On my last flight I had pax at boarding saying "thank goodness" they were getting on the red tail and how good it made them feel.
Folks, probably the best set of words I have read for a while, if we are really honest with ourselves, I think most of us on here have been close to saying that or the though at least crossed our minds from time to time..
gulp, here goes,
Well, I have a few times... it's a cultural thing.. I'm sure there are a few Brits, Americans, Canadians, Kiwis as well as other Australians on here who know what I am talking about..... they feel the same about their Legacy encumbered national airline/s as well.
In my youth, in my neck of the woods, it was in the unwritten rules to make the gap year pilgrimage to London. (or you haven't lived yet type of peer pressure stuff).. turned out to be a good unwritten rule for me... I learned all cultural Y class SYD-LHR SYD via, via via travel experiences, some pleasant, some indifferent, some downright awful... that's life.. but as I got older and wiser (many Aussies have to fly a long way to get home) I found it nice to rejoin the culture I knew, and paying a little more for a direct flight home with a minimum of fuss became the norm.
For me it was Qantas and for a few years the short lived Ansett International which had a stunning product.. I still miss it..
So here we are today, the Asian LCC's with tiny seats are invading Sydney.....
AirAsia X takes fight to Qantas
As an aside....Her voice reminds me about one of those indifferent Y class missions to London Cabin PA announcements.... long..
IT WAS another sign of the changing face of air travel in Australia.
Low-cost airline AirAsia X touched down in Sydney yesterday, on Qantas's home turf, for the first of the foreign carrier's new daily flights between Sydney and Malaysia.
The no-frills airline - you want water on board? pay for it! -
Read more:
AirAsia X takes fight to Qantas
Meanwhile, AJ and BB are fighting back with " you can fly from Sydney to KUL on Jetstar provided you go via Melbourne & Singapore..
(So much for all those meetings in KL guys, as if you didn't know AA were coming..
)
Price war looms as first AirAsia flight hits Sydney
In fact, AirAsia X will have a prized “first mover” advantage of nearly three months to entrench its position before Scoot’s arrival, during which time, while still being the price leader most of the time, it will be charging up to 50 per cent more than Scoot’s introductory offers for a seat to South-East Asia.
It’s not until Scoot arrives in Sydney on June 26 that AAX pares back fare levels to match it, with fly-only rates on both carriers (AirAsia X to Kuala Lumpur and Scoot to Singapore) for about AUD192 one-way. That's a fraction of the prevailing rates starting at around AUD913 return.
At the same time, however, AirAsia X is charging up to AUD480 one-way for a ticket from Melbourne to KL.
The seats on both carriers are a super-squeezy nine-abreast in the AirAsia X A330s and 10 abreast in Scoot’s B777-200s.
Scoot will also be flying five days a week from the Gold Coast to Singapore on top of AirAsia X’s five a week to KL.
Jetstar flies only to Bali and Phuket in South-East Asia out of Sydney, with Thailand priced from around AUD365 one-way.
Jetstar is pushing connecting services to its add-on Asian destinations, such as Kuala Lumpur, Phuket, Bangkok and Ho Chi Minh, from Melbourne through its daily Melbourne-Singapore A330 service.
Meanwhile, Scoot appears to be competing only for point-to-point Sydney-Singapore travel as it does not have any formal marketing relationship or connectivity with Singapore Airlines (SIA), its full-service subsidiary Silkair or budget carrier Tiger Airways, of which SIA owns 33 per cent
No doubt people will go for the cheap introductory fares, but for how long?
But remember these are low-cost airlines that don’t make most of their profit out of ticket sales per se, but out of optional add-on “ancillaries”.
Just be careful you don’t end up getting sucked into a cheap headline price to find you’re up for squillions for extras.
Qantas could counter the attack with simple all inclusive value for money fare structures that may see off the LCC model.. if the market was aware that the 787 would be coming to Qantas first... I think there are a lot of people who would put up with the old metal for a bit longer if they indeed knew the 787 was on its way into mainline... I wish.. A lot of people will pay a bit more rather than fly in a small space with their knees up their nostrils. There will always be a premium long haul airline in Australia, why not Qantas?
(for those who haven't seen it)