SWISS offer of hosting for Geneva get-together
Jun 22, 2005, 4:08 am
#107
Join Date: Jul 2001
Posts: 675
Report to folow
Hi Huys,
Sorry for the delay but I had problems with my Computer and a lot of work,
I will post a longer report soon.
In the meantime I could tell that it was very nice of Swiss Peolple again to have welcomed us in Geneva for this 1st Flyertalk.com meeting.
We were only 4 Flyertalk members to attend:
swiss traveler, Frequent_Flyer1, f4free and myself
From Swiss we had the chance to have 4 people: ^ :-: ^
Dr Green (CHInsider) from Zurich
Mrs Krebs (Circle Manager) from Zurich
Mrs Zimmernann (Business Sales) from Geneva
Mr Baumgartner (Key Account Manager for Western CH) from Geneva.
We had arround 2 hours of talking, presentations about Swiss, TC and a great discussion about the "future" of the Program which is still under discussions.
We had nice inside infos about Circle also and good news for the new aminety kit in Fist class to come this fall with also new duvets... No pictures yet though...
The dinner was cancelled...
I will post latter a more precise report when I get the time...
We hope also to have a new meeting soon also with more people ....
Thanks again to Swiss People and specially to CHInsider (Barry
) for making this get-together happened.
kooks
Sorry for the delay but I had problems with my Computer and a lot of work,
I will post a longer report soon.
In the meantime I could tell that it was very nice of Swiss Peolple again to have welcomed us in Geneva for this 1st Flyertalk.com meeting.
We were only 4 Flyertalk members to attend:
swiss traveler, Frequent_Flyer1, f4free and myself
From Swiss we had the chance to have 4 people: ^ :-: ^
Dr Green (CHInsider) from Zurich
Mrs Krebs (Circle Manager) from Zurich
Mrs Zimmernann (Business Sales) from Geneva
Mr Baumgartner (Key Account Manager for Western CH) from Geneva.
We had arround 2 hours of talking, presentations about Swiss, TC and a great discussion about the "future" of the Program which is still under discussions.
We had nice inside infos about Circle also and good news for the new aminety kit in Fist class to come this fall with also new duvets... No pictures yet though...
The dinner was cancelled...
I will post latter a more precise report when I get the time...
We hope also to have a new meeting soon also with more people ....
Thanks again to Swiss People and specially to CHInsider (Barry
) for making this get-together happened.kooks
Jun 24, 2005, 8:31 am
#109
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Nairobi
Programs: LX, AZ, BA, LH, SA
Posts: 316
Originally Posted by mbr
I'm waiting very interested what you have heard especially about the future of our famous Swiss Travel Club. I still hope they don't convert us to M&M.
I really don't get why everybody seems to fear the integration of STC into M&M. Granted M&M is less generous in miles for Y class so achieving Elite level will not be as easy if you fly Y class a lot, but on the other hand you'll be able to earn tier miles on such a huge number of flights compared to LX's shrinking network. Not to mention new opportunities for spending those miles!
Jun 24, 2005, 9:31 am
#110
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: NUE
Programs: *G (TK elite+), OW sapphire (QR), ST elite plus (AF). LA black
Posts: 3,674
Originally Posted by hilltopper
I really don't get why everybody seems to fear the integration of STC into M&M. Granted M&M is less generous in miles for Y class so achieving Elite level will not be as easy if you fly Y class a lot, but on the other hand you'll be able to earn tier miles on such a huge number of flights compared to LX's shrinking network. Not to mention new opportunities for spending those miles!
CHris
Jun 24, 2005, 10:45 am
#111
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: CH, D, USA
Posts: 1,727
Prelim Report
While I have a delayed flight at Schiphol let me start a prelimary summary. I would kindly request all other three participants add their comments and memories!
Presentation Part
CHInsider and the head of the Circle program went through a general presentation of Swiss Travelclub with us in rapid pace but still in a conversational fashion, which allowed us to comment and discuss whenever interesting issues came up.
Of course, many aspects where already known to us. However some details such as the numbers of circle, gold and silver members where very interesting. I don't quite remember the exact numbers, can somebody pitch in??? I think it was something like 3000 circle, 15000 gold and 55000 silvers. This is after the wave of status drops. So the silver number is still very much inflated because of former golds that are still silver for one year.
I found it very interesting what considerations are given to nominating Circle members, how the personal contact with them is highly emphasized and how few of them there actually are.
