I also find it hard to take seriously... Though DXB to EZE is a 19hr flight alone! I had a look and the fastest flight time Sin > EZE is 28hrs via France, 26.5hrs flight time. So NZ at 22hrs flight time does offer a small saving.
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Jaa & modandm. I fly about 30 Chinese guys every 60 days, bewteen Argentina & China. At present, we fly them with Lufthansa via Frankfurt or Air France via Paris. It would be quicker and easier (for the mainly no foreign language speakers) to fly via Auckland. We have looked into Aerolineas direct to Auckland and AirNZ from there to Beijing. It is pretty much the same price as Europe BUT the Chinese need Visas to travel through NZ, even if they don't leave the airport. For us, with 30 Chinese every 2 months and never knowing exact dates, it is impossible to use NZ as a hub. So we not only need Air NZ but also Immigration to come onboard and get real !
from: http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=nrt-cdg...u,+nrt-akl-gru
Tokyo - GRU is shorter distance via Dubai than Auckland 12500 vs 13000 miles
China - GRU is again shorter 11606 vs 13292 - alot shorter via DXB.
I find it hard to believe connection times at Auckland will be better than Dubai since in a few years EK will have 3 or 4 flights a day to most major cities such as PVG and GRU. And they will be cheaper for sure with 90 a380's on order.
Interestingly to EZE via Auckland is shorter than via DXB by over 1500 miles for Tokyo but not by much for China.
Singapore is about same for EZE and faster to GRU via DXB.
Things work better to SCL (Santiago) and onwards to Peru (S.A.'s major tourist draw). EZE looks similar for China and SE Asia and Brazil better via Dubai. From Japan you are better off going through America (LAX etc) on your way to South America.
The other point is that Asian tourists would probably prefer to stopover in NZ than Dubai. They have plenty of their own tall buildings to look at!
Reading through that thread, it appears that it's not just the changes to the upgrades system that is causing concern, but also the reported gutting of the FFP. I certainly agree with the latter point - AirNZ's system is now incredibly complicated and has completely lost its focus on encouraging customers to continue flying with AirNZ. Instead, I can now even use APD to buy a toaster!
I think the change from "fly to earn" to "earn to fly" (as per the investor presentations) has certainly driven this.
I notice that Qantas have made some changes to their upgrades system to more closely mirror what Air NZ used to offer, providing certainty around whether an upgrade is available, and are actively promoting this to all their customers.
As someone who follows AIR very very closely I have no concerns. Note that when business class was removed from the A320 TT there was the same outcry from frequent flyers. And we all know that the change to seats to suit has be fantastic and successful in turning around NZ's profitibility on the TT.
I expect One-up to have a big impact in increasing the profitibility of the Long Haul operation over the next few years. If a few frequent flyers get annoyed than that is tough as far as I am concerned. The business is run for shareholders not FF. The loss of some (maybe 10% not more) of true HVC will be more than offset by the increased revenue from the tens of thousands of average punters like you and me having a chance to u/g.
There is a clear strategy at NZ to move from being a premium focused carrier to a carrier with a competitive mainstream product - with top notch service and premium seats too. There is no point flying around with fancy business class and premium economy half empty.
The underlying impact to profitability of the One Up scheme really depends upon how the revenue team manage seat availability, and to a lesser extent how the status tier bonuses are applied to bids from frequent flyers. What I would not want to see is the business class cabin (in particular) become an upgrade cabin, filled with OneUp bidders, when this high-yield inventory could have been sold to full fare paying passengers (perhaps using more competitive lead-in fares). Under the previous systems the revenue team have IMO done a great job, releasing a few further upgrade seats very close to flight departure and auctioning off surplus inventory via third party auction sites, so hopefully my concerns will turn out to be unwarranted.
Reading through the complaints from on the FlyerTalk board, many of these could have been averted by better communication, something that Air NZ has traditionally been very good at.
With respect to the FFP I think a more streamlined, simpler, flight-focused scheme would be better fit, as the loyalty product market is already supersaturated with competitors of this generalised type. OTOH perhaps the scheme as currently operated could be a much more attractive going concern for Air NZ, and selling this division for a tidy profit to the operator of an existing loyalty company could allow the Airline to focus on its core business rather than a FFP, while injecting some significant capital into the business?
Zaphod - my understanding is the seats avaliable for the one up auction are only confirmed very late (1 week out) so I assume they only release the amount of seats that are empty. Therefore, they maximise full payting customers (unless they buy less tahn a week out) and maximise the utilisation of Airdollars for seats that would otherwise have gone empty. On paper it sounds like a win for AirNZ.
The problem is snotty nosed Gold FFP who think they deserve free upgrades to business just because they fly economy all the time (or upgrades on personal flights as they haven't got the boss picking up the business class cost).
The more I hear,the less bad it sounds. Really sounds like a communication failure. I'm staff and I still can't get a definitive answer to how it affects our travel benefits.
Exactly. They fly business for work build up status and points then expect to upgrade cheaply when paying their own way. And they are not satisfied with standby upgrades they must have confirmed upgrades... heaven forbid they should have to bid against others for the upgrade. They are so special maybe we should actually downgrade non GE pax when a GE pax wants to upgrade too (sarcasam).
The FF world is full of people who think they are better because they fly premium classes. They also love using hyperbole such as describing long haul economy as torture. I don't pay much attention to them
Hope the new guy doesn't get the CEO job. OneUp could very well be a preview of his style/approach to make money. It's badly executed and the new GGM seems indifferent to customer/staff feedbacks.
I heard that business was so bad in March hence the decision to finally introduce fuel surcharge. The Chairman must be mad to be paying dividents when the company could be in the red comes the next announcement. Probably only doing it to please his master, the finance minister...LOL. Hope he goes together with Rob Fyfe end of the year.
In other news, Aerolíneas Argentinas is not offering flights for sale on it's website to Auckland past 30 June 2012. Can anyone confirm that they have pulled the plug?
Jaa I just asked my travel agent in Argentina about this. He was not aware of it but on checking, found that AA has no flights available after 30 June through his booking system over here in Argie. So they must be pulling out. He also said that with Qantas having already pulled out, it would leave only LAN via Santiago as a realistic option to fly between NZ and Argentina and he fears LAN flights may become full and hard to book with increased pricing !
Yeah aerolineas cut their 2 worst performing routes. I thought that Cathay pacific have a flight there now or is it a code share?