New Charge for Velocity Bookings on EY

[jneufeld]

Did you state that even thoguh that is the case VA is charging double the fee for J/F that EY is charging, but Y charge is the same

I certainly did, but go no response. Here's what I said.

[FONT=&amp]If you wish to draw parallels with Etihad's carrier charges how about you look at your charges vs theirs:
Y - EY US$50 vs VA US$50
J - EY US$100 vs VA US$205
F - EY US$150 vs VA US$300
It's pretty obvious to me that you are price gouging your most loyal customers[/FONT]

 

[smit0847]

I certainly did, but go no response. Here's what I said.

This is what is impossible for VA to justify - they can't charge double what EY charge their own members and just think 'oh well, our members won't notice'

 

[Virgin Bart]

This is what is impossible for VA to justify - they can't charge double what EY charge their own members and just think 'oh well, our members won't notice'

Agreed. Someone should put that up as a pic to Twitter and/or Facebook to force a reaction. Disgraceful.

 

[trippin_the_rift]

This is what is impossible for VA to justify - they can't charge double what EY charge their own members and just think 'oh well, our members won't notice'

Why do they need to justify it?
It's also reasonably on par with Qantas too (see my posts about zero innovation in loyalty and FFPs copying each other).

This is the brilliant part about running your own currency - you control the value of both earn and burn. Inventory to a lesser degree too.
Virtual currencies have little to no regulation - and as uncle Dave says - they're worth trillions but technically don't exist.

End of the day anyone at Velocity will run a pretty visual report which strengthens their own decision making process:
- The changes had minimal to no effect on EY redemption pre/post changes
- Of the EY redemption, Velocity generated $x in new revenue
- No impact on point sales to financial institutions
- Of the gold/plat members who have booked EY awards in the past, their spend did not change over the same period

What this won't (and can't) show is:
- The number of points warehoused with banks which had potential earmarking for Velocity that now don't.
- Varying points transferred from warehouses into non-velocity air partners (uplift to competitors).
- Factor of members sentiment when they go to book an award and find it's 500% more expensive in 6,12,24 months...
- Potential impact of funding the difference with a points increase instead of cash component (eg: increase award to 350,000 return and no tax)
- The effect on 'splitters' who fly EY/VA and can credit to either partner which will now credit all to EY.
- Ongoing chipping away degrading the value of the program which is leading to loss of overall customer loyalty in the airline business (documented in many industry publications).
- Influential partners who book award flights on behalf of pax which will no longer suggest VA funding EY flights as an option

I think Velocity took the easy route by slapping an additional fee.
There are other ways to fund any potential price increase by EY which wouldn't have negative side effects.

As consumers if we want to avoid these BS fees and zero creative thinking by V employees who are taking the easy road - we need to effect change by modifying behaviour so that as a collective group we move the needle on key metrics which they will measure on a daily basis.

This means stop sending points to Velocity if you don't agree with their changes - especially if you've ever redeemed or an EY flight in the past.
Otherwise - they will justify the change as a success by looking only at the statistics they want to extract.

 

[cssaus]

I wonder if the ACCC would have anything to say about these charges??

 

[hossein_au]

I wonder if the ACCC would have anything to say about these charges??

Notwithstanding ACCC is a toothless tiger, I wonder how VA's changes can be argued as coercive or anti-competitive?

 

[Punky]

I wonder if the ACCC would have anything to say about these charges??

For the most part, the ACCC doesn't worry too much the price of things as long as there is adequate disclosure.

Notwithstanding ACCC is a toothless tiger, I wonder how VA's changes can be argued as coercive or anti-competitive?

There's plenty of companies that may disagree with you there....

 

[hossein_au]

For the most part, the ACCC doesn't worry too much the price of things as long as there is adequate disclosure.There's plenty of companies that may disagree with you there....

That may be, but the same companies will ALWAYS find a way around (or carve in new ways)...

 

[tgt01]

Thanks Roby - appreciate the info!

 

[uiopui]

Some feedback -

Previously I thought I might cough up the $820USD fine for using Etihad for J redemption as I was keen to try something other than SQ, but now I'm firmly against using them even though I was able to redeem before the fine was introduced.

I have to say after using SQ J (773ER/A380) to Europe and EY J (A380) back from Europe, Singapore Airlines redemption was a much better experience overall, both this trip and consistently over previous trips I have taken with SQ.

Given the average experience , I wouldn't recommend friends convincing themselves to go with Etihad over SQ given its now more expensive. SQ offers a free stopover and is now cheaper - about $500AUD return for my particular flights, and in my opinion offers a better overall experience.

If the old rules applied - ie no $820USD fine for using Etihad remdemption and the old EY $90 in taxes vs SQ $900in taxes then the $810 savings and chauffeur would make me put up with any complaints as its not like Etihad is terrible or anything, it's just not better in my opinion.

Just my thoughts...

 

[drewbles]

For anyone who made a booking pre-points increase (and surcharge), here's a data point for changing bookings.

I had a MEL-AUH-LHR booking with a very long layover in AUH. I called them (for around the 10th time) this morning to see if I could get an earlier AUH-LHR flight. I was told 'oh but points have gone up so we have to re-price'. I gently but firmly mentioned i'd been informed this was not the case. He went off and confirmed this was the case.

After much the same of 'oh we see it available but can't confirm it let me check' he came back saying it was confirmed. My ticket has been re-issued and just the $60 change fee charged.

Interestingly, the process of re-depositing points and withdrawing again did not happen. I just have a narrative on my account saying the award was changed (and 0 points as I paid rather than cough up 7,500 points).

EY shows the flight as unconfirmed still though, so i'm sure it's not the last i've heard of it (although VA has sent me an itinerary and an updated ticket).

 

[smit0847]

I booked a one-way J redemption before the surcharge kicked in on a combination of SAA connecting onto EY. I need to drop the SAA leg and just take the EY flights that have already been booked.
Velocity are telling me that if I do this the origin changes so the whole thing needs to be repriced, so the carrier surcharge will apply (an additional USD400). Is this correct? This seems very unfair as I am not changing the EY flights at all, simply dropping a leg of a different carrier.
Obviously if the SAA leg was at the end of the itinerary rather than the start I would just throw away the final leg but it’s the first flight so I cant.

 

[mmchow]

Any changes to the departure and arrival city will be repriced to the new awards chart. From what I gather, you booked from A to B, connecting onto EY to C. Now you want to change the award ticket from B to C. If so, this will be repriced.

 

[smit0847]

Any changes to the departure and arrival city will be repriced to the new awards chart. From what I gather, you booked from A to B, connecting onto EY to C. Now you want to change the award ticket from B to C. If so, this will be repriced.

That's a shame. Given the timing of the EY flights are no ideal (they are a few days later than I wanted because of availability), I may as well wait until T-7 before dropping the first flight to see if better EY flights open up.

 

[Kilo]

Just a note on this topic.

I had 2 EY F rewards seats from MEL - AUH - LHR in March.
These were booked before the fee changes came in. I needed to change the dates to October. The VA agent said the new fees will apply about half a dozen times. After an inordinate amount of haggling and asking the case to be escalated, VA agreed there would be no new fees!

Just a data point for those in a similar boat.