[TimFitzgeraldTC]

CityProfessional

I’m not sure why you say Premium Economy is a problem to sell through the GDS because they don’t make allowances for it. They can sell Premium Economy on the GDS as easily as Economy, Business or First – there is no issue as all with distribution here. Airlines like BA and Virgin have sold on the GDS for years and years without any problem. Looking at Cathay Pacific Premium – they often are sold out – or only selling full fare Premium so they can’t be doing too badly. So I think you are wrong on this point – certainly with regards to GDS.

Premium works well as you mention for Leisure Travellers – and Corporates as you say who don’t allow Business in the Travel Policy. Just like many SME clients I look after – who will use it on extra long journeys or overnight flights where the jump to Business is too high.

One reason why the Middle Eastern Carriers don’t want to put in Premium is they don’t want to dilute the business class loads and see no reason to introduce it. There argument is that for routes like LHR-DXB that are roughly 7 hours – many clients might downgrade which is not what Emirates / Etihad / Qatar want, especially on day flights. So leave it as Economy and Business. Like other posters mention, if you book in advance, or loads are light you can often get EK/EY/QR Business for less than BA/CX Premium on routes out to Asia.

[cityprofessional]

@TimFitzgeraldTC As I said, it’s dead easy to sell PE on an O&D route, ex-LHR to an SME. (1) how many SMEs are there who have Y+ policies in, oh, Lahore, Erbil, Bucharest and Khartoum? (2) how do you advertise, price and sell a mixed class Y+/Y or Y+/J routing on CX from LHR to anywhere except HKG, Aus and NZ? (any CX PE price you find me on CX to SE Asia – I’ll find you a cheaper, faster J class – often on CX!) TK pulled PE for this very reason – GDS couldn’t cope with anything *except* IST-HKG on days when the refitted 77W was flying – no connections, nothing – so it was hopeless unless they could fill 42 O&D PE seats a day.

So, PE – it’s totally sensible for BA, VS, SQ, CX, QF, and NZ. Not so much for EK or QR

If EK and QR were so worried about diluting J class yields, they should stop regularly undercutting full fare WTP on flights to Asia…

[TimFitzgeraldTC]

Hi CityProfessional

The GDS will price LHR-HKG to S.E.Asia with the onwards internal in Economy and Premium to HK if there is no Premium offered on the onwards leg, such as I have been quoting to MNL over the last week. It prices this very easily. Yes it can be that J Class on CX is cheaper than W but not normally the case (can be the case on any airline). CX have a bizarre pricing policy for one way J one way W for example – but that is just there pricing structure. If online booking tools struggle with this, or the airline themselves, then they only have themselves to blame. Decent travel professionals have no problem putting this together.

With regards to the OP – I can see why EK/QR/EY are not bothering with Premium at this stage and I’m not sure whether they will add before 2020. But I could be very wrong on that point!

[AMcWhirter]

As I mentioned above do not overlook the Y+ benefits of being able to upgrade or, worse still, downgrade passengers.

Clearly it’s a little more palatable to airline staff if they have to downgrade a passenger from J to Y+.rather than to dense 10-across Y. And it is easier, from a revenue point of view, to upgrade important customers from Y to Y+ than from Y all the way to J.

It is true that the Gulfies started life as mainly operating seven or eight hour sectors. But those mid-range sectors are being replaced by 14 to 16 hour missions on services linking the Gulf with the N America, Australasia and Latin America.

[Author]

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