JeeiJapan

Hi Guys,

Question about the goodie bag, last year with Diamond I received/choose pair of cool marshall headphones.
This year i'm looking at the goodies and seeing candlesticks, wine pourers, salt n pepper grinders etc
Are these extra goodies on top of other goodies, or is this the line up of the new goodies they give us Diamond members?

Sorry if this has been answered in another thread somewhere

fassy

The sad truth is: This is was SAS is giving you as a valued Diamond member...

The offering has been for quite some while and I think in fact they should rather stop this nonsense and give nothing than dishing our this crap.

Tango Alpha

To answer your question: It is not ”on top”. You can choose one item for each qualifying-period.

Which means, that if you got Diamond late in your earning-year, you can choose two goodie backs within a short period of time.

JeeiJapan

Hi guys

Thanks for the replies
Must say I am amazed.... The level and price of these goodies...wow
Last year there wasn't much choice but I could see the headphones had some value and usage.
Now they are a very dissapointing line up...

As already been mentioned I would rather not have any goodies but a certain number of upgrades or other flying related benefits....

What are they doing?

fassy

As usual being deep in denial: "EVERYBODY LOVES THE GOODIES!" (quote from the SK marketing and loyalty team meeting, or at least what I image could be a quote there...)

I guess this is one of the failures of a lot of modern companies. They do some idiotic thing, the customers complain about but instead of doing something to please the customers they tell them they just don't understand and in fact they should be happy with what is offered since it is just fantastic....

Sad thing is, it works for Apple and a few others - so all the others do it as well.

My last company lives the same hybris and while I see it dying by end of the year (which is why I left), the top level management still says all the customers are just stupid not to see how great they are. In the end the frustrated customer walks away... and the management can again blame the customer for not being loyal and to not understand the concept while blaming the competition for being too cheap or whatever.

FlyingMoose

This summarises SK in a nutshell. They aren't wrong and their actions didn't get them on the verge of bankruptcy. It is everybody else that is wrong and we should ignore customer feedback and complaints.

Common problem with companies that do not understand their opinion is irrelevant, that being unique unless you're #1 in the market isn't going to help you and that are unwilling to facilitate customer feedback. Their sole purpose is to make money, you do so by facilitating customers not by pissing them off.

I remember when SK opened the SFO route based on customer request and called it a "gamble". Now one of the most successful routes.

FlyerTalker01565

All I want is upgrade coupons for private travel. I have plenty of kitchen crap already and seriously, do they think we want to run around with SAS branded wallets? I mean, the luggage tags are plenty tacky as it is (seriously people, don't - and if you must, make sure you have something that says Pandion on it).

klmml

I personally don't want upgrade coupons for private travel. I suffer often enough on short haul SAS flights that when I'm going TATL I'll fly AAnother airline or BA every time so I don't have an ugly connection at the far end.

Nope, upgrade vouchers would not swing it for me, I'm afraid.

fassy

Hmm, what would swing it for you then? What would be a decent reward for your ongoing loyalty suffering short haul SAS all the time?

Of course they can't help you make the flight any easier if you have to connect out of their network (neither can any other carrier) but for flights like CPH-SFO, CPH-NRT, ARN-HKG and even the Scandinavia-US Eastcoast routes an upgrade into business would make the flight quite enjoyable at reasonable cost.

klmml

Well, again, speaking for me personally:

• Better food in lounges (AY or BA GC level, say.. I'm realistic enough not to expect anything too fabulous), more space and more diligent staff. At least one dessert option all day other than sugary biscuits. Better quality soup (I don't want hot dogs, thanks OSL).
• Perhaps free choice of one food and drink item from the BoB menu (I realise this totally erodes the distinction between Plus and Go on short haul flights, although currently I can get a sparkling water for free but not a chocolate bar which costs exactly the same)
• Properly enforced priority boarding
• Better handling of short/rebooked connections. If I can walk at a normal pace to the connecting gate and arrive before boarding has even started, then I should not have been offloaded, and if you had someone waiting to escort me and the other connecting pax you wouldn't have to pay EU 261 for them, and my blood pressure would be lower.
• Actual priority for Diamond/Gold on the helpline. When IRROPS strike one sits and waits for 15 minutes before being chucked off, along with the rest. In addition, the Diamond helpline could be differentiated from Gold, much like BA's GGL - they should be able to answer most calls within a couple of rings, even when things are busy, and have added discretion in service recovery situations. I appreciate it's easier to qualify for Diamond than BA GGL, so this analogy is not intended to be exact.
• Recognition onboard, on flights that are long enough. It's wooden and not very in keeping with Janteloven but being told "thanks for your loyalty, if there's anything more we can get for you, please just ask" gives one an opportunity to raise issues.

These are all things which would benefit my daily routine rather than some occasional upgrade. The food/drink ones would be a net cost I guess; boarding and connections would not seem to be very costly; the helpline and recognition stuff would require training and additional decision-taking powers delegated to individual frontline staff.

Anyway, they would all mean more to me than some vouchers.

klmml

Just for the record:

I ordered something from the goodie bag just before the end of my last year (Stelton glasses) and have had a bit of back and forth with Posten and the people at Eurobonus +Deal.

Other than an initial confirmation of the order, there was nothing for eight weeks, then delivery was attempted around Midsummer (I was away), and the package was returned to sender two weeks later (I was not back yet). They had my contact details, but they did not let me know at all. However, the Eurobonus +Deal people emailed me this week to ask me to specify an address and when I wanted the delivery postponed until. All very reasonable until they said that their supplier had already sent the thing out by Posten again anyway (it arrived today, while I was still home).

So, in summary, the Eurobonus +Deal people are very friendly and helpful, but have no clue what their suppliers are doing. Don't expect to be told when your thing is dispatched.

UltraRant

Thanks for reminding me that the goodie bag exists. Had need of a simple present, so I ordered something from the bag.

Would be nice if they actually had some 'real' gifts again like the Marshall headphones (just missed out on those ones) or upgrade vouchers as an option.

SK2751

I had similar troubles both years of my EBD. Had to file complaints and chase my packges both times. They have an incomplete address of mine on file, which is different than the one SK has (?).

UltraRant

Ok, we're now about 6 weeks from the moment I ordered something from the goodie bag and it finally arrived. I chose the Stelton water glasses and boy, is that a huge disappointment or what. They look as if they might have been for sale at IKEA, are the size of a thimble and seem to scratch really easy. And of course they arrived way too late for me to be useful as a gift (which in this case might be a good thing...)

I hope there will be something like the Marshall headphones in the bag next year. Or maybe even upgrade vouchers...

FlyingMoose

I don't understand why SK is so hesitant with introducing upgrade vouchers, this is essentially what everyone is asking for. As a gesture they could introduce it for all EB members for every 1.000.000 EB points accumulated and then introduce it as a Diamond perk every time you requalify.