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Wirraway
14th Dec 2004, 14:36
Wed "Sydney Morning Herald"

Jetstar rewards early birds
By Alexandra Smith, Transport Reporter
December 15, 2004

The early bird scores the plum window seat when it comes to flying Jetstar.

The time-obsessed airline, which refuses to allow passengers to check in if they are a few minutes late and does not allocate seats, has introduced colour-coded boarding passes to reward punctuality.

Arrive well before the strict 30-minute curfew and you will be given a blue boarding pass, allowing you to board first, or at least after any passengers who need assistance or have special requirements.

If you are handed a silver pass, you are deemed a late arrival and will have to elbow your way through the narrow aisles to get a seat, probably at the rear of the aircraft.

"The earlier you check in, the better," said Simon Westaway, a Jetstar spokesman. "We are rewarding the sector that likes to get to the airport early."

The new system suggests Jetstar may move away from unallocated seats - one way the budget airline says has enabled it to keep fares low.

The system of colour-coded passes is modelled on one used by the low-cost United States carrier Southwest Airlines.

Mr Westaway, asked whether Jetstar would follow its parent Qantas and its rival Virgin Blue, which do allocate seats, said: "We are always keenly reviewing our strategies."

He said many of Jetstar's passengers were first-time flyers who were not experienced with allocated seating and were looking for inexpensive fares rather than for the extras that were offered by Qantas.

"People flying out of Avalon [in Melbourne] or Newcastle think it [unallocated seating] is great," Mr Westaway said.

He said Jetstar's operations - including the rigorous check-in cut-off - ensured it could turn its aircraft around quickly and keep to its schedules.

The latest figures published by the Bureau of Transport and Regional Economics, covering September, show that 89.7 per cent of Jetstar flights arrived on time.

Only Skywest (94.7 per cent) and Rex (90.8 per cent) performed better.

Virgin Blue, which lobbied the Federal Government to publish the monthly statistics, had the worst performance, just 76.7 per cent of its flights being on time.

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redsnail
14th Dec 2004, 15:48
easyJet do a similar thing. They give you a number based on checking in times. 1 = earliest, 150 = latest. They call you from 1-30 to board first and so on. Works fairly well. ;)

Howard Hughes
14th Dec 2004, 20:18
Only Skywest (94.7 per cent) and Rex (90.8 per cent) performed better

Rex? Yeh right!! :yuk:

Cheers, HH.

:ok:

ditzyboy
14th Dec 2004, 23:03
The article is misleading. The first boarding group also includes Chairman's Lounge and full fare customers.

The second group (blue) is the first half of the booked load to check in. If there was 120 pax it would be seq. 1-60. If there was only 40 pax it would be seq 1-20.

You could arrive at the airport an hour and a half before the flight. If half of the booked load is already checked in you will be given a silver boarding pass.

The system works extremely well. I am yet to see a punch up with this new system.

apache
15th Dec 2004, 08:58
The system works extremely well. I am yet to see a punch up with this new system.

IS this how airline "systems" are judged ?

.... Mind you, I suppose it will work as well as a strongly worded letter from a "valued customer!"

Eastwest Loco
15th Dec 2004, 09:39
Sorry Jet* people, but the single sector theory, non interlineing or oncarriage of baggage and free boarding in my mind is ignorant in the extreme in the current Australian market.

It sidelines regional communities and denies them of the choice of what was always considered reasonable service with through baggage checking and seat allocation. Deprives them of International check through and makes the destination look less attractive to prospective tourists in many cases, except maybe those that would have caught the Firefly bus or havent travelled before and don't know better.

It is not that bloody hard to seat allocate - even if you go back to manual seat stickers and manual load and trim sheets. That would also remove the 30 minute checkin bullsh@t.

If you cannot close out a 177 seat aeroplane 15 minutes prior to pushback, then you are an amateur (given of course the right systems to do this).

This poorly conceived sister of Ryan Air (and all of the passengers Ihave booked on them have come back saying they are the Flight Centre of airlines - needs a lot of work before it will be a first choice for a lot of people, even if they have a lovely cabin crew. The experience is loaded with tension and uncertainty before they even take off, and again when they have to make there way to anoher carrier for oncarriage.

Best all

EWL

VC9
15th Dec 2004, 14:04
The more I observe the full service carrier operation the more I see advantages in the Jetstar operation.

Delays due to:

1. Catering. Incorrect loading.

2. Seat allocation causing congestion whilst pax in the middle and front of the cabin try to stuff oversized bags into the overhead lockers whilst people seated towards the rear try to get past.

3. Lounge members slow to get to the aircraft as they know the aircraft will wait. Passengers know the aircraft cannot depart without them when their bag is on board.

4. Waiting for connecting passengers and bags.

Grumpy passengers due to:

1. Expectations about the food and drink that ain't met. No one tells a passenger that their taste buds are far less effective at altitude due to lack of O2.

2. Complicated inflight entertainment systems that don't work properly and ain't that reliable no matter who the airline is.

Full service airlines having to over-book flights because passengers cannot be bothered cancelling the flights that they are not going to travel on knowing they will not loose the fare.

It jusst goes on and on....

Cactus Jack
15th Dec 2004, 22:09
Virgin Blue, which lobbied the Federal Government to publish the monthly statistics, had the worst performance, just 76.7 per cent of its flights being on time

I love it when Godfrey whines and gripes like a little girl, only to get his way in the end, and then have it back fire on him big time!

The irony is just so sweet!

FlexibleResponse
16th Dec 2004, 07:18
news.com.auJetstar reviews first-come seating
December 15, 2004

CUT-price airline carrier Jetstar's first-come, first-served seating arrangement is under review.

