Sixth Freedom

Business travellers flying on some long eastbound itineraries like LHR<>SIN (point of origin = London) need to leave on a Saturday to reach their destination in time for a day's work on Monday because flights arrive late in the day. Since they would be staying a Saturday night, when they buy far enough ahead they might enjoy the ability to book I and A fares that would not otherwise be available to them, causing BA to spill revenue. From a revenue perspective, I wonder if a Friday night fare fence might be more effective on these routes than a Saturday. It would depend on whether or not there actually are business travellers in the segment in question and whether or not a Friday rather than Saturday night stay would kill demand from the leisure segment. "BA know what they are doing" might not be the right answer if the question has not been asked at Waterside for a long time.

What do you think?

710 77345

You might be better off asking this in a general forum, rather than a BA-specific one?

EuropeToAsia

I think it's just BA and other European airlines leaving late for Asian flights to maximize aircraft utilization (you can't leave HKG or SIN for Europe before about 10pm since otherwise you arrive during the night).

Asian airlines such as SQ and CX leave Europe at mid day Sunday arriving Mon morning at office time. They then use their 777s for regional flights during the day.

Maybe BA doesn't mind selling the odd cheap I fare over a Sat night since their late arrival competes against the early arrival of the Asian airlines.

mikeyfly

That bites into too much private time for people leaving a Saturday late afternoon for a Monday day at work... I can't imagine many folk will arrange Monday meetings / working in SIN from the UK ?!

BlackBerryAddict

I suppose if you are flying business or first anyway, you'd leave on Sunday, to arrive into HKG on Monday morning, and go straight to the office.

Muggins here can only fly WTP, so I do fly Saturday late afternoon to get to HKG Sunday evening and the office Monday morning, or Sunday late afternoon, to get to the office Monday late afternoon for a couple of hours.Clearly I wouldn't go out on Friday, whatever the fare.

Interestingly while BA may have a Saturday night stay requirement for HKG, Cathay doesn't. I don't like the BA flight timings anyway - eitherway, so if I can I'll fly CX.

sammyg901

Colleagues from the UK would at a push fly Sun night but usually Monday morning arriving into SIN Tuesday AM (and directly into meetings) - they never leave Saturday night

If they need 4 days vs 3 they'll prefer to leave Fri night and land v early Sat into the UK for the rest of their weekend

mjh0

I think "get your hands off my weekend!"

My current preference with long haul business travel is to fly mid-week to mid-week wherever possible, then I don't lose *two* weekends to business travel, only one, and I can spend the weekend I have in the far-away place to actually explore it, catch up with friends, etc., it is actually a proper weekend rather than a wasted weekend.

foolonthehill

I tend to fly the Saturday evening LHR->SIN/ HKG flights, so that I can be fresh for meetings on Monday morning. It's not great losing most of a weekend but I don't do have to do it too often and, given I tend not to head back until the 2330/2345 Friday night return, I certainly wouldn't want to fly direct into meetings on Monday and work a full week.

Having said that, from a budget perspective, it's certainly an advantage that the cheaper A/I fares can offset the additional night in a hotel. It also regularly means I succeed in getting an F-seat when budgets would normally only stretch to CW without the "Saturday stay"!

NWIFlyer

Yes, lots I imagine. I certainly do, with a caveat that we have a Y only travel policy, so the extra day's hotel stay in Singapore to recover a bit from the flight is needed. I normally take a mid-morning departure (for which SQ is best) which lands me in Singapore at breakfast time on the Sunday. I check in early at the hotel, grab a few hours sleep, have a wander about in the afternoon, then try and sleep again early evening. By the following morning I'm functioning enough to conduct meetings with the assistance of a bit of coffee.

If the stipulation became that a Friday night was required to reduce the fare, I'd probably switch to a Friday night departure after work and pay an extra hotel night as the cheapest option overall, but given most airlines operate the Saturday night restriction it's difficult to imagine that at least one wouldn't retain it - at which point they end up with a large commercial advantage.

lorath

2 points: A weekend before a long trip away sacred. Fence or no fence. Quite who would work for a company with a Y only long haul travel policy (unless they were very junior) is beyond me.

cpdc1030

I usually leave on Saturday for work trips - can't believe I'm the only mug who does that. Means I'm much more focused when I'm in the actual meetings rather than right off the plane. I can always take compensation days some other time to make up - I prefer that as it means I can take longer holidays to places I actually want to visit.

Why do I fly 140,000 miles a year for a company with a Y-only travel policy? Because it's a fantastic company. It's Y only for the whole company regardless of seniority, except for medical exceptions. The company is more than happy to pay for a couple extra nights in a hotel to compensate. And I get great benefits from AA (certainly not from BA, that's why I switched my FFP).

Prospero

Re, my highlight. With a LHR-SIN or LHR-HKG Saturday evening departure, as these flights arrive at their destination the following day, these will not qualify under the min Saturday night stay rule, so you'd need to leave on Friday to secure the cheapest fares.

bawm

Your correction is simply wrong. Minimum stay rules are based on the departure date from the origin gateway with no reference to the arrival date. From a random cheap BA C class fare:


TRAVEL FROM LAST INTERNATIONAL STOPOVER MUST COMMENCE NO
EARLIER THAN THE FIRST SUN AFTER DEPARTURE OF THE FIRST
INTERNATIONAL SECTOR.

Prospero

This minimum stay requirement applies to BA's LHR-HKG and LHR-SIN restricted fares. In practice, it forces a Saturday night stay after the arrival of the inbound flight.

orbitmic

People often forget how much beauty there is in parsimony. What are you proposing? ‘You’ll need a specific night away from home if flying long haul. That night may vary depending on point of origin and destination: Saturday night stay if flying westbound or a flight that involves two long haul flights between different continents, Friday night stay if flying eastbound and/or from a predominantly Muslim country where people do not work Friday and Saturday”?

I think the example above makes it easy to guess what I think about the idea