nacho

CC is also going away between IST and HKG.

dvs7310

There's a thread somewhere else about the routes changing. Basically PVG loses it to CAN and HKG loses it to ICN. PVG and HKG get larger C cabins so apparently that's more profitable in those markets. The IAH plane gets moved to GRU IIRC.

geirfugl

I dunno,but my imprecion is that TK is shifting Comfort to routes with limited bussines demand,and routes with a lot of capasity,f.instance there are very,very good prices for Comfort to EZE (probably not so much bussines customers),and NRT (2 flights a day).This is offcs sensible!!

BTW ,does ANYBODY have ANY idea when Comfort will totaly disapear?,currently its the best way to earn on TK.

aircommodore

By 2017 they are going to eliminate CC from all planes and introduce 2 class seating. I've been told that they are thinking of offering last minute cash upgrades to BC (discounted of course) at check-in as we see in many North American carriers. Such a shame that it's going away, IMHO it was one of the best products of TK along with their IST lounge.

dvs7310

Yes, it will be a real shame to loose it. I'm still amazed that the final decision was to eliminate it completely when more and more carriers are beginning to offer it on long haul fleets now. The best solution seems to be to "right size" the cabin to perhaps 4-5 rows where they could charge a bit more for it and I think it'd still be a fair value out of many markets (NRT is not one of those unfortunately). Will be curious to see how my flying patterns to the middle east and Africa shift after 2017 as I typically have been using CC on the westbound flight and biz on the return. I don't like the idea of relying on a biz buy up to be comfortable since availability is far from guaranteed. NH is opening a new IST route and they typically have a poor quality Y+ on their long haul planes, so could be an option.

gnaget

We purchased CC for NRT-IST. It was never cheap but in the summer a round trip in economy TYO-Europe is minimum USD 2600 on LH, for example.

People told us that you can buy inexpensive upgrades at check-in. My impression was that economy was often oversold and that they had a lot of op-ups to CC. 99% of the pax in economy are Japanese on these flights.

nacho

I guess TK believes that their Y is so premium that there is no need to do another premium class

Their CC looks awesome and when they first introduce it - the upcharge from Y to A was low - I was almost tempted by it. I guess TK can't see a good profit margin on CC - more space taken up, but they can't charge the huge sum that they charge for C.

aircommodore

What I understand from my conversations with TK staff is that although it's done reasonably well in North American destinations such as JFK,LAX it was never the case in Asia. I guess American consumers have a better understanding of the product. Another problem was consistency while JFK,LAX,IAH(until last month) had CC BOS,ORD didn't and same goes for rest of Asia. I guess if they had had CC on all transcontinental flights it would have made more sense and built better awareness. I also think having 63 seats are a little too much for CC and no wonder why it was half empty in many flights.

pencereamelesi

nacho

CC was always full betwee HKG and IST. I think that TK sets the price too low to actually earn some real money on it. For that 64 seats they could convert them into more Y. At he same time TK raised the prices for their Y fares (they are not necessarily the cheapest anymore for the flights I'd like to book), which if they turn more CC seats into Y they will get some more $.

vincewy

They could have done what CX did, trim some seats on A330 since those are used for medium hauls where more people don't feel like spending more for extra space under 10 hours, and eliminate A with only O and U fare classes.

CC is the savior of helping me to get to E+, without it, alng with current mileage accruel rates there's no way I'd make it to E+. Going 2017 and forward, the options will be flying the cheapest J segments to Asia (ie: Scandinavia - Bangkok) and watch for special J fares between North America and Asia (under $4000) during every status renewal year.

gnaget

NRT-IST return was minimum USD 2500 and typically USD 3000 or more. So if they sold these tickets then it was definitely not too cheap. But it was well known among Turks that you could buy an upgrade to CC at check-in.

Instead, I think the pricing was too high so that few people actually bought the CC tickets even though the cabin filled up. But regular economy tickets were not cheap either at least for people like myself who does not buy tickets months in advance. I think the vast majority of passengers were Japanese tour groups on specially discounted tickets and they oversold economy and they filled it up CC with the overflow.

fnaime23

I'm definitely not a plane/flight cost analysis expert. but I've never seen C at less than 90% capacity (LAX-IST-LAX route), and at almost twice the price of an economy seat, its not as cheap as we all make it sound. i do think its a great deal for more comfort. but still thats half of the price of a business seat. I assume when they created C they did their cost benefit analysis and found out that they will make money out of it, maybe its an assumption for turkish.
But if they replaced them with Business seats, can they fill those? how often is Business full right now. and Business adds more cost anyways between the food, flight attendants, cost of retrofit.

I guess I'm just sad to hear that CC on this route can come to an end, I fly this route at least twice a year, and i've only been on CC, since it started on this route. I would have to try economy again, or use my miles or find a new airline, if CC goes away on this route.

moler

CC fares to/from many Asian destinations are much lower than the US flights, usually ~$400-500 more than discounted Y. They are not making money at that price. I wish instead of eliminating CC, they would just have a higher density configuration with only 3-4 rows of CC for markets with less premium demand.

nacho

Why have 3-4 rows CC on each flight? There is no economy of scale by going this unless the only thing you are buying is a bigger seat imo. It would make sense to have 3-4 rows F seats since those tickets are outreageous.