Star Alliance Survey Results From Frequent flyers
 

A month or two back someone posted on one of the Forums here seeking people to take part in a * survey. I'm afraid I do not recall what the posters's name or handle was - he/she was a new member of FT. Anyway, it looks like the survey is done, and I imagined the person may have posted the results here.

He/She has not it seems, so for the possible interest of others, here they are from an email I got yesterday. If that original poster is still around, please excuse me, and hope you are able to add your own comments about number of participants etc.

[i]Subject: Starsurvey - The Outcome

Hello Surveyparticipants,

Thanks again for participating in the Stardiplom.com survey. The survey is now finished and as promised I would like to share parts of the results with you.

The winners of the T-Shirts are informed by email.

The main importance of the survey was to find out what is mainly important to the Frequent Traveller when travelling and which role third party offers play in the decision of a customer to choose an FFP. Also I was keen on learning in how far those core customers have realised the dimension of airline alliances and finally, if they would consider a single Star Alliance Frequent Flyer program as beneficial to them. I also allowed the participants to give their comments in several open questions. Those answers included interesting qualitative data and I tried to filter the main responses of those to get a brighter picture of what different personal influences play a role in the individuals decision pro or contra one single Star Alliance FFP. The results published here are very general and I leave its interpretation to you.

The survey was split into five different age groups. The under 20 years old represented 4% of the participants, 20 to 29, 32%, 30 to 39, 21%, 40 to 49,18% and the age group over 49, 25% of the participants.

94% of the participants were member in a Frequent Flyer program at the time the survey was conducted and 66% of those are holding a higher status in their program. 26% are even holding the highest possible FFP status and 55% of the participants were member in a Star Alliance FFP (multiple answers were possible, so a participant might as well be in two, or three Frequent Flyer Programs).

74% of the participants are flying more than 50 times per year, 27% are even travelling more than a hundred times a year by air. 72% are travelling in Business Class on Business trips and 19% are choosing First Class as their choice on long-haul trips. 66% are mainly travelling to continental destinations, whereas 34% quote business-travel to intercontinental destinations as their average destinations on business trips.
61% of the asked quote the availability of non-stop/direct flights as their most important reason to choose an airline, 14% still think it is important. 12% do not think that it is important to them to fly direct, but still quote that it might influence their decision. Just 13% of the participants think that it is completely irrelevant if they are flying non-stop or not.

As most important reason to join such a program 40% quoted status and privileges as their main reason. 27% want to generate upgrades to fly in a higher class of service, 22% are searching for free travel and 11% think that lounge access is the most desirable advantage of being member in an FFP. Interesting is, that there is a shift of desires from younger to older age groups. From the under 20 year old participants 100% where keen on free flights, whereas from the age group over 49 just 8% have interest in free flights. In general the older age groups (40 and over) are majorly interested in status and privileges (40 to 49, 51%, over 49, 48%).

On the question, if third party offers are important to them an overwhelming majority welcomes the benefits of it. 77% would like to receive mileage for shopping at retail partners, 63% want to receive mileage on their mobile phone bills and 78% would sign up for a Credit Card with mileage gaining function.

The participants had a great awareness of airline alliances. 86% knew what Oneworld stands for, the Star Alliance was a known brand by 76% of them, 44% knew the Qualifyer alliance and still 18% where aware of the Skyteam.

Disappointing was the knowledge about the number of destinations Star Alliance is serving directly or non-stop out of the markets London and Paris. Just 29% where able to guess the right answer.

86% where aware of the fact that the status gained on one Star Alliance airline is valid on all member flights. Additionally this question was the most quoted in the open question spaces and the participants remarked that this is just theoretically true. 112 participants (19%) actually wrote that they assume that an airline would always serve its own status customers better than the partners and that a single program might stop that, because all customers would be equal, independent of the fact which of the partner airlines they are travelling with.

Just 12% of the participants think that a single Star Alliance Frequent Flyer Program would not at all serve them more efficient than each partner having their own. 61% where definitely sure that such a program would serve them more efficiently and 68% would join such a program. 17% where not sure at all about that and just 15% quoted that they would not join such a program. Given the fact, that 7% are not member in an FFP at all (because of different reasons as I learned in the open questions. Many people are afraid about what the airline is actually doing with their data. Others just can’t be bothered to play along in this „mileage hunting“game).

Thank you again for participating and have a good day.
www.stardiplom.com

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~ Glen ~




[This message has been edited by ozstamps (edited 11-24-2000).]