Saver VS Flex Fare Changes...
 

Last week, fare changes were introduced on the SIN website, which resulted in a very cheap fare to MEL for example (ie S$690) being classified as Saver now - whereas previously all the fares to MEL etc were Flex.

I am hearing that we will see a lot of systemwide fare changes be introduced over the next few months, with the most cost effective fares being reclassified as Saver.

If you travel the same routes often, you may want to check.

In my case because I do the SIN-MEL-SIN route so often, I want to be able to buy a Flex fare, because the tier miles are important. The Flex fare is only S$200 more roundtrip, so to me, worthwhile.

I think EK are leaving money on the table when it comes to booking online. They should display both the Saver and Flex fare, and let you choose which one (they can have a simple explanation via a pop up box).

They should also adopt the same feature BA.com uses, where it gives you the option of upgrading one leg, or both legs via ticking a simple box against the corresponding amount.

Agreed, most other airlines give the user the option to select their fare class when purchasing in addition to the usual seat class.

Something along the lines of:

Bargain - no miles, no privileges, cheap cost
Saver - few miles, few privileges, medium cost
Flex - full miles, full privileges, full cost

It doesn't need to be complicated really.

This has become a bit of an inconvenience. I don't want the saver fares, and now have to ring up EK and tell them I want to pay for the higher fare bucket to get the flex tier miles and yes please charge me 7% admin fees for not using the website.

EY & QR have the options on their site for different fare buckets and then even list the J fare as an incentive for those willing to cough up a bit more.

Am I not right in thinking that EK just put up all its fares by a significant percentage? What I'm finding a bit disappointing is that I always travel from HKG to destinations in Western Europe but I can never find any bargain or saver fares. Seems that they're all flex. :(

Why would you want a Saver fare? They earn half the tier points. You're lucky if even the cheapest published fares are flex.

Well I just thought saver tickets could be cheaper. I'd rather save money than earn tier points as these in EK don't really mean much, compared with some other airlines.

Not necessarily so. It can depend on route, timing of purchase, loads and I imagine a bunch of other things.

Just purchased a ticket KRT-DXB one way. At the time of booking, website showed that I would earn Flex miles on this itinerary and I didn't get read too much into the fare conditions.

When I did print out the eticket, I noticed it was endorsed Skywards Saver and was a bit pissed. I called EK to inquire about the contradiction (even on my skywards profile it shows me as earning flex miles), they are yet to get back to me on this. Any ideas?

I know its not much miles difference but if I knew I would only earn saver then I would've just flown an LCC for 1/4 of the price.

Take a screenshot of anything that says flex, like another dummy booking with the same price, and send it to them.

This happened to me last year, and the different in miles made the difference (at that point) in getting status or not. And I ended up getting more miles than the difference between what was priced out and MMB.

Ok CS just confirmed I would get the flex tier on this trip. Let's see what happens post flight. Will update upon return.

I didn't realize the extent to which they have changed fares! Looking at fares ex-SIN to anywhere, it's all Saver. Ridiculous.

Apologies if I'm missing a point but if you want to have flex fare just book via a travel agency. I do agree though, it's bull**** that EK's website is not really flexible. Last year I've been told by EK that they intended to change it but apparently that hasn't happened...

In this day and age where you can do everything online it's ridiculous to be expected to book via a travel agency. And why should I pay a commission to a travel agent when I have to do all the work myself anyway?!

I have been complaining through the Emirates hub feedback group, skywards, and directly to Emirates for months about the inability to book flex tickets online from many destinations. Up to now they have been completely clueless. Before I was able to book all tickets online. Now I have to go through a travel agency if I want to be sure to get a flex fare. I am done complaining now. With the recent events in Bahrain, I no longer care about using EK.

Just call EK.

But they also charge a booking fee over what is available online.

I have only ever done this once so my knowledge is limited, but I don't recall being charged a booking fee. I was charged the premium for the Flex fare (the price of which I couldn't see on-line) but no mention was ever made of a booking fee. This was throught the Manchester UK call centre.

There was certainly no Travel Agent commission to pay.

