Coffee drinker

Usually loyal to Emirates because of status and points but had to book Singapore for a July flight from Australia to Europe. Probably on of the cheapest J fares I have ever seen. Got Brisbane-Frankfurt/return in J for 3700EUR. Sorry emirates.

DYKWIA

Good to see people voting with their wallets. Hopefully when the demand drops off, EK will lower the prices.

daisymay2

We flew TK last November to Mauritius as cheaper business class, but missed EK and back with them this year.
Booked J to Mauritius a month ago and before the miles reduction it was Ł6000 for two pax.
Watched the price rise steadily over the past few weeks and the same flight with decent timings is now Ł8767.

Metanoia

I wonder if they're lurking and watching this forum, fares already down to $5200 for what I was looking at (LAX-DEL), but that's in H (J Special). Still almost double TK's fare.

NoY

An F route I flew on just a few weeks ago has increased by approximately 50% & J by close to 100%. I booked business on QR.
EK's loss.

daisymay2

Our TK flight MAN-MRU was Ł4600 for 2 pax last November and just checked their prices again - now Ł4522 which is lower than last year.

EK are taking the proverbial?

DYKWIA

Even Y class is through the roof! Cheapest MAN-DXB I can find is Ł700+. Most are Ł900!

BadoRas

I will drop EK like a hot spud if fares don't return to normal soon. Status or no status, I will move. It's outrageous. I will swap to Singapore Airlines in a heartbeat if they are not stupid enough to try the same thing. They are a great airline with a great F offering. Perfectly acceptable.

Emirates is not the only airline out there. But they seem to be the main culprit for upsetting and losing previously loyal customers. Bad move EK. I'm sure you will regret this. An airline's success or failure rests on the price sensitivity of all passengers. Get that wrong at your peril.

unfrequentflyer

I have also check SQ on JFK-SIN fare. Not much difference from EK

Metanoia

The management over at EK seems to be drinking a lot of short-term thinking kool-aid these days. First, the inability to bring back loyal and senior flight crew from redundancy on the A380 because they refuse to bring people back on the same terms and conditions as their previous contract, to the serious safety incidents that call into question the safety culture of the airline, to the ham-fisted increase of fares "because costs and load factors" - It seems they're chasing short-term profitability on a spreadsheet than maintaining long-term market share as you allude to, which they could do by matching competitors' fares and allowing the (massive) planes to fill up at a still-decent profit.

But, I had the most wonderful flight in F a couple months ago because the crew were simply amazing. And that's the case for 2 out of 3 flights I take on EK, so I keep coming back and will pounce when the fares seem reasonable enough.

Metanoia

Yep, there was one particular F route I was hoping to take advantage again of that almost seemed like a mistake fare... gone now.

BadoRas

I love the Kool Aid reference!

Yes, I have to say my 4 F flights in February and March were outstanding because of the quality of the cabin crew. They were legendary.

It's a lesson in remembering that cabin crew go a long way to keeping EK afloat, while the management is preoccupied in steering the ship towards the rocks

BadoRas

Damn! That's the problem - where do we go if all the airlines do the same thing?

At the end of the day, I'm in the mood to change anyway. Simply to deny Emirates the revenue. Insignificant I know, but empowering nevertheless. It's an act of spite in response to a perceived betrayal.

unfrequentflyer

With a major competitor CX out of business in a year, EK will have a lot more bargaining power as an airline and employer.

The real question is Will the business travel pick up as expected by airlines management?

eternaltransit

I don't think it's as easy as "business travel pick up" - it's been a convenient segment for revenue management for the last couple of decades sure, but I think it's now just a question of whether there's enough disposable income to support fares with the expected capacity ramp up.

Businesses aren't the only source of high yield pax - lots of people have done quite well over the last couple of years, especially those with assets and who have saved money from not travelling. Combine that with capacity cuts (quite a few 77Ws were converted to cargo in the pax cabin) and it may be the real question is: how much are the financing costs hurting EK, rather than will an old passenger mix return. If DXB starts to be a more O&D market beyond the usual UK source, then that's going to flatter the revenue per km quite significantly.

As much as these high fares are extremely inconvenient for us as passengers, every single forum on FT has a stage in the cycle where it's all "I'm leaving for x because y". I personally wouldn't bet against EK's revenue management as much as I don't like them doing their jobs well!