New forum proposal for South African Airways | Voyager
 

Hi there

I'd like to propose that a new forum is created for "South African Airways | Voyager" under "Airlines and Mileage Programs".

Few reasons:
1) Many of the posts in the "Other Middle Eastern and African Airlines"
forum relates to South African Airways - http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/other...-airlines-471/

2) SAA is ranked as the top airline in Africa by Skytrax for the 13th year in a row http://www.flysaa.com/za/en/flyingSA...ax-awards.html

3) SAA has a pretty good frequent flier program, Voyager. Furthermore, SAA is part of Star Alliance which means your UA miles / AC aeroplan etc can be redeemed for SAA flights.

4) SAA services international flights to South Africa as well as African regional flights. Many travelers go there for both business and pleasure.

5) Occasionally, there are deep J class discounts to South Africa via SAA which can be shared on the forum.

6) There's really no reason to not showcase an African airline in its own forum... even domestic budget airlines airberlin and WestJet has their own threads

Not sure what is the procedure but please highly consider.

Thanks,
Eddie



EDIT: Proposed name/forum format:

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South African based airlines and mileage programs
South African Airways (SAA) | Voyager | British Airways (Comair) | Mango | Kulula | Safair | SA Airlink | Skywise Airlines | South African Express

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At first glance, I'm not seeing the demand. The first page of threads (dating back about three weeks) only has six threads which are about SAA. Also, with three weeks worth of threads on the front page, any threads which are about SAA are hardly going to be lost in the shuffle.

If we can have a smoking forum, this forum should be allowed.

If a new forum for South African Airways was created, it would be populated with a minimum of 550 discussions; but that is over a period of at least 15 years.

At an average of 36 discussions per year, I am not sure that there is enough demand to support the establishment of this proposed forum — but I am keeping an open mind...

The number of SAA discussions have exceeded the number of "can I smoke there" discussions in the past. If there is a perceived need for a smoker forum, why not a SAA forum? This is FLYERtalk, not smokertalk, after all. @:-)

Good and appreciate you sharing your thoughts on this proposal. FT's core is airline loyalty programs so if other forums are given the chance to build a following then so should this one. Just MHO.

Compare that to the topic of smoking, where the most popular thread has about 60 posts per year. Yet there is a need for a separate smoker forum?
If someone wants to use historical data to argue that there aren't enough SAA posts to warrant a separate forum, the same criteria should be used for evaluating the need for a separate smoker forum.

Yes, there is a need for a separate smoker forum, in my opinion — despite that I am a person who is adamantly against smoking.

Right now, it is fairly easy to find information on South African Airways, as most discussions pertaining to that airline and its frequent flier loyalty program are currently located in the Other Middle Eastern and African Airlines forum; whereas there is not one particular forum on FlyerTalk for frequent fliers to find out where in the world smoking is allowed on airplanes, in hotel properties, in restaurants and in rental cars — as well as other entities related to travel.

Also, people generally do not proselytize those who prefer flying as passengers on airplanes operated by South African Airways nearly as much as people who smoke. The proposed forum for smokers who travel would give them a “safe haven” from those who criticize smoking to discuss topics which would help make their lives traveling just a little bit easier.

If I was elected to TalkBoard simply to analyze historical data pertaining to topics when deciding whether or not a forum should be created or eliminated, then why have a TalkBoard or a community director or administrative personnel from Internet Brands associated with FlyerTalk at all?

I thought I was elected to use my judgment — especially when basing it upon what fellow FlyerTalk members whom I serve post regarding their thoughts and opinions...

...which is why I posted that:

The "safe haven" already exists in the "Smokers' Lounge" thread. Again, why the need for a separate forum for a topic with so little traffic?

The other item I would note is "build it and they will come".

SAA is an English speakign airline that operates in an English speaking country, with most of its flyers English speaking. All services on board, etc are conducted almost solely in English. There are about 9.3 million passengers per year, which is 3x as much as airberlin, more than 4x than El Al. I would argue there is a huge untapped community.

On the other hand, airlines such as airberlin, Avianca, Taca, etc are non-English speaking airlines and hence traffic for posts in English will be minimal.

Once the frequent fliers of SAA finds the forum either through a search engine or word of mouth, the traffic to the SAA forum on Flyertalk will come, when one is set up. South Africans loves good deals and travel - I really believe that there is huge potential for growth and sharing in the SAA community. This is largely untapped because a forum doesn't exist for the SAA community.

Furthermore, by having a "African and Middle Eastern" board is disrespectful. Africa is not the middle east and both cultures are vastly different from each other. A layperson would not care to consider posting an SAA question on a "African and Middle Eastern" board - but would definitely be more likely to post one if there was a SAA board. Same thing for an experienced SAA flyer - he/she would not consider visiting the "African and Middle Eastern" board that often because the SAA community isn't developed there.

Once cannot look at existing number of posts on the "African and Middle Eastern" board as an indicator of the SAA community. If anything, given that a substantial portion of posts on the "African and Middle Eastern" board by % relates to SAA, it certainly would indicate that there will be much interest in having its own separate board.

The South African Airways board will also include the budget airlines it runs/owns: Mango. It will also include SA Airlink, its affiliate. Establishing a board for this purpose would also increase local South Africans visiting the site and traffic.

Lastly, a lot of people fly on SAA to South Africa for leisure or work. SAA also has many codeshares with other airlines. There's lots of uncaptured posts that linger in other airlines. I've seen a lot of posts on the Air Canada forum, for example, asking questions about SAA.

Having a separate forum for SAA is likely to encourage more communication, sharing and debate with respect to the SAA group, including SAA, Mango, SA Express and Airlink. Furthermore, it is an important connecting partner for major carriers including United, Lufthansa and Air Canada, as well as non-alliance Etihad. A separate forum is likely to be a key go-to place for information on SAA from these partners' passengers.

I'm curious: Is there a South African or South African Airways analogue of FT like there are German, Chinese, and Australian websites/boards as well one devoted to SQ? Are people now coming to FT (partly because there isn't a dedicated alternative) or is FT already competing for SAA posts?

Some of you may remember that FlyerTalk actually used to have a SAA Voyager forum. I have no idea why it was discontinued, but I'm all for bringing it back.

Johan

It should be viewable in the FT archives, depending on when it was closed to further posts.