[Anonymous]

[IanFromHKG]

Was I the only one who thought some of the questions – or more accurately, the answer choices – weren’t very well thought through? There were several questions asking about how frequently I did something, with no “zero” option in the answer choices. Frankly, there were some of these activities that I hadn’t done but I was forced to put down an incorrect answer because ther was no other option available.

Some of the choices might lead to inaccurate reporting as well – I noticed, for instance, in relation to a question about airports that there were two “prompted” answers for the same one (“Hong Kong (HKG)”, or some such, PLUS “Chek Lap Kok Hong Kong”) – if these are treated separately when the results are analysed, then the results will be skewed.

It would have been nice to have a few more “Not Applicable” choices available too. I ended up typing “N/A” into any number of responses.

Finally I was surprised at some of the omissions from the airline lists. Airlines like Kingfisher (which I don’t think even flies internationally any more) were included, but Dragonair (one of the most important regional airlines in Asia, and particularly important for China routes) was not (and I noticed plenty of other omissions).

[capetonianm]

I also completed the survey and thought it was poorly designed in some respects. As Ian says, there should have been a zero or n/a option. If you answered less than the full number of options per screen you go to the next screen but it says ‘do you wish to continue without answering the question’ which implies that the whole screen will be ignored.

Someone needs to look at this more closely or the results will be skewed.

[canucklad]

I must concur…I found it quite difficult to accurately complete..

It also might explain why BA and T5 always seem to do so well !

Or am i being a bit cynical!

[BusinessTraveller]

Many thanks for your comments about the survey. We will feed them back to the market research company that conducts the survey for us.

Please be assured that where different names for the same airport, or more commonly for hotels appear (eg: Four Seasons Paris and George V Paris), these are consolidated before the research company presents the results to us, and indeed we do a final check to ensure no such duplicates exist.

Also we are told that should you skip an answer (by pushing the next button twice) then the answers you did fill in are still counted. Typing N/A is not required but for next year we will ensure that this is more obviously explained.

We do try and mention as many airlines as possible in the autofill answers and the key requirement is that they must fly internationally from the UK (as this is the Business Traveller UK survey), or be a major connector to UK flights. Listing some 800 airlines would not be workable hence why typing any answer is possible.

I should also answer the point about British Airways and T5. BA do win reader awards but there are other airlines that win more. As to T5 it has not won an award from us yet…..

Julian Gregory, Managing Director

[IanFromHKG]

Thanks for the response, BT – but when you say “the key requirement is that they must fly internationally from the UK … or be a major connector to UK flights”, I have to challenge you. As I said, Kingfisher doesn’t fly to the UK, and I can’t believe it is as important as Dragonair for connecting flights. I am sure there are plenty of other examples…

[Tom Otley]

Quite right.

But the survey is for the past year, not the coming year. They flew to the UK until April this year and the survey went out a few weeks later.

If you thought Kingfisher, or any other airline, had offered good service / product over that period, they could be voted for and receive that vote.

Tom Otley

[LuganoPirate]

I understand it’s a BT UK survey, but surely many of the UK readers also use large regional airline in other parts of the world.

In my case I use Kulula (reluctantly I hasten to add), Darwin and others. Dragonair seems a very important regional carrier and probably used by many UK travellers like Ian from HK, so it would be reasonable to include them in the list.

I have to add here that I have not seen the survey so have not seen its content or which airlines were excluded.

[Tom Otley]

They aren’t excluded. As Julian has said, you can type in – or write – any answer.

[alistairNicoll]

I am a professional market research and I was horrified at all the basic mistakes in the design of this survey and had already sent my views to BT before I saw this thread.

It is unfair to blame the agency it is the client who must accept responsibity, they should understand their market and should ensure that the questionnaire is fit for purpose. I have bought well over a 1000 market research projects from agencies and I always have a major input to ensure the questionnaire is fit for purpose.

[Tom Otley]

Many thanks for your comment.

We have no record of receiving any comments from yourself on this matter.

Please feel free to send them to <a href="mailto:[email protected]“>[email protected] marked for Julian Gregory.

There is certainly no blame being placed on the market research company. The survey has been designed to reflect the views of the readership of the UK magazine and website. We believe it does so but of course there is always room for improvement. Other surveys are run by other editions of Business Traveller and those are tailored for those markets.

The survey is also sent out in paper form to print subscribers and has changed little in recent years.

Julian Gregory

[alistairNicoll]

Julian will forward comments.

It is not the questions you are asking but the answers provided and the forcing of responses when I have not used or experienced a category such as a US hotel. These are basic mistakes

[LuganoPirate]

In fairness, as I said above, I’ve not yet seen the survey, it’s probably waiting for me at home.

However, I’ve been filling the survey in for years and never really found anything wrong with it. I suppose like any survey there is room for improvement and they never seem designed for my way/region of travel, but that is true of most surveys, not just the BT one.

Then again I suppose most surveys will never fit precisely ever respondent, if it did we’d all be the same and it would be a sad old world I imagine! I just fill it in as best as possible and hope my replies and suggestions are of use.

[LPPSKrisflyer]

I don’t know what all the fuss is about, if you don’t want to answer a question in the survey you can simply click to move on a second time and the survey lets you.

Are people reading it carefully before they criticise?

[NTarrant]

I don’t have a problem and if I haven’t been to an area, such as the US over the last year I leave blank.

I am suprised that Eastern is not included in the airline list

[Author]

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