Originally Posted by jsmith50

In fact, maybe it's a perfect example that a company going through major financial difficulties can still offer a better FC and lounge experience than an airline like DL that is financially sound. Tends to show where the priorities are and who they are catering to. Qantas is trying to maintain a premium FC experience. DL is trying to save every penny they can while still trying to woo the same flyers willing to pay for the premium cabin.

Originally Posted by pbarnette

1) The comparative financial experience (and certainly your pricing example) might suggest that those premium products are not valued, no?

2) QF is not really trying to maintain a premium FC experience. They are actually all but abandoning it.

Originally Posted by jsmith50

What I'm hearing from my Australian colleagues (and maybe this won't be the case come this fall when I actually make this trip) is that Qantas is consolidating a lot of their routes and abandoning others but is remaining committed to providing the best FC experience that they can provide. As I say, maybe this will change but this has, to date, been their experience. And, in the past, their FC has far exceeded DL's BE, in my opinion.

Originally Posted by pbarnette

1) The comparative financial experience (and certainly your pricing example) might suggest that those premium products are not valued, no?

Originally Posted by pbarnette

They are down to what? Three routes with F? Doesn't sound like a rousing commitment to me. Seems more like an airline acknowledging what is readily apparent to most observers: F is a product without a market outside of a handful of routes. Too bad QF stuck with it so long; I still think they'd be up the creek, but it probably whittled away at the paddle.

Originally Posted by bennos

AF has already announced they are adopting herringbone style J seats, starting with the 777 fleet. I imagine that will further reduce J capacity.

Super-expensive J + Super-uncomfortable Y (including EC) is pushing me to W for INTL travel now.

Originally Posted by jdrtravel

I wish they would offer a real premium economy cabin with domestic F style seats. There just has to be a way to be profitable in between luxury and total discomfort (and EC does not cut it on long hauls).

Originally Posted by ShopAround

I agree, and I post this from the AZ lounge at JFK, waiting to board my flight in my premium economy seat. DL has lost almost all my TATL business these days. I won't spend the money for J (it comes out of my pocket, basically, as a small business owner) and I don't think the upsell to DL's EC is worth it. So it's AF and AZ for me, in premium economy.

Originally Posted by Beckles

Unlike things like milk, bread, water, gasoline, and electricity, air travel is not a necessity for a consumer, it is a luxury. I think to claim that consumers can be 'milked dry' by the pricing of a luxury product is ridiculous, they will stop buying the product before they are milked dry.

Having just purchased tickets for my family to fly down to Florida, $209 in First Class for a non-stop flight there and $179 in coach for a non-stop flight back, I'm hard-pressed to claim those fares are unreasonable, even if they are much more than the coach fares I paid 10 years ago ... when fuel prices where 1/4 their current levels and prices in general were lower. While I'd love to pay $59 each way like I remember doing in the good old days, I don't believe that is reasonable price to pay and expect the airline to be able to continue operating for the long term in the current economic environment (i.e., $100+/barrel oil).