Several points were discussed in detail during the presentation, such as companion tickets and if it makes sense for them to require a Saturday night stay, the issue of free status for so many years and how some Flyertalkers had felt a lack of appreciation - or the cost of transatlantic upgrades. Our feedback in these areas (upgrades too expensive now, Saturday night on companion ticket might loose LX revenue as business class tickets during the week are excluded that way, 1 upgrade per 50k is not very much but still a good change, ...)
The Swiss represantatives seemed very thankful for the input provided.
Discussion
Then the most interesting part, discussion of the future, followed. First off, CHInsider had of course explained they cannot say very much because the antitrust immunity had not been granted yet and LH still needed to be treated as a competitor, therefore preventing real talks from happening and specifics from being clearer.
I had brought up the obviously different versions of statements what's going to happen with TC. LH clearly implying it will be merged into M&M, and LX stating that TC will continue to exist as a seperate program.
While this was not really clarified, but noted with interest by some of the Swiss representatives, one thing became very clear:
Swiss TC management has many of the same concerns we do. They know they have a far better program than LH. And they know it is also of financial importance to the airline to be competetive in this area. Negative changes coming from the new owner of the airline are not in their interest either. TC will be fighting very hard for what they believe is the best for LXs bottom line, which in turn should be LHs main interest.
My personal opinion, as stated before, is however that LH has basically dedided to merge TC into M&M, but that LX is not really in favor of that solution. The only way for TC to stay seperate and remain a good program is for TC management to convince LH that it is better for the bottom line. (Which I am convinced it is!)
More to follow, gotta go.
Presentation Part
CHInsider and the head of the Circle program went through a general presentation of Swiss Travelclub with us in rapid pace but still in a conversational fashion, which allowed us to comment and discuss whenever interesting issues came up.
Of course, many aspects where already known to us. However some details such as the numbers of circle, gold and silver members where very interesting. I don't quite remember the exact numbers, can somebody pitch in??? I think it was something like 3000 circle, 15000 gold and 55000 silvers. This is after the wave of status drops. So the silver number is still very much inflated because of former golds that are still silver for one year.
I found it very interesting what considerations are given to nominating Circle members, how the personal contact with them is highly emphasized and how few of them there actually are.
Several points were discussed in detail during the presentation, such as companion tickets and if it makes sense for them to require a Saturday night stay, the issue of free status for so many years and how some Flyertalkers had felt a lack of appreciation - or the cost of transatlantic upgrades. Our feedback in these areas (upgrades too expensive now, Saturday night on companion ticket might loose LX revenue as business class tickets during the week are excluded that way, 1 upgrade per 50k is not very much but still a good change, ...)
The Swiss represantatives seemed very thankful for the input provided.
Discussion
Then the most interesting part, discussion of the future, followed. First off, CHInsider had of course explained they cannot say very much because the antitrust immunity had not been granted yet and LH still needed to be treated as a competitor, therefore preventing real talks from happening and specifics from being clearer.
I had brought up the obviously different versions of statements what's going to happen with TC. LH clearly implying it will be merged into M&M, and LX stating that TC will continue to exist as a seperate program.
While this was not really clarified, but noted with interest by some of the Swiss representatives, one thing became very clear:
Swiss TC management has many of the same concerns we do. They know they have a far better program than LH. And they know it is also of financial importance to the airline to be competetive in this area. Negative changes coming from the new owner of the airline are not in their interest either. TC will be fighting very hard for what they believe is the best for LXs bottom line, which in turn should be LHs main interest.
My personal opinion, as stated before, is however that LH has basically dedided to merge TC into M&M, but that LX is not really in favor of that solution. The only way for TC to stay seperate and remain a good program is for TC management to convince LH that it is better for the bottom line. (Which I am convinced it is!)
More to follow, gotta go.
Last edited by f4free; Jun 24, 2005 at 10:48 am
Jun 24, 2005, 2:32 pm
#112
Moderator: InterContinental Hotels and Germany
Join Date: Oct 2002
Posts: 6,552
Thank your for this summ up of the Geneva Meeting with LX TC, f4free.
It was very intersting to hear, if they are any rumours of the merge of LX TC and LH M&M programm yet. I agree with you, that LX has the better program (although I stay with LH due to my most domestic flights).
Jan
It was very intersting to hear, if they are any rumours of the merge of LX TC and LH M&M programm yet. I agree with you, that LX has the better program (although I stay with LH due to my most domestic flights).
Jan
