JetLite and JetKonnect to merge from Mar 25th
 

http://profit.ndtv.com/News/Article/...konnect-300020


Wonder how this will affect JP redemptions on domestic routes.

The whole story is here : http://www.jetairways.com/EN/IN/Pres...spx?tcid=9wfan

And can I say Oh. My. God. Jet have made yet another hash of it.

Basically, Jet will be 9W and Konnect will be S2. Except when Konnect is 9W. Because Konnect may be S2 or it may be 9W. Or it may be Kermit the frog.

All they're doing is supposedly reducing customer confusion that no longer existed (Jet remain confused, unlike the customers) by excising the word Lite. Then they're increasing confusion even more by splitting Konnect across two codes.

If after all this time and effort and an oddly last-minute announcement, the best they could come up with only perpetuates the schizophrenic mess they are, then they shouldn't have bothered.

What are they going to achive by simply removing the word 'Lite'? They're not addressing the core cause of their troubles : the peddling of low fares for a tackier-than-Ryanair product at high cost.

This is worse than the old wine new bottle nonsense Air India used to trot out.

Quite! The mind boggles to think of what the Jet policy makers are smoking. :D

They were smoking the killbrand potion. No livery change from s2, except to airbrush the JetKonnect logo. and one massive PR buzz around it! cheap, but will get talked about ;) while nothing gets changed under the hood

http://boardingarea.com/blogs/livefr...ow-jetkonnect/

it's about time they did this....

Wonder what took so long. Considering both brands were LCC's, didn't make sense to have two websites.

What I don't understand is why they don't kill the S2 code for good and operate everything under 9W2xxx.

There is a pending tax liability which makes sure S2 exists as a subsidiary of Jet Airways and cannot be merged into the parent.

Thats surprising, if the 2 companies were to merge the parent should automatically take over the tax liability unless this is some sort of specific tax liability.

By this logic no M&A would possible as invariably most companies have some sort of deferred tax liability of their books.

But they haven't actually done anything, except remove half a word and put out a (rather nice) logo.

They have done that, but by merging the two low-cost arms of the carrier they have simplified things and there is probably some cost-effectiveness involved. It will also provide less confusion in marketing and to the passenger, and his/her experience at the airport.

I wonder if this means I can use AA miles to redeem on S2 flights now. Probably not :confused:

Why are they so reluctant to change the airline code?

Because they can do so only if the two airlines are officially one entity. And they don't want them to be one entity because of some legal stuff (which I don't exactly understand) that will dump a huge tax burden on 9W.

I hate to disappoint, but now imagine being on a JetKonnect flight with a JetLite code (S2) with Jet Airways cabin crew serving you. More marketing and brand confusion ensured! No one consistent experience still. The real change would have come if Jet would have cut the greedlines and committed to a fully low-fare carrier in JetKonnect, which means being on the lines of indigo rather than being on the lines of Jet Airways