Manchester-3
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Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Manchester, England
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The thing is, us Northerners are canny, we know value for money and we can smell a rip off. I recently flew to Australia and back on SQ out of MAN. Great flights and on-board service. I looked at Premium Economy but it was twice the price of Y class. I didn't even bother looking at Business. Even on a long trip like mine the extra I would pay for the marginal benefit of a premium seat would buy me not just a lot of beer, but another whole holiday. Who in their right mind is going to do that? Airline X may lose out on my bum in their pointy end big seat, but airline Y gets my bum as well, on another flight. So everyone's a winner. Let the southerners pay lots more for their seats, I'll drink their health with a beer on the money I've saved. Savvy Northerners don't need a Clubhouse. There's Wetherspoons!
The thing is, us Northerners are canny, we know value for money and we can smell a rip off. I recently flew to Australia and back on SQ out of MAN. Great flights and on-board service. I looked at Premium Economy but it was twice the price of Y class. I didn't even bother looking at Business. Even on a long trip like mine the extra I would pay for the marginal benefit of a premium seat would buy me not just a lot of beer, but another whole holiday. Who in their right mind is going to do that? Airline X may lose out on my bum in their pointy end big seat, but airline Y gets my bum as well, on another flight. So everyone's a winner. Let the southerners pay lots more for their seats, I'll drink their health with a beer on the money I've saved. Savvy Northerners don't need a Clubhouse. There's Wetherspoons!
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The thing is, us Northerners are canny, we know value for money and we can smell a rip off. I recently flew to Australia and back on SQ out of MAN. Great flights and on-board service. I looked at Premium Economy but it was twice the price of Y class. I didn't even bother looking at Business. Even on a long trip like mine the extra I would pay for the marginal benefit of a premium seat would buy me not just a lot of beer, but another whole holiday. Who in their right mind is going to do that? Airline X may lose out on my bum in their pointy end big seat, but airline Y gets my bum as well, on another flight. So everyone's a winner. Let the southerners pay lots more for their seats, I'll drink their health with a beer on the money I've saved. Savvy Northerners don't need a Clubhouse. There's Wetherspoons!
Sure it's £400 more but to me, as the flight is part of the holiday and I'm able to adjust my budget to pay this extra then yes I will go premium. Not all Northerners like to save money this way, some of us like to splash out our hard earned cash on little luxuries....
Indeed, however a combination of the post Covid realisation that with Teams and Zoom many meetings can be conducted without the need for an air ticket and the almost obligatory corporate "net zero" policies mean the amount of ɓusiness travel is down and likely won't recover to pre-covid level. As technology develops it may indeed decline further.
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Join Date: Jul 2004
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Yes, my previous post was a little tongue in cheek but not altogether untrue. Northerners are more likely to be paying for their own air tickets, the funding being more a result of self-employment and entrepreneurialism than government and corporate travel accounts. You only have to take a drive around places like the commuter towns of Cheshire, bordering Manchester and Liverpool, plus parts of those city centres now, to see that there is no shortage of wealth in areas of the North. The people who drive the flashy cars through Alderley Edge will be sitting in the pointy end of aeroplanes, no doubt. I would venture to say that premium travellers being mainly business travellers is no longer true. I think they are just as likely to be baby-boomer leisure travellers with big pensions and property wealth, taking those dream trips abroad. Certainly that was the view of the Emirates staff in MAN a few years back when I was working there.
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I’m quite often on EK and Singapore out of Manchester and Business cabin is still full generally, and I have noticed it filling up post Covid.
Teams / Zoom I find are ok for pretty general discussion but more important stuff definitely needs a visit in person we find. As for who my fellow passengers are I would say a mixture of business and high end holidays traffic and indeed there has been the inevitable football players and families occasionally though the only ones I remember was Ferdinand who had family with him and Nanny, who was excellent,
Cheers
Mr Mac
Teams / Zoom I find are ok for pretty general discussion but more important stuff definitely needs a visit in person we find. As for who my fellow passengers are I would say a mixture of business and high end holidays traffic and indeed there has been the inevitable football players and families occasionally though the only ones I remember was Ferdinand who had family with him and Nanny, who was excellent,
Cheers
Mr Mac
