Disappointed in Black Friday Sale

Old Nov 24, 2018, 3:05 am
  #16  
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Originally Posted by TPJ
Use a traditional T/Agency for more complicated itineraries. The one I use will book me whatever I want as long as GDS autopsies it.
I try to avoid TAs as the contract is then with the TA and it can be difficult to get hold of them or to get adequate rerouting/compensation in the case of IROPS.
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Old Nov 24, 2018, 3:26 am
  #17  
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I've had a quick scan through the other airlines where I am a frequent flyer/trainer in their relevant schemes.

- Air France - their marketing partly impresses me since they make it NCL specific But as ever, all their bargains seems to be on unusual routes such as to Fortaleza and Wuhan. Their headline rate was 259 return in economy to Kuwait.

- Lufthansa - 25 off voucher but a fairly open use of it, base fare just needs to be over 25 to get all 25 off. This was a "Cyberday" promotion. Headline offer: Buenos Aires 446 in economy. Otherwise reassuringly boring (which I actually quite appreciate!).

- KLM - the previous weekend they had some special cut-rate mileage related deals, which were more impressive, so MME (Yarm International)-SFO for 34,000 miles. They don't seem to have a Black Friday or Cyberweek special that I can see, but they are touting MME-HKG for 433.

- Vueling - a few euros off their lowest fares, so fares which are typically 25€ may be 22€ now

- Eurostar - train + hotel deals but no specific headline figures.

- Iberia - just a listing of fares they want to highlight, including Montevideo on 535 economy, and LHR-MAD for 68 return. Reference to a 20% reduction on Iberia Holidays but no other details.

- Ryanair - they always succeed it coming up with some amazing headline figure, this time it is L'viv in Ukraine for 9.80 return! Huge amount of flight for that fare. Or Olsztyn/Allenstein for 5.14 return. More usefully for me, NCL-DUB for 19 return but that's only slightly cheaper than their usual low fare.

- easyJet - they forgot to email me, but online there is some suggestion of 90 off their easyJet Holidays (flight + hotels). Probably the lowest key of "my" airlines.

Now set against the above, in my view BA's deals put themselves apart by
- being premium fares focused (and such is the USP on BA)
- BOGOF
- 100 of 2,500 BA Holidays
- shorthaul CE (including LHR-NCL at 161 return, which is near TP Run territory, Hamburg and Billund are also in this space)
- being well highlighted in email and on their website
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Old Nov 24, 2018, 3:43 am
  #18  
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Originally Posted by Misco60
The post you've linked to doesn't really support your claim that you "have had several flight bookings actively blocked by telephone sales staff" on the grounds that you were flying only to gain status. Rather, it seems you were unlucky in getting a sales agent who didn't know how to book a complex, indirect itinerary.

Itineraries such as OTP-PHX are very easy to book directly on the AA website, at the price quoted by Matrix; you don't even need to use BookWithMatrix (which rarely works satisfactorily for me).
Id concur with this - I very much doubt the agent went away to consult a supervisor either. Even if it happened, in any management structure its also very unlikely they knew any more than the agent about the day to day processes, so if told something wasnt possible theyd more than likely just accept the agents word.

The restriction you encountered with not booking onto an AA flight number with BA metal is down to BA policy and nothing to do with your routing - it would have been exactly the same if youd been trying to book OTP-LHR-PHX direct on AA codes.

If AA doesnt work a TA could certainly book it. I had what I thought was quite a simple itinerary on SK recently which involved an open jaw of ARN-CPH-SFO-CPH-LHR. The saving doing it that way was considerable compared to just going back to ARN, and I gained a protected connection back to the UK. The SK website couldnt cope with it, and so I used a TA (Propeller as it happens) who achieved what I needed in minutes.

I dont therefore think theres any conspiracy with any airline in trying to deny us cost savings/miles/TPs by creative routings - its just that we are in such a minority its (a) not worth investing in the IT to offer more functionality and (b) most certainly not worth the effort of actively stopping us.
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Old Nov 24, 2018, 3:44 am
  #19  
 
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I am "disappointed" by the lack of suggestions on the Belgian website. On the UK one there are a lot more links and suggested routes/prices...
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Old Nov 24, 2018, 3:57 am
  #20  
 
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I think the other thing we have to remember, as with all sales, it is a marketing tool. With a crowded airline sector, competition is already fierce and profit margins tight; this means that to have great bargains then you would perhaps need to inflate prices at other times which would make BA uncompetitive.

Alternatively you use it as BA have, look for where there are gaps in your inventory and when these dates are, then use marketing to drop those prices, albeit restrictely on dates, to draw people to your site, some of these may be loss leaders, but other flights may be booked as a result which are not.

