sbiddle

I think you've hit the nail on the head again Ben, as you have done many times in the past. Reading that made me think about a few things that I'd had on my mind lately.

What I find very interesting is that many of the HVCs I know personally, and clearly many of the people on here, share a totally different view of the airline and the direction it's taking than Air NZ themselves do. It really does make we wonder some times how random and in-depth their customer research is. Who are Air NZ really asking?

It's very clear that different customers have different requirements and meeting those for everybody is clearly challenging. In a competitive marketplace however it's about standing out and not only building a brand, but building love for that brand. 12 months ago I'd say Air NZ were doing a good job of that, right now I'd say they're slipping a lot.

A good brand has people who are passionate about an industry talking in positive ways. Look here on FT and there are probably more negative comments on here in recent times than what there are positive.

Compared to many on here I'd fly a lot less, probably 10 or so return domestic flights a year, 4-5 weekend return trips to Aussie a year and in the past year I've been to Hawaii, Japan and the US with another trip to the US next week. What's probably different to many is that with the exception of some domestic work trips, I'm spending my own money. Travel is something I love and it's all discretionary spending.

As Gold I don't expect to get the same level of service as a GE, but sometimes do feel that the recognition for the spend isn't there. While it might come across as a slightly elitist view, maybe it' just because it's my money I'm spending and I'm expecting something a little above and beyond what the 80 off percent of people flying on the plane who have no status get. Technology could make such things so much better.

Air NZ did a fantastic job building an online presence and actively engaged in social media. I had their social media team help me out a number of times last year and thought they did a brilliant job particularly on Twitter. Fast forward to now and all the twitter account does most of the time is retweet Instagram photos and the Air NZ fairy occasionally gives away a recipe book. Clearly the same bean counters who culled standby fares, night rider and status points don't see any measurable from social media to continue investing in it which is sad.

We're in an era now where an online presence is essential and it's not just about having a website, it's engaging with people who can help you build your brand and business. I decided to start writing flight reviews on my blog last year and have some such as my NZ8 PE review that get a couple of thousand views every month. I get numerous emails from people who simply find the page (it is the 2nd link in Google) because they're planning on flying Air NZ who often ask some very specific questions, presumably because they want an impartial view of the service or want to know specific things that they're unable to find elsewhere. I answer these because I'm passionate about Air NZ, and I'm sure there are plenty of other people in the exactly the same situation. Nobody pays me and I bet Air NZ are totally oblivious to such things happening, but such things are the reality of the online world we now live in.

It's things like this that then make we wonder about flights such as the Dreamliner delivery flight and the decisions they make regarding people who are on this. Why just pick mainstream media? Because you (correctly) assume they're only going to write glowing things about your products and services? What about all the travel bloggers out there who can potentially expose your brand to a far bigger audience than 30 seconds on TV news will?

brenrox

Funny you say that, a friend was flown to Seattle (and flew on the Dreamliner back) to report on the flight and if I'm sure if I asked them what the difference between a Boeing and an Airbus was, I'd be told one is a plane and the other a bus running from the airport to downtown AKL...

Saxphile

People who tell them things they want to hear. It's quite obvious to me since most of the "improvements" over the past 24 months have been detrimental to the Airpoints problem, yet it is always accompanied by copious amounts of self-back-patting.

If I (as someone who didn't use NZ as the default carrier until ~3 years ago) can see the deterioration of the Airpoints program, I can only imagine how pissed off the long-term customers must be.

sbiddle

The airline business is a very tough industry to be in. I think it's safe to say it's far easier to lose money than what it is to make it.

Yes it's great to see Air NZ doing well financially but the current "profit at all costs" attitude has the real risk of scaring off those who are generating the profits for them.

