Fidelity to better airlines

[Rwy in Sight]

By reading the thread on the Jet Blast about the airlines rating, the question remains how much are we willing to pay more to fly on airline that has treated me nicely on the past.

The airline I usually fly from my local airport has helped on two occasions without charging me despite having the right to do so. So I always check their site first and I tend not to look at other options too closely.

How about you?

Rwy in Sight

[Gibon2]

Ha! - for many airlines, that is the $64 million question. Answer it convincingly for a large proportion of travellers, and you can make a fortune as a consultant to airline loyalty programs.

For me, where I have discretion to choose freely (often for work travel I don't), for long-haul flights I will generally pay up to about 20% more to fly on airline that I like (and I may like them because of comfort, service, favours granted, miles status, etc). But for me, price is generally a less important factor than travel time and convenience of schedule. I will happily abandon a favourite carrier for the cruddy competition, if the cruddy competition offers a direct flight and the favourite carrier requires a connection.

For short-haul, I will take the cheapest direct flight that goes at the time I need: airline is not a consideration at all.

[Ancient Observer]

When I was a "busy dynamic senior executive" in the private sector, Time was normally the key for me. Price was irrelevant. Whatever did the job - the travel - fastest - worked for me. Frequent - at least monthly - travel to Asia, a few to Aus p.a., and about monthly to USA. (I can bore for England on the problems of introducing the 747-400 - most of the problems happened to the plane I was on, every time))

Then I got hooked on all the airmiles stuff and ended up as Gold on BA and SQ. (SQ did a lot more nicer things for their gold folk than BA ever did.). The airmiles meant more blooming long haul flights. A big mistake, I let the youngsters discover Florida.

Over time, I got used to planning things a bit better, so my then PA did sometimes mention pricing issues to me. The I got interested in the prices and would do things that used time to get better prices.

Then I moved to Bru., where BA actually competed to get my business. Wow! BA actually competing. That was very novel. So BA got a bigger slice of my biz., until SQ competed......etc.

Now I'm retired and boring, and all my flights are about price, but price with standards. MOL does not want me on board his planes, and he and I are both happy that one's standards are not that low.

[ExXB]

Think about it, who can charge you more for a ticket? The one that knows you're a member of their FF scheme, or the one that would like you to be a member of their's?

I too was BA Gold, flying 6th freedom long haul via LHR. They lost me when they started thinking I was flying them for the miles.

P.S. is the executive club office in Bremen still as bad as it was?

[Tableview]

I have a number of absolutely 'no-fly' airlines (about 4), a few I will avoid if possible, and outside that I choose on the basis of convenience, reputation, and price, in that order of priority.

In Europe to and from UK I tend to use easyJet when possible, and for longhaul KLM or Swiss.

[James 1077]

Domestic I will always fly Air New Zealand. If that isn't possible or is too expensive then I just won't fly. A shocking experience on Jet Star means they will never get my custom again.

I don't generally fly international much anymore but my wife does - and her preference is always Singapore - mostly because of Changi. If that isn't possible then Air NZ via Hong Kong. And if that isn't available then anyone else. Singapore probably worth a 20% premium before we think about others - Air NZ via Hong Kong a 10%.

Got a family trip coming up next year to Orlando and are thinking about flight options at the moment. Air NZ coming in quite pricey and with long US segment on a US carrier (United I think). We are therefore reasonably tempted to go Qantas and fly the wrong way for 3 hours to Sydney, back over the top of NZ to Dallas and then have a shorter US leg on AA. Its an extra 6 hours total flying time but saves us a little money and means we avoid spending as long on a US carrier as we would with the more direct route.

[gdiphil]

Interesting question raised in this thread. Last summer I was off to Bangkok from London. Qatar had some very good prices, probably the best at the time and of course were cheaper than the non-stop fares. And at the same time Skytrax came out with their survey results giving QR the best in the sky rating or whatever it is called. So, no brainer I tried QR. No way would I do that again. It just takes too long compared with the non-stop airlines. (I didn't find QR anything special I must say, although I would fly with them again but it would have to be for Oz eg Perth, since a stop always has to be made somewhere.)
In two weeks time me and Mrs gdi are off to Penang. Once again fantastic airfares via the gulf. But two stops often needed to get there. So, we are going with SQ, one stop each way but more costly.
I'm off to Jackson Hole, Wyoming at the end of the month, once again from London. Great fares could be had if I was prepared to have two stops ie three plane rides each way, but I have decided to use non-stop BA to Dallas and then non-stop on AA to Jac. I have come to the view that loyalty to anything other than one's safety and the smallest amount of time in airports is the only way to travel these days.

[pwalhx]

I agree I have certainly airlines I avoid wherever possible KLM and Ryanair being top of the list and BA if I can avoid it (which often because of work I cannnot).

Then it is a mixture of price and service, unlike the former comment I have always found QR fantastic and I have to say I am lost why people rave about SQ I have always found the service average at best.

Short haul will generally be Easy if I can, long haul anyone who flies from the north and means I can avoid Heathrow. EK win a lot purely because of the fantastic A380.