Those who have been waiting out for specific flights may be lottery winners, but the majority not and will end up buying the flight they would have anyone which they would have purchased before had they not been waiting out for Cyber Friday.
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Old Nov 24, 2018, 4:06 am
  #21  
 
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Just an observation,I am in the UK and I received the e mail from BA announcing the Black Friday Sale at 11.30 pm last night (Friday 23/11)

"The wait is over, Black Friday is here"
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Old Nov 24, 2018, 4:27 am
  #22  
 
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As someone who works in digital marketing/eccomerce, I think its clear this year that most retailers/people who sell a product online (including flights), have been much more clever about Black Friday than in years past.

One of any online sellers main aims is to protect RRP, for various reasons (if I were BA, it would be to preserve the remains of my brand equity and stop people expecting lower prices more than anything else) and therefore more retailers this year have avoided straight discounting. Ive noticed lots of BF deals incentivising consumers to trade up, join loyalty schemes/subscribe and save or trial new products, which means that the seller gets a longer term reward out of it as well.

Therefore from what Ive seen of BAs Black Friday (not that I had time to have a proper look yesterday), it is no surprise to see them incentivising higher cabins, booking for two people and bolting on car hire etc. There would be very little value in just discounting economy tickets that people would probably buy anyway, when all you would be doing is training people to expect lower fares and not exposing them to any of the better cabins or extra services.

Looking to the future, I would certainly expect to more online sellers to be moving away from straight discounting to being much more savvy about Black Friday,
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Old Nov 24, 2018, 4:34 am
  #23  
 
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My disappointment is in the execution on their site/platform. The implementation has been awful. I too received the email late last night at 20.52 GMT. The banner/offers went live at 2pm on Friday. The friday was 90% done! The fares were not properly loaded on some routes from what could make out.

There arent excuses for this sort of implementation when its only lasts 4 days and you want to maximise the window of opportunity for revenue.

Luckily there is FT
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Old Nov 24, 2018, 5:27 am
  #24  
 
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Originally Posted by CeeGee
Just an observation,I am in the UK and I received the e mail from BA announcing the Black Friday Sale at 11.30 pm last night (Friday 23/11)

"The wait is over, Black Friday is here"
Mine arrived at 0030 (CST) this morning. Really irritating.
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Old Nov 24, 2018, 5:49 am
  #25  
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Originally Posted by Joshm300
Looking to the future, I would certainly expect to more online sellers to be moving away from straight discounting to being much more savvy about Black Friday,
Very true. Many sellers have been burned by the margin loss and brand damage from traditional discounting and are working much harder to attract but then retain customers through BF promotions, rather than straight forward sales chasing.
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Old Nov 24, 2018, 6:07 am
  #26  
 
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I have been disappointed on most of the Black Friday sales in the last five years and the one I wasn't, I couldn't use (2014 I think). This year they listed links which clearly were not loaded (Jamaica), and they limited returns so it was Christmas to just before New Year and no variation, such as 28th to 4th.

Previous years they've limited it to Brazil and Vancouver, and I'm not even sure it was a 2 for 1 last year either.

Scratch that, continental club doesn't even mention a sale around November last year, so I have to assume it wasn't much cop. I don't remember even considering one around that time...
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Old Nov 24, 2018, 6:48 am
  #27  
 
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Originally Posted by snaxmuppet
As for using the AA website... I tried... it would only allow 6 sectors.
The AA website limits you to 6 city pairs, but that can be more than 6 sectors. For example, if you enter LHR - PHX it will offer you flights via JFK, ORD and other cities as well as direct flights and it will show you very clearly what the final fare is likely to be for each option.

I find the AA website to be a lot easier to use, and less prone to errors, than BA's.
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Old Nov 24, 2018, 8:30 am
  #28  
 
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Originally Posted by bucketlist
Mine arrived at 0030 (CST) this morning. Really irritating.
Mine arrived at 6:12am Pacific Standard Time today, so at least 24 hours late?
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Old Nov 24, 2018, 8:57 am
  #29  
 
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Originally Posted by orbitmic
Well Which (I think) found that 60% of Black Friday sales were the same or more than the shops were selling the products earlier in the year, at least those include some genuinely lower fares even if the conditions are restrictive.
It was 87%.

https://www.which.co.uk/news/2018/11...which-reveals/
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Old Nov 24, 2018, 12:27 pm
  #30  
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Originally Posted by skunker

Mine arrived at 6:12am Pacific Standard Time today, so at least 24 hours late?
Our emails have just squeezed down the cable to JER! Saturday @ 18:33 local (UK) time.
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Last edited by T8191; Nov 24, 2018 at 12:34 pm
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