Why doesn't travel in premium cabins excite me as much as it should?

[opusman]

Long haul Y flying is certainly not the most comfortable experience in the world, but it's certainly very valid way of traveling and it's the method which the majority of the worlds flying population travel.

There are other methods of travel that are used by lots of people as well, it doesn't mean I'm personally prepared to do it.

 

[drron]

And today's travel story-
This could be the end of tiny airline seats | News.com.au

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I also think there are some people on AFF who have lost touch a little with reality. Long haul Y flying is certainly not the most comfortable experience in the world, but it's certainly very valid way of traveling and it's the method which the majority of the worlds flying population travel.

.

but by the same token, how many other things fall into the same category?

if someone chooses a Mercedes, or a house in toorak or on sydney harbour, or chooses to drink Champagne instead of sparkling wine, or to send their children to a private school, or buy designer clothes. are all those equally losing touch with reality?

there are very few circumstances where i would consider flying anything but a complete luxury. essential circumstances might include a medical evacuation, or dropping supplies after a natural disaster, or flying at short notice to visit a sick or dying relative.

but if you have a plane load of people flying to a beach holiday in Honolulu, or the Maldives, or the Seychelles... for no other reason than 'just because they can', how is the person who only wants to fly first class losing any more sense of reality than the person who can only fly economy?

those of us who fly are burning through millions of tonnes of carbon fuels simply because we can while hundreds of millions of others in the world can't afford regular food, medicine or education. have we all lost touch with reality?

also worth bearing in mind that low cost long haul has had a pretty bad record in terms of sustainability. in at least some cases (if not many) the people losing touch with reality by insisting on only flying first or business class are in fact subsidising the possibility for people to fly economy (for the price they are) at all.

 

[harvyk]

but by the same token, how many other things fall into the same category?

if someone chooses a Mercedes, or a house in toorak or on sydney harbour, or chooses to drink Champagne instead of sparkling wine, or to send their children to a private school, or buy designer clothes. are all those equally losing touch with reality?

Only if they are surprised that people would actually chose to drive something other than a Mercedes...

 

[Aussie_flyer]

I am sorry but I wasn't joking. It is a serious answer.

So unfortunately I will never get to try Jetstar (unless it was accidental) and at the moment LCC such as Tiger and Scoot, for me, are better.

I cant take you seriously when you say tiger and scoot are better when you've never flown Jetstar. Have you flown Scoot? Have you seen the shed tiger call home in in Melbourne? The lack of online checkin with tt? The lack of lounge access? If you are so annoyed at Qantas management why do you boycott jetstar but not Qantas?

 

[sydstar]

I will not fly Jetstar. I do not agree with the decision Qantas made to create a LCC and move routes to this LCC. Where it suits them Qantas and Jetstar are one but when it does not suit them they are 2 different entities.

To be fair, some of the current JQ INT routes were actually handed to them by AO and not QF - think DPS, NRT, KIX. QF had already pulled out and handed them over to their 'non-LCC' AO, so I can't see what the problem is here. Obviously premium demand was not high enough to make a F/J service viable. The JQ 330s are effectively the same Y product.

For Dom, wasn't JQ created due to the acquisition of Impulse and the 'new' threat of DJ, to allow QF to keep the premium Dom traffic and try and squeeze the (then) new DJ out of the market? Although not my first choice, JQ have opened up domestic air travel to those who previously couldn't afford it, and I'm sure you and I have both benefited from the greater discounting on QF as a result of the total capacity in the market (including that of JQ)

I do agree on the 'when it suits them' argument.

 

[boomy]

I am sorry but I wasn't joking. It is a serious answer.

I will not fly Jetstar. I do not agree with the decision Qantas made to create a LCC and move routes to this LCC. Where it suits them Qantas and Jetstar are one but when it does not suit them they are 2 different entities.

Ok, now I understand the principle you were taking about before.

Not going into the argument whether Qantas made a good or bad decision in creating Jetstar, I find it not logical to boycott JQ and keep flying QF, it's basically the same company.

Let's put it this way, every time you purchase a QF ticket, you are helping JQ getting another Dreamliner

 

[JohnK]

Not going into the argument whether Qantas made a good or bad decision in creating Jetstar, I find it not logical to boycott JQ and keep flying QF, it's basically the same company.

Lets see.

Qantas is a premium carrier of which I hold reasonably high status and they understand customer service.

Jetstar on the other hand is a LCC where my status means nothing and has no idea about customer service. And I would not be comfortable flying on their aircraft with the type of Australias flying them overseas.

Let's put it this way, every time you purchase a QF ticket, you are helping JQ getting another Dreamliner

Not sure I see it that way. By flying Qantas I am actually helping myself to keep some sanity.

 

[pauly7]

I am sorry but I wasn't joking. It is a serious answer.

I will not fly Jetstar. I do not agree with the decision Qantas made to create a LCC and move routes to this LCC. Where it suits them Qantas and Jetstar are one but when it does not suit them they are 2 different entities.

So unfortunately I will never get to try Jetstar (unless it was accidental) and at the moment LCC such as Tiger and Scoot, for me, are better.

Hey JohnK, not sure why others can't seem to accept your opinion! It's your view after all

Question for you though, as VA takes more control of Tiger (in AU) and rumours are they will also handover some routes to TT / or at least down grade the VA offering on those routes - if that happened, applying your QF/JQ principal would you stop flying Tiger?

 

[pauly7]

Let's put it this way, every time you purchase a QF ticket, you are helping JQ getting another Dreamliner

Hahah I get your joke...