The fares are higher if you call EK directly and the agents often can't tell which fares are saver and which are flex--especially if one way books as saver and the other flex. I have gone through this several times where the ticket was issued and the fare basis was actually a saver as the agents were clueless. If I were to book with EK, I look up the fare basis code and rules myself and have a travel agent book it for me to know for sure that I get what I am expecting.

You pay an extra 7% over the online fare, which isn't charged as a separate booking fee per se. That can add up to quite a bit - one can easily get a night's hotel for that amount!

There are travel agencies that give you the standard price, no surcharges whatsoever and that's what I recommend to do. Other than that there are booking tools that give access to all fares, Cytric for instance

Interesting - how do they make money?

Typically there are airlines still paying out commissions on international itineraries and EK may be still following this practice.

For example, in Australia, no airline pays commission on domestic flights but they do on international routes (albeit at a minimum).

Oh yes, I remember there was a hue and cry in India when SQ said they'd stop paying commissions and agents all said they wouldn't sell SQ tickets.

But I always thought this was on the offline prices, which are higher than the online ones. Some airlines, like Oman Air, give you a 5% discount for booking online, so presumably the undiscounted price is what an agent would get you.

I noticed this change too on CAI-DXB (round trips originating in CAI). Fares that used to be flex (Q, U, B, and M fare buckets) are now all saver. Flex fares start on W fare only. That is an increase of 1300 EGP (Q used to be around 2700 EGP and now W is around 4000), or ~200 USD.

It seems that DXB-CAI fares (round trips originating in DXB) are not changed.

The website does show Flex fares. I just searched EK404/405 to MEL. S$1043, Flex, 7500 tier miles...

But that would only be when the cheaper fares are sold out. Did you search for dates in the very near future, or a very busy period?

Earlier, all regular (well most) published fares were flex, and only special deals like companion fares or limited time sales were saver. Now they've put a 4 month max stay restriction on those same fares and made them savers.

It was a random search. April 21 SIN-MEL, April 28 MEL-SIN

I think you want to look at the result for Price (dates flexible) ;)

ohh! and why is it that there are no flights on Apr 26, 27, 30 and May 1 :confused:

All sold out! There are flights every day.

See eightblacks comments. But that depends on the agent though. I can only tell you that based on my experience comparing EK prices for flex and the price I paid over my travel agent they were just the same.

Well, in my experience that's completely wrong. You'll never get to Gold on Saver tickets (unless you like throwing money away big time).

I'm now Gold until late 2012, but if I can't find any sensible Flex fares it'll be bye bye EK.

That's life, you just move on.

Haha I think it depends on how much you travel really. For me I make three round-trips per year from HKG to Western Europe, and each of these round-trips are 12,000 tier miles. So 12,000 x 3= 36,000, which can easily earn me Silver in a year but I can't reach Gold. So I'd rather have saver tickets on maybe one of the round trips, for a lower price. :)

But if you are booking Saver tickets, you will only earn 6,000 tier miles per roundtrip. And 18,000 tier miles doesn't bring you Silver. But I know what you mean.

I am happy to say that I have received all the miles including the Miles Accelerator bonus with a skywards flex description in my statement.

Miles Accelerator Bonus for Y
 

Hi Folks,

Was checking this out and mostly show the miles accelerator bonus ranging from 0 - 2k for Eco fares ?? Is 2k the max for Eco class or does it also depend on how long the duration is ?

thanks

Its the most I have seen for various destinations.

No - it varies. I've seen about 4k on some of the US routes. And up to 8k for First on routes to the US as well.

hmmm... thanks for the replies..seems it varies from 0 - 4k in Y class..

Website glitch?
 

So I was just pricing an economy RT ticket DXB-Europe-DXB on the EK website. The site showed a flight with an AED 3000 fare and showed full miles ("flex") in the mileage breakdown section. However, the fare rules say it is a "saver" fare.

Has EK not been fast enough to adjust their mileage display to the masses of new saver fares out there? Which one would count (the mileage counter or the fare rule fineprint)?

CalFlyer