We have only seen the beginning
 

This thread is rightly focusing on the devaluation of miles and the changes to the earning etc...

However, I'm pretty certain that this is only the first step towards an even more differentiated product offering and if we give it a month or two things will become much clearer. Some ideas currently on my own drawing board are:

- Only chauffeur drive service for Flex Plus J tickets?
- Restricted lounge access in Y for gold/plat card holders unless bying Flex Plus?
- Fast track access in Y for Flex Plus tickets?

Just some thoughts.

The only possible one of those that is plausible is chauffeur drive not being offered for saver or special j tickets.

Remove lounge for golds in y and people will stop flying.

Where did the lounge one come from? :confused:
And what about silvers - they have lounge access as well as golds and plats.

I am referring to this original post by WonderfulCPH. Is this you speaking your own ideas out loud?

Only chauffeur drive service for Flex Plus J tickets?
- Restricted lounge access in Y for gold/plat card holders unless buying Flex Plus?
- Fast track access in Y for Flex Plus tickets?
Fast track access in Y for Flex Plus tickets?

m3red, I would be pretty surprised by lounge removal for Y ; but IF it did come to pass, I would be equally surprised if the second part of your sentence automatically followed.

People fly Y for a variety of reasons - not least when travelling on business, and for an employer who will only stump up for non-premium tickets, often as a matter of strict company policy (I believe there are several such members on the forum). They can't suddenly say ..."I'm not going because I don't get to use the lounge any more ...."


My own view is that if such a devaluation happened (unlikely ....but anything's possible) then we would soon be hearing a catalogue of indignant gripes - albeit with some justification - along the lines of remember the good old days when you could use the lounge even with a Y ticket.... We have, after all, seen similar scenarios in the past, eg mileage earn/burn rates and ease of award availability.

There would be threats to move to other carriers. But if course it's not unknown to make a switch, only to subsequently find your new 'favourite' later deciding to do the very same thing that made you switch loyalty......:eek:

Ok I guess I don't represent the average flyer BUT if I was flying a GCC route in y and wasn't able to use the lounge there would be very little benefit in me using eK - I'd pick the cheapest, Qatar, fly Dubai etc.

EK already stopped lounge access for the "cheap" email offers unless you already qualify through status. I can see the same happening for "special" fares, not saver but the special ones. EK is constantly looking at ways to avoid giving out the car for example by limited D class availability so you can only upgrade at check in hence no car (I'm still getting them in dxb though with no prior booking).

Let's see but so far fare families has been ok for me, the big gripe is the huge increase in j to f redemptions on Dxb to Europe.

I agree - the cries of "I'm going to switch carrier", I don't think hold much water with any airline. I think EK, along with any other major carrier knows their target audience, specifically the profile of the decision making process, e.g.:
- one a year friends and family visit pax: price only +/- x%
- corporate travel: no influence in purchasing / contact travel arranger (connectivity)
- self-directed travel: price premium, network

That kind of thing. Not to say that the criteria I put down are definitive, only an example of profiling of pax and purchasing habits - and where to influence them.

That then feeds into the idea that for certain segments of your source markets, you can cut costs by removing things (e.g. lounge access for Y status for example) that you know will have minimal impact on bookings.

FT members, by dint of their rather niche motivations, are generally caught in the collateral damage :D

Has anyone came across any of these Special Fares yet?

The website doesn't show any on routes I've looked at.

I'm leaning towards the idea that it encompasses things like special consolidator travel agent fares, fares that they give in compensation for volunteers who offload themselves in overbooked situations, or competition prizes - so instead of being processed manually, they can go in the system and a pax on one of these tickets can manage the ticket as normal via the online processes and yet still have all the restrictions (and on the e-ticket the fare type is "Special").

I don't think we'll ever see them purchasable on the website, except in heavy promotional periods (although even then the promotional fares just seem to be the same price as cheapest saver fares) or special upgrade offers.

Perhaps they are 'Special' as in ......especially conspicuous. By their absence.

Or maybe EK are holding them back for dates/routes where they suddenly find themselves desperate to put some bums on seats ........:eek:

They are going to be very limited sale type fares hence the idea it may not include the car like the proactive email upgrade offers

The answer from Emirates:

"Thank you for writing to us.

At the current time, it is indeed the case that when selecting the Advanced Search option, the option to select the different types of Economy Class fares is not available. Only the lowest cost and the associated type of fare according to availability will be given. The fare type will be shown on the “Review trip itinerary” page.

This is not an error, but offering the different fare types is something we hope to offer in the future at some point. In the meantime, if you need a specific fare type on a multiple city or stopover booking, please call us.

Please visit emirates.com. Click > Help Centre > Find a Local Emirates office to access the contact details of an office close to you.

I'm here to help with any further queries you may have.

Kind regards"

There were major changes to the upgrade rules in July 2013. Prior to this there was no 'upgrade only at check-in' rule for saver tickets, but from that date onwards it's been the norm.

Why tease everyone with lower priced fares that they will realistically never see? They would have been better not even claiming to have a fourth group than this.


I thnk the point was that not all Saver tickets were under the same rules, and that some could still be upgraded in advance, which was correct.

Ex Dxb ive seen the cheapest fares in ages

Would be even cheaper if they were "Specials". ;)