CHCflyer

It is true that NZ views its gold and GE passengers as a single homogenous group. Yet they harp on about customizing your journey. They need to customize their approach to the needs of these regular passengers, too. It is not the big expensive gestures that get my respect, as mentioned earlier. Nothing winds me up more than getting five worthless valet parking vouchers for WLG. Or upgrade vouchers which entitle me to one of NZ's lousy Tasman meals on the A320 (I can only use the vouchers from CHC or WLG). Clearly this is just cookie-cutter relationship management. It possibly satisfies the needs of about 60% (guess) of their gold elite addresses based up in the AKL region.
Personalised service (which I have regularly received at my local departure point) is worth far more to me than unusable vouchers, however well intentioned they may be.

oranjemakker

Do you think they still bother to read this forum? I recall a few years ago (when they launched seats to suit I think?) they were enaging very actively on a senior management level replying to posts etc.
Think they got a lot of respect from that. wonder if they still bother or prefer to read the sycophantic media which enjoys their free flights and duly writes glowing reviews....

Saxphile

The entire auto industry works like that. That's why even the Mitsubishi Lancer gets a glowing review. You scratch my back and I scratch yours. Good PR is useful in attracting the casual travelers, who make up the bulk of the revenue for any airline.

oranjemakker

Yeah, fair point! But I wonder if the airline industry is different in that premium passengers are so profitable and presumably a lot of those are HVC customers.

The ROI on keeping HVC happy as discussed above with some low cost but high impact strategies might be very good.

Personally, the only thing keeping me flying Air NZ long haul is the HVC benefits, and of those the only one I still value is the confirmed upgrades up to 12 months in advance. Otherwsie, from CHC Emirates and SQ are better options in terms of convenience, route network, service and usually price.

NZ*Trout

Interesting that you say that. I flew AirNZ long haul regularly until about two years ago and the one of the things I loved was that on almost every flight I was offered J wines when in Y or PE. On many occasions I was even specifically offered a Hawke's Bay red, or even specific wines - in both cases some personal favourites. Sometimes this would be the IFSM proactively bringing back glasses, other times a bottle was left in the galley.

You're quite right that the ROI on small touches can be incredibly high.

The on-board treatment kept me flying with them for far longer than it really made sense for me based on routes. It conditioned me into a price-insensitive - albeit economy-paying - customer.

oranjemakker

Are they still doing this stuff in the back of the bus for GEs? I've been lucky that my long haul experiences recently have been at the pointy end (thanks to R class!).

I recall that another thing they did was give out noise cancelling headsets in Y to GE.

Its funny like you say that sometimes small things make a huge difference, i remember years ago on Cathay as a HVC any flight even in Y the FSM would come and personally say hello and address me by name. I really appreciated that.

sbiddle

On TT flights the ISM greets all GE customers and gives them a newspaper and NC headphones. While I'm not GE to me seeing people being greeted like this and acknowledged are the sort of touch that makes a company great.

It's like the difference between crew - there is a ISM in Wgtn called Adrian who is a larger than life Maori guy. He looks at every boarding pass on boarding and on the vast majority of passes (I'm assuming the ones he can actually read!) will personally greet the passenger by their name. I'm always excited when I see him at the gate as he's a pleasure to fly with.

sbiddle

Good PR is great, but how do people find out about products or services? These days it's Google.

30 seconds of footage on TV or a quick column in a newspaper may sway some people, but travel bloggers writing good content and getting good Google rankings have the potential to reach a much greater audience, and provide them with a lot more information.

Beano

Newspapers are not (automatically) given out now
You can request it but they don't always have enough
On the A320 they more often than not don't have any spare
On the 777's they mostly supply them on request
(I think they changed from automatically to on request late last year/January this year)

ajnz

The surveys I've received and seen are highly biased to influence the outcome NZ is looking for.

To use a contrived scenario, "Would you rather have access to a more leg room environment, or beer in the lounge?" turns into "passengers vote for space+, we can remove the beer!".

brend

Just thinking about it though..newspapers are a thing a the past. The reason they might be on 'request' could be to support their environmental policy.

I've always had good experiences with staff at AirNZ.

Somehow coming back from Brisbane were were upgraded to works from seat only?? don't know why but I'm not going to complain. More beers !!

I guess my only gripe so far was coming back from HKG after having a forced +1day delay thanks to dragon air. As a Koru customer I expected to have priority seating but was disappointed to see those seats given to others who were delayed with us and not Koru members. I can't really blame ANZ because check in staff aren't direct employees as such.

It is quieter being in row 33 as opposed to 57 but the truth is I was annoyed I was stuck in the middle and had to get around a large woman from Waiuku lol!! It was a long 10hours with no sleep.