highupinthesky

So the average of 3-4 rotations per week over the last month is every day?
And by the way. LN-RKP was scheduled to fly to Chicago today, but has been replaced with LN-RKF, and so far no new schedule for LN-RKP.

fassy

Not sure why you keep defending SK here? Sure, there are worse things in life than to fly on a plane with a sub-par cabin but...

Imagine you booked and payed a room for a night at a Hilton. Arriving at the city you get a SMS/Email saying: "We modified your reservation and you will stay at the Hampton Inn right across the street! Welcome"

so, you would't be angry and
a) at least expect a 'sorry, but due to unexpected issues out of our control we had to move you to a different property'
b) demand to get refunded the price difference between the Hilton and the Hampton Inn rate
c) demand some guesture of good will, e.g. Some points/free breakfast or drinks
d) ask to be reaccomendated to a property of the same standard, e.g. a Marriott or Radisson

than, same thing happens over and over again. I have a colleague which does about 3 rotations to EWR a month and in the last months he actually always(!) ended on LN-RKP. Bad luck? Sure, but totally under control by SK. He has started flying LH, LX and OS now spending his 1m SEK budget not on SK anymore. I also try to avoid SK A340 and only Book A330 routes (if possible, CPH-SFO being the only exception as I'm a captivated customer on that route).

SuperFlyBoy

In action continuously from 14-18 June...

https://flightaware.com/live/flight/LNRKP/history/80

SuperFlyBoy

Exactly - must work/have some affiliation with SK...

I have also seen the A330 route (afternoon flight EWR-CPH) been substituted by this a/c.

I have 2 x A340 sectors booked and if they use this aircraft, I will ask to be switched to another flight...

fassy

I don't expect any affiliation - that makes me wonder why another fellow pax defends an anonymous big company which does not holds up to their end of the deal and often enough does not deliver the product purchased as promoted (intentionally I did not say promised, since they don't do that). It is amazing that people say 'Ah, common! You get less than you paid for! Live goes on!' on one occasion but might fight over a wrong pizza topping.

this is a consumer forum first and foremost.

DoTheBartMan

Anytime SK is criticized, he rolls out the "But look at LH" or "But look at DY" deflection attempts.

SuperFlyBoy

I was agreeing with you and adding my opinion...

SuperFlyBoy

Acting similar to gum on the LH forum...

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/28440693-post2357.html

highupinthesky

I'm not really defending SK, but I do find it unfair to state LN-RKP is in use more or less every day, when the fact is it has been used for 3-4 rotations per week if you look over a month.

When I read this forum, I see A LOT of criticism of SK, and very seldom someone who write something positive. I'm not saying SK is the perfect airline, but I don't believe it's as bad as it's made out to be on this site. I'm often wondering why people keep flying with SK when there are many alternatives available.

SuperFlyBoy

It's still very heavily in use, when it shouldn't be - if it is supposed to be a backup a/c.

More direct routing only. (2 vs. 3 sectors)

Hub captives as well - not me though.

However, I have successfully managed to boycott SK for many years by managing to fly LH - until they removed the AAL flight - very sad!

highupinthesky

I strongly doubt many of you who are writing here are booking on SK because of their birds. Beside that won't say the different between the refurbished or new A330/340 SK birds and LN-RKP is as big as the difference between Hilton and Hampton Inn. If the refurbished/new birds are Hilton, I would say Hampton Inn is Virgin or RyanAir. I don't agree LN-RKP is that bad.

highupinthesky

SK is operating in a free marked with a lot of competitors. I'm pretty sure if there were other competitors who did better than SK, most of you would choose them instead.

There are a lot of thing I would like to change at SK, but as long as they are doing almost the same as any other airlines, with similar customer base, in this region, I strongly doubt it will change anything .....ing about it here. It doesn't make me happier .....ing about something that are not going to change anyway.

highupinthesky

And what's wrong with comparing to other airlines? I'm just trying to get some perspective and figure out whether you can expect anything better from other airlines in the region.

fassy

There are a lot of very fine Hampton Inns with good large beds, free wifi, clean rooms... so everything I would expect from a business hotel (and actual I do book HI quite a lot). The difference to a Hilton is small but noticeable, like usually not having a bar or restaurant, room service... So, make it convenient for the customer. Which comes at a price...

Same applies to LN-RKP. Not bad but far from good. And - and that's the point - not what I paid for.

and I do not agree that most people won't book based on the hard and soft product. They very much do! And I think if SK would interpret their BI data the right way would see a correlation between using LN-RKP a lot and a decline in bookings.

highupinthesky

I have to say I've only stayed at the Hampton Inns twice, and both times the hotel was a dump. Have I been unlucky, maybe.
When it comes to LN-RKP. You still get the same service. It's just an older bird, with older seats and missing WIFI. Would I like SK to have all brand new birds. Offcourse I would, but I don't think they have the financial strength to do that, and it does worries me a lot when I look at their orders of new birds. It's not enough to keep up with their aging fleet. It seams like they try to get the average age down by wetleasing brand new CRJ and ATR birds, which I personally avoid with all means.

I honestly doubt it will be possible to see within the statistical error, whether the heavily use of LN-RKP impacts the sale of tickets or not. And if it's possible the number of lost tickets has to be matched with the compensation they have to pay if they cancel a flight or the loss of tickets if they reduce the schedule to compensate for not having LN-RKP.

But I do believe it should be easy to see that, on routes where the CRJ and ATR's are used together with A320 or B737's, the number of tickets sold on the CRJ and ATR's are significant lower than on the other birds.