Viennafly

Just received a newletter from Swiss advertising a new Fare structure (both OW and RT) from GVA to ~10 European destinations operated by Swiss

http://www.swiss.com/countries/CH/en...om_Geneva.aspx

Prizes start at 39 CHF for OW in GVA Eco Light and up to 229 CHF for RT in GVA Eco Flex

Interestingly, there is only carry-on luggage allowed in GVA Eco Light. If you want to check luggage you have to buy GVA Eco Flex. (for FTL, *G, SEN, HON this does not apply and you have 23kg checked luggage for free). AFAIK, this is the first Swiss fare, which does not allow you to check luggage.
Second interesting point is that the GVA Eco Flex fare can be rebooked for free and refunded for 100 CHF per direction (!, which if the fare is 179 CHF RT (GVA-MAD-GVA) does not make any sense). Of course the rebookability depends on the availability of the original fare class (which, as we know means most of the time up-sell to a much more expensive fare class).

Needless to mention that the booking class for both Flex and Light fares is 'K', i.e. only 125 miles. Not sure what the point of these new fares is. It also seems that there is some kind of minimum stay rule, as it is not possible to book it for a weekend trip (outbound on friday, inbound on sunday) for some destinations.

airoli

It is interesting to see that LX is following BA, AF, LH (via Germanwings) in slowly introducing "no checked bags" fares.

I expect these fares to become the new norm for Economy Class travel within Europe very shortly. Based on customer demand for more flexibility...

GBM.flights

LX is deeply cornered by Easyjet out of GVA.
These fares seem an attempt to lower the price that shows up in site comparisons, attracting price sensitive customers, and offering the same possibility as easyjet (lower price if you don't have luggage). Success of the measure highly questionable to say the least.
And it seems to be the independent unit of LX in GVA at work.
And on its version 2.0 (no luggage). Version 1.0 was allowing one way at half the price (1 year ago). Discussed here

Let's wish 3.0 is some mileage bonus (no ELK fares out of GVA) and Biz earning 2000 miles.

P.S. - Full disclaimer - I actually just booked a ticket with the new conditions. So it's working (at least for me)

gojko88

This. These airport-specific tweaks are just part of the long-running strategy of trying to compete with U2. One-ways are the most drastic example. I know for a fact that many pax from the newly announced BEG are interested in one-way routes and were hoping for U2 to announce the route instead of LX. This fare structure puts some of their worries to rest.

Concerto

Oddly, I think it's potentially a good thing. Especially that you can get FLT/SEN benefits and miles. On the other hand, I'm not sure how successful these destinations like OSL, GOT and BEG really are going to be.

gojko88

BEG is almost sure to be a winner. ZRH-BEG on LX had some 18,600 pax in June alone (an average of around 150 pax per flight), and some 15-20% of these regularly connect onwards to GVA. The C cabin is likely to be filled by people working for/with the large international organisations based in the Geneva/Lausanne area, while the Serbian diaspora in Geneva/Lyon/Grenoble/Limoges is more than sufficient to fill up the Y cabin for the two flights per week (three starting from April 2014 according to GDS).

Key8

If I understand correctly that if I have the cheap tariff if and the day before departing - I do realise that I need a suitcase anyway I cannot just pay a fee in order to pay for the suitcase, but I will have to upgrade the enitire trip to GVA flex. Given LX zeros out everything but full Y/C 2-3 days before departure, does that mean that I will have to pay up to full fare, just for suitacase?, which could easily mean up to CHF 1,000...?
This does not seem to very thougt through...

GBM.flights

I agree. Serbian nationals are (or were in 2011) the 4th largest group of foreign residents in Switzerland.
Just looking at the frequencies to the top 3 out of GVA I would not be surprised by a daily flight to BEG as of next summer.

GBM

alexanderrr

I am quite sure that in the worst case scenario the standard rules for excess luggage will apply, i.e. you would have to pay 90CHF per direction for your bag. The lowest price difference between the light and flex eco fares is about 50CHF (per direction), but it can be higher - I looked at PRG and on some days the difference is more than 90CHF. So you can do your math. But my guess (hope) would be that there will be some sort of special fare for the 1st bag on Light fares (90 CHF for one bag is a big ridiculous). And then do not forget that LX is not FR when it comes to hand luggage, so usually you can have your standard cabin bag and laptop,etc. And with online boarding passes, I guess it will not be possible to distinguish ECO Light Pax from full Y one when boarding.

AxelB

Well we love skiing in Scandinavia and hopefully Swiss makes contracts with charter agencies, and the routes as you may know is seasonal, December to March

GBM.flights

Regarding the discussion of alexanderrr and Key8 LX has posted the baggage rules:
wow...
Just as an example I bought my return light ticket (see post #3) for 88chf (actually times 4 pax in the PNR). Today the Flex fare is selling for 403chf. So adding 1 piece of luggage would cost me 315chf...
But, when I try to change the tickets to flex I get 100chf per pax "only" for upfare on the return trip .
And the system doesn't let me pick luggage just for one pax or one way only.

I have to agree with Key8, this was not properly thougt through (nor does the IT support this apparently).

Koby

Flying is getting too complicated... Time to look for another line of work...

Big to Swiss for this.

GBM.flights

Flew my first Light fare last week.
Not the best interaction I ever had at check-in.
Went to First Class counter to drop off the (1) luggage.
Check-in Agent - This fare does not allow checked-in luggage.
Me: I know but my status does.
Check-in Agent - where are my papers?... (1 minute passed) ah yes, you can. But you're luggage is overweight. You're only allowed to take 23Kg. you have 26 Kg.
Me: . (I guess this is your little revenge for me correcting you, I thought). I had a garment suit bag inside the suitcase as I did not any carry on, which I proceeded to take out. Luggage became 19 Kg only.

GBM

Viennafly

Booked my first GVA Eco light flights yesterday (to LCY for end of Dec). Not unexpectedly, the advertised CHF 129 are only available on very very few days and for rather inconvenient times. At the end (and despite quite some flexibility on the flight times from my side), I booked an Eco 'light' fare for CHF 293.85! (Outbound S class, inbound T class), which I find quite expensive for a ticket that can not be cancelled or rebooked AND for which I would not be able to check a piece of luggage (if I would not be SEN)....

BThumme

Well, these prices are pretty good. 59 chf from gva to lcy. As a *Gold I get one free bag, i'll just have to make sure its under 23 kg. Also still 500 minimum on Aegean