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Australian air travellers are an increasingly unfaithful and bargain-savvy bunch.
And leading the pack of bargain hunters seem to be the traditional loyalists, annoyed with diminishing incentives and steep pricing.
But what we�re seeing is that rather than boycotting Qantas Frequent Flyer memberships, the frequent travellers are hunting for the best deal, no matter which airline.
The biggest fight is taking place in the world of travel management, which caters to the needs of large private and government organisations. In the old days of the Qantas and Ansett
duopoly, clients were happy to stick to one airline and let their
employees reap the benefits of award flights.
But now travel agents are making the airlines compete
for the best and cheapest deals, which means program loyalty often goes
out the window.
Virgin has already manage to grab a quarter of the sales
generated by the top 500 companies, largely due to its discounting and
no thrills policy.
And you can bet your bottom dollar that if Virgin
introduces the rumoured fly-10-get-one-free policy, bargain hunters will
continue to make the switch.
Footnote
Having said all that, one of our Frequent Flyer Bulletin Board regulars
said Qantas is feverously competing with Virgin, at least on the
Perth-Sydney stretch. He said internet fares in June were the lowest
he�d seen: �I've just booked two return flights to Perth from Sydney for
a total of $438. (And) Sydney to Melbourne / Brisbane / Canberra at just
$49 each way!�
United is beefing up its flight schedule this month. The struggling airline is planning 54 additional flights. It has also announced it wants to make its planes e-mail-ready. The JetConnect service would allow users access to e-mail facilities through portals on the back of seats.
But the cost is expected to be around $16 per flight plus transfer fees which could make for an expensive exercise on the narrow-band service.
Qantas is joining the fleet of international airlines opting to increase their flight numbers. Perhaps it�s a sign of the air travel industry finally picking itself up from the post September 11 and SARS downturn.
So far Qantas has increased its flights between Australia and the US from 25 to 28 a week, and then to 30 in August and 33 in September. When that happens, Qantas would be flying the same number of flights per week as it did prior to the terrorist attacks two years ago.
United is leading the pack of American airlines in the fight for loyal customers. But instead of frequent flyer program promotions, the airline is offering �fly three, get one free� deals, that have also been matched by other airlines.
The grace period for converting defunct TWA frequent flyer program miles to American Aadvantage miles is over. The former Aviators members were given a two-year chance to resurrect their old miles with Aadvantage
but that window of opportunity closed at the end of last month.
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