ruining their chances of qualifying/requalifying. And it wouldn't benefit those who had requalified anyway, or will requalify anyway. But FB is "generous by nature" so their generosity knows its bounds ;-)

Zembla

Agreed, but this is about regaining trust for AF passengers. Gaining loyalty of other Flying Blue customers with their preferred Flying Blue airlines is another beast.

RigpigMalta

I would hazard a guess that AF will do nothing post strike to try and win either people who were affected, or future goodwill back.

orbitmic

Indeed, and because when you face a situation of almost certain reputational damage and want to implement a corrective measure, you should just be a bit too generous rather than a bit too mean.

For that same reason, I would also personally not favour doing things which are simply targeted at French residents and not others. Others who have been disrupted by the strike will see it on the website or hear about it and say: "gosh, and nothing for me while I had to cancel my trip? What a cheek!" I think that in terms of "damage control", you have two strategies - either you individualise based on actual problems, or you cast the net as wide as possible. To me, doing in between based on probabilities while some French residents have not been affected at all and some foreign residents have been affected a lot would simply not make sense.

I think the message must be "we are so so so sorry" and it needs to be clear enough that everyone willing to hear will understand it!

stimpy

Who was on holiday during this strike? Not many people I would suggest. Schools were all in session, right? I think that the lions share of people who were put out by the strike were business people. Business people who travel a lot know that most all airlines strike (LH is having another strike as I post this) and they will go back to booking whatever airline/route makes sense logistically or price-wise.

Myself, I wasn't affected by this strike at all and would not hesitate to book with AF tomorrow or whenever I need to. But even if I had been affected, I know the strike is over for now and things are getting back to normal.

irishguy28

That proposition doesn't make a whole lot of sense given that Air France has joined an alliance, and has partnered with several other ailines in creating a frequent flyer programme. These partnerships were about the only thing going for it during the strike - one presumes that it was able to rebook affected passengers on its alliance partners at more favourable rates than it would have been able to book passengers onto rival airlines and alliances. AF doesn't "single out" those who fly only on Air France (though we had a recent post suggesting that they should), and AF actually "strengthens" itself by being able to rely on airlines/partners/routes/codeshares outside of its direct control.

That the FFP route is the only, or the best, way to "engage" disgruntled/affected passengers is also a very shaky proposition. Those who travel frequently know that AF is unavoidable in certain cases, and even if they have little say over their business travel spend and which airlines they travel on, they most likely keeps eggs in several baskets anyway (look at how many of us maintain status in various alliances). For the infrequent flyer, a few extra miles (wehther Award or Level) is unlikely to bring much comfort, either.

Given that Air France completely capitulated in this instance, I would suggest that the chance of more disruption down the line is greater than ever. I abandoned AF several years ago for my own reasons, but I certainly would not be planning honeymoons/holidays/trips of a lifetime with AF now. For business travel, I wouldn't really care - you know that at the slightest whiff of a problem, your corporate TA can take care of you and book you onto an airline that manages to get its employees to show up for work as rostered.

Which may or may not be Lufthansa, seeing as the FRA-based pilots are having a day off today, too!!!

San Gottardo

+1 with orbitmic
+1 with NickB

The trick for AF management will be not to fall into the trap of mixing up "remedies" and "building trust".

Remedies are good and nice and will calm the anger of many people. But actually, in a best case situation that remedy should have happened already during the strike (and it actually did: generous rebooking, generous compensation), and can now be followed up with more, such as extending status for people just below the threshold, sending out miles vouchers, doing private sales, upgrades etc.

However, remedies do not rebuild trust. I don't have more trust in AF not being affected by strikes and handling things well/better next time only because I get an upgrade now.

I think building trust has more to do with actual customer experience and communication.

Sales on a larger scale are a double-edged sword: lower prices themselves do not build trust. Do I have more trust in a company only because I pay EUR 139 instead of EUR 149 for a flight? In any case, the fare landscape is so complicated it would be difficult for me to tell if this is remedial action following the strike or just another fare that is available. In fact lower fares can be harmful because they erode the top line in a financial context that is fragilised already because of the strike. But it may be a means to get some people on to the planes and then have a positive experience. That will build more trust.

In sum, I would rank trust-building action in the following way:

1. Communication: make sure people understand that customers come first and that AF does everything to meet their needs, in regular ops and IRROPS
2. A smooth and "worth the money" experience on all flights
3. Sustainable improvements to the product: better cabins, better lounges, better benefits to status holders and more attractive FFP
4. Remedial action
5. Seat sale

Would I wish lower fares and better products? Sure. But that is another question, that would be the "wishlist for AF", not the question abou thow they can build trust

Sjoerd

Lots of people are on (long or short) holidays in September. There are more people that do NOT have children that go to school, than there are people that DO have children that go to school.

For how long are "things back to normal?" I have always tried to avoid AF (for two reasons: I hate CDG and the French strike too often) and will continue to do so. I just hope the French airplane drivers, AF management and the French politicians will not bring down KLM.