Some regular flyers had not been able to adjust to the seating method, which saved time and money over allocated seating, corporate relations manager Simon Westaway said.

"People have become accustomed to our model, but being accustomed to our model means we have to be attuned to what the marketplace is saying," he said.

"So we're going to assess the unallocated seating policy against a number of other elements of our airline."

But a review did not necessarily mean the end of the unconventional seating arrangement that helped the Qantas discount carrier keep costs down.
Colour-coded passes or conform to market demands?

Eastwest Loco
16th Dec 2004, 08:14
VC9 - all you mention as negatives has easy fixes.

1. Catering - over cater 10% and you are unlikely to come unstuck.

2. Seat allocation - Load back 50% of the aeroplane directly after special needs passengers, then the rest.

3. Priority tag the Lounge Passengers baggage and load them in an easily located locker, even if they are held until last on so the suckers can be ripped off easily if the passenger fails to load on the first or second call.

4. Jetstar is a non connection based airline, so there is no problem there at all - single sector and if they are silly enough to follow this path, then ther is no problem.

Grumpy passengers due to:

1. Food and drink - Drink apart from soft drinks has always been pay for in Y on QF mainline. If you serve the punters the food provided in Y on QF at the moment, you will have no problems. The quality is well and truly back.

2. Inflight entertainment is not an issue. Apart from medium- longhaul overseas passengers I have never had a passenger insist on an Airline on entertainment systems alone.

Also discount carriers have many abandoned seats, as it is not worth the call to pay a $33.00 cancellation fee on a $39.00 fare. I just heard from an insider that J* will shortly be overbooking up to their perceieved noshow level on most services.

The bottom line VC9 is that apart from the newbies, people in this market hate Jetstar with a passion, and will simply tolerate it if they must.

Look at the staffing costs. To check in a passenger in AVV, fly them to BNE, require them to recheck themselves and their bags back in at BNE for their flight to MKY means rechecking in MEL - the bags that have just been unloaded onto the racetrack have to be rechecked in and reloaded onto barrows when this could have been a simple transaction in the thru room. Likewise, the allocation of seats for the entire journey could have been performed at the start point. Try to tell me it costs less in staffing the way J* is doing it.

With all due deference to the Irish ex Ryan Air gentleman who is running this shooting match, this is not bloody Ireland or the UK. Take a little look and learn.

Best regards

EWL

MarkD
16th Dec 2004, 13:29
EWL

dead on loading the last rows first, a practise Aer Lingus at LHR T1 would learn much from, but they may need some sticks to beat of the yokels (Irish and UK) who insist on pushing to the front anyway. Maybe whoever takes over from Swissport will get with the programme.

Your repeated references to J*'s guy as ex FR (wasn't he ex EI?) is a bit off. We can't always choose who we worked for before.

Like it or not, through check has become a premium service, which is why non-through carriers should be restricted to secondary airports so they don't clog up the facilities for those who do :D

wirgin blew
17th Dec 2004, 05:08
So how does this free for all work when the aircraft is only half full and they are all sitting up the pointy end , surely there are some load and trim issues???

ditzyboy
17th Dec 2004, 09:18
Wirgin -
Certain seat rows are blocked depending on the load. Orange straps are used to block off particular blocks of seats. On the 717 the number of seats blocked now is quite similar to when we had allocated seating. Row 4 and 5 were quite often blocked due trim under the QF system.

The 320 seat blocking is a bit restrictive when we have between 130-150 pax. For example if we have 148pax there is only 5 available seats left empty as rows 7-10 are blocked. This is an annoyance as pax could have a bit more room and it is frustrating to see a whole section of the cabin unused. Hopefully they will review the 320 seat blocking. Somone said they may even be able to abolish seat blocking on the Airbus after a certain amount of time.

In my experience I have recieved MUCH less complaints about seating now than when we had seats allocated. We were forever getting parties of 6 allocated up all the 'D' seats etc etc. It was always horrible to forever ask pax to move around after boarding due to people being separated or not getting their 'choice' of seat. It happened ALL the time. With JQ we typically only get people separated on flights that are over 90-95% full and it's only ever the last one or two groups of pax that board. Again the number of people affected, in my experience, is far less than what we had before.

EWL -
Is it still the case that people with mixed itineraries are QF customers and QF is reponsible for mis-connections? If it is I don't understand why QF wouldn't assume the costs for JQ-QF baggage transfer. Am I right in saying as far as check-in goes the cheaper systems used by JQ and DJ do not talk to other airlines?

Eastwest Loco
17th Dec 2004, 12:26
Hiya Ditzy

As I understand it, DJ will interline onto Rex and selected Internationals, as rex interlines to most but not QF International. Checkin is not an option for seat allocation on either carrier beyond their own services.

I still hold that seat allocation is not that hard, and with lounge allocation, one seat chart can be used with the old fashioned seat stickers.

Makes the punters much happier.


Mark D

Thanks - but one small caution. If one is loading an aeroplane with a rearward c of g, one must ensure that the initial baggage/freight load is into the forward lockers to avoid an embarrasing "sit on arse" incident on the ramp. Not hard - just simple and procedural. F27-500's were famous for it and nearly copped one at DPO on a 200 series (VH-TFL) due to flight attendants trying to reinvent the wheel by reallocating and causing a backup in the rear entry.

Best regards

EWL

FlexibleResponse
17th Dec 2004, 12:55
And all these problems can be solved with....allocated seating?

Eastwest Loco
17th Dec 2004, 13:48
Yes Flexible

All these problems can be solved with allocated seating.

It is not anything above learning level despatch 101.

Regards

EWL