Emirates' new unbundled business class fares

[Mattg]

Emirates is introducing "business special" fares which will not include lounge access, chauffeur drive service, seat selection (until online check-in opens) or the ability to upgrade using Skywards miles. The cheaper fares will also earn fewer Skywards miles. The business special fares book into H class, which is not eligible to earn Qantas points.

So far this seems to be offered on fares ex DXB.

Thoughts?

Unprecedented: Emirates Unbundles Business Class

Emirates is making some significant changes to their business class fares, including introducing business class fares that don't come with lounge access.

onemileatatime.com

 

[pauly7]

Chauffeur drive can actually save you quite a bit of money so would depend on your transfer circumstance I guess and the delta between the fare classes.

Personally I try to skip lounges these days and don’t care about the rest but seat selection would be a deal breaker for me if I was on a long haul overnight I like a quiet private suite away from the bar.

 

[henrus]

Thoughts?

It's not great and I struggle to understand the target market.

At the moment it looks like you're saving between A$200 (short haul) and A$800 (long haul) round trip (based on the fares we've seen ex DXB)

Let's take DXB-SYD-DXB, a saver ticket is A$8000 but the new special ticket is A$7200 ($800 saving).

20% less points (9000 less on a round trip AU-DXB)
No Limo transfers (4 trips)
No seat selection (48 hours you get randomly assigned a seat) (hard to but a price on seat selection)
No Lounge access (Emirates currently charge US$100 at the door)
Double the change fee compared to a saver ticket.

So maybe at the end of the day you save ~$400 (possibly less depending on taxi cost, what you value lounges and seat selection to be).

They're obviously trying to attract budget conscious business pax but given the same dates (DXB-SYD-DXB in November) was only $4700 on Cathay, a full $2500 cheaper than the Emirates Special ticket I can't see it working very well.

Couples/Families won't book it because of seat selection issue
Business travel won't book it because it's so inflexible (limited availability and costly to change)
and
Budget conscious won't book it because it's not cheapest

 

[pauly7]

It's not great and I struggle to understand the target market.

They're obviously trying to attract budget conscious business pax but given the same dates (DXB-SYD-DXB in November) was only $4700 on Cathay, a full $2500 cheaper than the Emirates Special ticket I can't see it working very well.

Couples/Families won't book it because of seat selection issue
Business travel won't book it because it's so inflexible (limited availability and costly to change)
and
Budget conscious won't book it because it's not cheapest

I think their target market is ‘logical BFOD’ business operators of which there are a lot these days.

A logical BFOD policy would rule out stupidly long trips and excessive stop overs like your Cathay example, but might edge them below some of their more direct competitors to skim that pool of customers. Logical BFOD generally doesn’t look at inflexibility and associated costs either in my experience.

 

[dajop]

Thinking about this:
1) Lounge access due to class of travel ( business class) may be immaterial to many of an airlines frequent travellers, who may get lounge access via status anyway, or may hold priority pass to access alternative (but inferior) lounges
2) Chauffeur drive may or may not be of value, depending on distance from airport and quality/reliability of alternative means of transport (taxi, rideshare) or parking costs.
3) Seat selection - OK to do without on A380. On 777's with the 2-3-2 config, definitely still value here.

So it can see why it makes sense for EK to unbundle some of these components.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I am a bit disappointed that the 'bundling' didn't go far enough. I'd rather have had a bare bones 'seat only' option... you pay for the seat but nothing else. No business check-in, meals, lounge, car, points. Air China already has this with their on board upgrades, passengers are seated in the last row of business class where they can be served economy meals without drawing attention to the rest of the cabin.

 

[opusman]

Unbundled fares are not about making base fares cheaper, it's a way they can charge more for the fares that everyone actually wants.

 

[Berlin]

What a nightmare (especially if you have to travel for business and get forced to use this fare) and I fear other airlines will follow.

Luckily the price difference is not that huge so if I fund out of my own pockets (which I usually do on long haul), I'd always happily pay the higher fare. Or just fly a different airline altogether, especially if the route is operated by a 777 which is a pretty coughpy product on EK to begin with,.

 

[lacuska1]

around 7k with EK a normal business class on momondo-and 4500 with CX so who is the idiot who would go with Ek?what a rip off this is-taking into consideration the facts that this 'cheap' ticket implies? stuck in a middle seat no limo etc-you must be kidding!

 

[pauly7]

around 7k with EK a normal business class on momondo-and 4500 with CX so who is the idiot who would go with Ek?what a rip off this is-taking into consideration the facts that this 'cheap' ticket implies? stuck in a middle seat no limo etc-you must be kidding!

As already said the ‘idiots’ will be logical BFOD business policies of which there are many.... probably even a majority I would suspect.

 

[PineappleSkip]

I can live without my chauffeur drive, I can live without my lounge access (get it anyway), I can live without my upgrade if in J already. But I can’t live without my preseating, especially on the wretched 777s. When most of the seats are already taken, guess which are left?

Cheers skip