But he is also helping QF;
- Get the A330s back, giving them an awesome refurb, best new J seat (though JohnK probably won't sit in one!),
- Funding new next gen 73H's for QF
- More 717s/refurbs for QFLink,
- More next gen Q400's for QFLink
- Perhaps eventually getting the 789 for QF as well
- Plus potentially paying for a fee more new A380s to come through



So thanks JohnK

 

[cove]

If we can all stop doing the caviar and champagne at home you might find the mystique of flying in premium cabins will return.

 

[JohnK]

Question for you though, as VA takes more control of Tiger (in AU) and rumours are they will also handover some routes to TT / or at least down grade the VA offering on those routes - if that happened, applying your QF/JQ principal would you stop flying Tiger?

Most likely if it means my status wont be recognised and Tiger customer service drops to the levels of Jetstar.

 

[JohnK]

So I ended up piking out and booked business class BKK-SIN-SYD.

I have gotten myself into a little mess next week with leaving BKK-SIN return flights to the last minute.

And finding it difficult trying to work out which is better value.

- MH business ~THB21,000 earning 200 SCs but very incovenient outbound flight. Economy is ~THB15,000
- CX business ~THB21, 000 earning 120 SCs but very inconvenient inbound requiring overnight in SIN. Economy is ~THB11,000
- SQ business award using 34,000 Amex MR points and ~THB5,000 surcharges earning 0 SCs

I have looked at Air Asia, Tiger and others but no value in airfare as luggage and golf clubs the killer.

Have I missed any other options?

 

[dajop]

Have I missed any other options?

The only other legacy carrier serving the route likely to have reasonable fare (ie. not SQ or TG) would be Ethiopian, with very late evening departure from SIN and early evening arrival into SIN ..... now if you want to take a leap of faith and try them out I'm sure we'd all be happy to hear about it ...........

 

[get me outta here]

Awardtravelr shows a flight if you had some points *A:

[TABLE="class: table-results table-condensed, width: 100%"]
[TR="class: results-header, bgcolor: #CCCCCC"]
[TD]Tue, Feb 25[/TD]
[TD="colspan: 2"]BKK to SIN (Non-Stop)[/TD]
[TD]2h 50m[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD][/TD]
[TD="class: depart-column"]

FCY​

[/TD]
[TD="colspan: 3"][TABLE="class: flight-box, width: 100%"]
[TR]
[TH] Ethiopian Airlines[/TH]
[TD]ET626[/TD]
[TD]Business[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
[/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD][/TD]
[TD="class: feature-pad"][/TD]
[TD="colspan: 3"]Star Alliance[/TD]
[TD] [/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD="class: results-underline bold"]Take-off[/TD]
[TD="class: results-underline bold"]Tue, 25 Feb 2:25pm[/TD]
[TD="class: results-underline"]BKK
Suvarnabhumi Intl (Bangkok, Thailand)[/TD]
[TD] [/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD][/TD]
[TD] [/TD]
[TD="class: bold"]Landing[/TD]
[TD="class: bold"]Tue, 25 Feb 6:15pm[/TD]
[TD]SIN
Changi Intl (Singapore, Singapore)[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]

 

[FxTrader]

After having traveled almost exclusively in premium cabins for over 15 years I think it's safe to say the idea of business class doesn't actually excite me much at all.

It's just that the idea of economy horrifies me.

Before flying EK I would agree. Then I flew EK A380 J window seat and started to enjoy flying again. Now I smile as the other carriers engage in catch up with EK and move their J arrangements out of the stone age.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Before flying EK I would agree. Then I flew EK A380 J window seat and started to enjoy flying again. Now I smile as the other carriers engage in catch up with EK and move their J arrangements out of the stone age.

EK is not known for being an industry leader by any stretch of the imagination when it comes to seating, or being at the forefront of innovation.

Plenty of airlines were full flat way before EK even got around to it!

 

[JohnK]

The only other legacy carrier serving the route likely to have reasonable fare (ie. not SQ or TG) would be Ethiopian, with very late evening departure from SIN and early evening arrival into SIN ..... now if you want to take a leap of faith and try them out I'm sure we'd all be happy to hear about it ...........

Unfortunately they only fly that route 3 days a week. On my return in May I get into SIN Friday night, so I would waste a day in SIN waiting for Saturday night Ethiopian flight get into BKK after midnight and not get into Chiang Mai until Sunday morning.

I have even asked travel agent in BKK to quote CX outbound and MH inbound but airfare is 2 one-ways due to different carriers. Not easy to mix and match airfares for a return.

 

[FxTrader]

EK is not known for being an industry leader by any stretch of the imagination when it comes to seating, or being at the forefront of innovation.

Plenty of airlines were full flat way before EK even got around to it!

It is not just the EK A380 J window seat, it is the entire experience. Don't know of any carriers J suite experience that matches what EK's A380 J window seat mini suite is now offering. Do agree that in the past their J offering needed updating.

 

[markis10]

So I ended up piking out and booked business class BKK-SIN-SYD.

I have gotten myself into a little mess next week with leaving BKK-SIN return flights to the last minute.

And finding it difficult trying to work out which is better value.

- MH business ~THB21,000 earning 200 SCs but very incovenient outbound flight. Economy is ~THB15,000
- CX business ~THB21, 000 earning 120 SCs but very inconvenient inbound requiring overnight in SIN. Economy is ~THB11,000
- SQ business award using 34,000 Amex MR points and ~THB5,000 surcharges earning 0 SCs

I have looked at Air Asia, Tiger and others but no value in airfare as luggage and golf clubs the killer.

Have I missed any other options?

No QF classic awards, the current points back makes them somewhat OK