ft101

Has this been confirmed across the board? I've only seen it mentioned once.

skywardhunter

It has not been confirmed, and the new fares have only been observed ex DXB AFAIK

Dave Noble

The posts earlier seemed to indicate that there was a price rise by Emirates with introduction of a new fare at the same pricepoint.

I would think that it would still have to be significantly lower than original business class price to be competitive with a lower cabin such as premium economy

m3red

TBD

Metanoia & Dave Noble are spot on.

I appreciate lounge access, of course, but this is brilliant for corporate marketing. Companies justify paying business fares because travelers sleep and can work the next day. Advance seat assignment and lounge access (except maybe arrivals lounges) have no value to corporate program managers, so there is no reason for a company to block these fares.

Lower airfares within corporate policy will shift some business to EK. Meanwhile, EK lowers costs on lounges and increases revenue from people who want seat assignments.

lost_in_translation

Lounges have virtually no value to corporate travel managers if the flight is a direct one. If the flight involves a compulsory connection of several hours in the Middle East (which probably applies to the majority of tickets that EK sells) then I would suggest the lounge and the opportunity to work this provides, as well as the likelihood of a traveler arriving showered / more ready to go straight to work, surely has some value. More importantly, Chauffeur Drive definitely has a lot of value to corporate travel managers given the employee will likely expense up to four probably quite pricey taxis if this isn't included rather than just jumping on public transport where it exists.

EK are also introducing an unwelcome element of complexity here (which applies mostly to leisure travelers but also to some small businesses, I imagine). The new bucket now seems to have been introduced on UK routes and unless booking directly through EK or a couple of the major OTAs such as Expedia, I'm finding it extremely difficult to distinguish whether tickets are being booked into the new Special bucket or Saver bucket until very late in the booking process as the fares are almost identical and a lot of websites don't clearly disclose booking class. We are talking around a Ł30 each way price difference for flights between London and Asia, so it does seem to me EK are trying to basically pocket the saving here.

TPJ

The Company I work for is not a big EK customer. I am a member of the T&I policy committee and - just to be on the safe side - we decided to request our Corpo Travel Agency to move EK to the bottom of the flight display in our Corpo Booking Tool. Once we have clarity how (and if) it really affects our employees, we will decide if to move it higher or keep at the bottom. Again - EK will not be affected too much by our action - but we are concerned that more airlines might start unbundling C-class, making it even more difficult to manage T&I.

TBD

Lost In Translation: I agree that corporate booking tools are bad at displaying what a ticket (in/ex)cludes, but this isn't unique to EK. NDC and the Next Generation Storefront will fix this ... eventually. I disagree on lounge and car value. I'm seeing ticket price gaps that would more than pay for Uber to/from the airport. Maybe it's just me, but I'm far more likely to work while sitting on a plane than during the 40ish minutes that I'm sitting in a lounge.

TPJ: Is you company taking this action based solely on traveler experience? I'm struggling to see the business case to pay for reserved seats and lounge access.

extramileage

This doesn't apply to the corporate solo travelers, but the smart play would be to buy Saver or Flex for yourself and buy the Special fare for your travel companion. Share the car and guest them into the lounge. There is no incremental value beyond the skywards miles (not even tier miles) for a party of 2 and you will find that the incremental skywards miles are not worth the extra cash.

DYKWIA

You can't take a guest into a lounge unless you have status can you?

Will08

If the prices were genuinely cheaper this would work for me and I would even prefer if emirates would go a step further and implement a budget business. The only reason I fly J now is for the seat. I arrive at the airport as late as possible, don't really use the lounges except to charge my phone, no longer drink alcohol before or during the flight, I don't have any of the food on the plane and I don't even use ICE.

Come to think of it, I would much prefer it if they did away with the cabin crew as well and pass on some of those savings to the passengers., that way I would not be repeatedly woken up by different crew after telling them I don't want to be disturbed. Also it would mean not having to listen to the same crap small talk/questions at the bar, or feel like I have crashed the crews mini party at the back every time I need to go for a slash.

Zero expectation, a cheaper price and a quality nights sleep, sounds good to me!

EKcellent

Agree 100%

Don't enjoy paying for all the fluff as standard, when:


*At best have used around 3 of the 24 cars available per booking (last time used just one).

*Generally avoid the lounges (and aren't in a race to "fill up like its your last meal on the planet")

*Am not an aspirational e-bogan, so don't feel the need to "chug the Paradis" ("Hey, look, my watch is so big I'm eating my 10Kg of caviar off it! If only I could fit in my Audi R8 Decennium while wearing my new Patek - I could get 20Kg on that baby!").
Could actually live without the meals in general, given their current quality.

*Don't need to be personally greeted with a computer-generated script.


But do like:

*A bit of quiet, some space and privacy... and agree wholeheartedly with the sentiments about some crews! (And do you really need to beat the living daylights out of the cupboard on the other side of 23A repeatedly ... all night long?)


That being said, though ... the "cheap 'n' nasty" lack of seat selection of the Slightly Specials is a bit, well, cheap!

Gringuito

skywardhunter

Carrier-imposed surcharges are set by the carrier, and yes unfortunately they're higher in J than in Y. I've found this issue before where J Savers are pricing below Y Flex because the lower base fare, but it ends up being more, yet no way to force the EK website to choose the Y fare during multi city booking

amnicoll

Now I think it is a very bad move having a business class fare that excludes the use of the lounge and the chauffeur and I am sure it has been debated here before

However when searching for business class flights with Emirates from the UK to Bangkok on line and over the phone and knowing about the fare I found it often impossible to to find out if the fare was the business light or the full service and it was clear from the bull*** that I go that many agents did not even know of this new fare and simply said it included the lounge and the chauffeur and when I explained that this may not be the case I was told to ask Emirates which was pointless cause like me they would have no idea what ticket the agent was trying to sell me.

This was the brilliant response from one company after I wrote to their CEO

we cannot guarantee that the fare you select will have the chauffeur option. If you select a fare that does not have this option, and we are required to upgrade it to a fare that does have the chauffeur option, you will need to pay the reissue fees and the fare difference.

i do fear for the reputation of Emirates if people are buying what they think is a full service find it is not and even though it is not Emirates fault I doubt the angry passenger will see it that way