[Lance Murdoch]

Most of my business flights are UK to one of the Gulf countries and short hops between the U.A.E. Bahrain and Kuwait with the odd trip to Oman. Airline of choice is Emirates primarily because they fly from my local airport which avoids the hassle of a trip to Heathrow or Manchester.
The odd work trip to Europe is generally the cheapest non Budget carrier selected on schedule.

For pleasure if Im going to the Middle East, Africa, Far East or Australia then again its usually Emirates. Primarily for convenience but as I do a lot of business flights with them (albeit mainly in economy class - its nice to feel valued by your employer:rolleyes:) I do have some status with the frequent flyer programme which makes the trip a bit easier. They are also amongst the least expensive to these destinations from the UK.

I flew with RyanAir once for a friends stag weekend. They did what they said they would, no more, no less. I would consider using them for pleasure but I would not use them for business because of the extra hasslement factor involved.

[Hotel Tango]

Interesting to see that one poster is quite happy to fly KLM whilst another puts them on their "to avoid" list. Perhaps the difference might be that one is flying in Business Class and the other in Economy? Personally, I use KLM for most of my long haul travel, which is always in Business Class, and have no reason to complain although I have to admit that their Business Class seat and IFE is now a little outdated. I avoid Ryanair like the plague primarily because they do not provide the product I want, but also because I have no wish to contribute to that arrogant little **** MOL´s profits! :)

[MathFox]

Interesting to see that one poster is quite happy to fly KLM whilst another puts them on their "to avoid" list.
Well, AMS is my "home" airport and for 'convenience of schedule' I've flown quite some miles with KLM. My opinion of KLM is that they never failed to bring me where I needed to be; one thing that could seriously use improvement is achieving a consistent level of cabin service. As Dutchmen I enjoy watching how flight attendants and pursers fill in their roles from their own ideas of what their function entails, but I realize that could look a lot like anarchy to foreigners. :rolleyes:

Over the years that I was a regular transatlantic flier (now past) KLM (+Delta/NW) has won my business because the competition (United/US) had consistent bad service levels. The flights I had with BA, AA and QF were good and I can say that BA seems to be able to achieve consistent good service levels... their problem was that their schedules were more inconvenient.

[Tableview]

KLM seems to be a 'Marmite' airline - people either love it or hate it. In fact the Dutch are in the same category.

Most of my Dutch friends hate KLM, most of my South African friends hate the Dutch, but they are one of my favourite nationalities, I love the direct and pragmatic approach they have to life. Schiphol is a good airport to connect through and I usually take advantage of connecting to spend time with friends in Holland or just to hop on a train and go and walk around one of the lovely towns like Utrecht, Haarlem, Leiden, Alkmaar etc. KLM service delivery is pretty consistent, the food is OK, and when I go to SA I enjoy the daylight flight southbound.

[pwalhx]

'Interesting to see that one poster is quite happy to fly KLM whilst another puts them on their "to avoid" list. Perhaps the difference might be that one is flying in Business Class and the other in Economy?'

The answer to your question is I fly in Business.

[Hartington]

I'm inclined to put non-stop flights at the top of my list. I like flying and it holds no horrors for me so multi stop flights and changing planes isn't an issue as such (I once flew Washington/Orlando/Tampa/Miami on a National 727 and then connected to a Pan Am 727 Miami/San Juan/Antigua/Barbados/Port of Spain). But as I've got older I've come to realise that take off and landing are the riskiest parts of the flight so why do more than you have to.

Then there are the airlines I will avoid. I think I'm inclined to agree with the EU list plus a few others. BUT if I am in the home country of one of those airlines and my choice is between a road journey and a flight or a ferry and a flight I'm inclined to fly. Trains are a different decision - I shall be watching Chris Tarrant in his new C5 show about railways with a big grin on my face.

Having got that lot out of the way, if I'm left with a choice, I will then eliminate the US based carriers. They're OK but nothing to write home about and some of their security rules worry me.

I'm off to Chile soonish and that's BA to Sao Paulo connecting to LAN on to Santiago and a round trip to Easter Island. A cruise gets us to Buenos Aires and then BA back to London. The alternative was Iberia for the long haul and,quite apart from the extra stop that meant on the way home, this is one time when quality came into the mix. I've no doubt some people here think IB better than BA but I prefer BA.

In the end I reckon it's all very personal and I don't expect many people to make their decisions the same way I do.

[PAXboy]

All posters have given reasonable and as Hartington says, personal views. I could align with the reasoning of most at different times.

The mainpoint is that I would not expect anyone to be loyal to any supplier - irrespective of the line/brand/type. Supermarkets, car manufacturers and political parties cannot expect customer loyalty. Mostly, I think that is good but I can also see how it makes it much more difficult for a brand (particularly airlines) to provide consistently better service, as they know that pax will no longer use those criteria to select a ticket. So yield goes down and the death of 1,000 cuts takes over.

Quite simply, we are still mid-way in a remarkable change from airlines of the 1980s to whatever they are going to be in the 2020s.

[Hotel Tango]

I am loyal to a point. However, if a particular supplier (or airline) cannot give me what I want, I will not remain blindly loyal and make do. I will have no hesitation in changing to another brand.