First Class is dead. Long Live First Class.

10 years ago last month(January 2000) British Airways changed business class flying forever when they introduced the lie flat business class seat. I am sure that the revenue management team putting together the pricing and yielding plan for that launch did not realise that 10 years later they would be causing the death of first class. The launch itself completely changed the pricing for the standard 3 class airlines. In the early nineties (with the old Business Classes) the general rule for pricing between Economy, Business and First was "double double". Business was twice the cost of Economy. And First twice the cost of Business. But with flat beds stripping out seats, the pricing had to change. The rule went from "double double" to "by four by one point five". Sydney to Europe in economy was a $2,500, Business by 4 at $10,000 and First by 1.5 at $15,000. The gap between the price of Economy and the price of Business grew too great to withstand the Global F'n Crisis.

Today Qantas announced (during the publication of their results) that they would spend $400mm refitting most of the fleet to eliminate first class in all but 12 of its A380s.

On Jan 26 this year Air NZ announced their new plans for class configurations. They announced a revamped business, high end premium economy and the first efforts at beds in economy class. It does not include a first class (Upgrade:Travel Better blog post here on the announcement).

I therefore conclude that First Class is on its deathbed. My prediction is that within the next 3 years (by end 2013) all but the most luxurious of carriers that have flat or near flat Business Class seats (ie everyone bar Emirates, Qatar, Etihad and maybe Singapore) will follow suit and remove First Class from their configurations. That will leave Business as the new First with a huge gap to Premium Economy and smaller gap to Economy. In effect having moved from a 3 class airlines product to a 4 class airline product to a 2.5 class range of product.

But the change will continue. I predict that over the course of the following 7 years (starting in 2013 and ending in 2020) the seats in premium economy will start to lean a little more, then be spaced out a little further, then go a little flatter, then have their own lounges and check ins and finally an airline will announce Krug being served in "Business Class". We will realise that Airlines are back to the "natural order" of front of the plane with flat beds, middle of the plane with large, very comfortable seats and the back filled with grouchy people wondering why they signed up for the "enhanced transportation techniques" afforded by economy class.

In other words we are witnessing the end of First Class....until they rename Business, flatten out Premium and we go round again. Do you agree?

PS - if you like stories and analysis on the life, death and opulence of first class travel check out Shashank Nigam August 2009 post on SimplyFlying called " Singapore Airlines A380 Suites – A Class Beyond First or a First Class Branding Debacle?".

thanks to x-ray delta one via flickr for the photo of a 1959 707 first class on board lounge area

Qantas to Amadeus – what the hell was that???!?

In 2007 Amadeus and Qantas were riding high. A joy filled press release heralded that their relationship would bloom for another ten years. The then CIO John Willett was full of praise saying

"The development of Altéa [Amadeus' airline customer management system], which has become the leading customer management solution for airlines, has been a milestone for the industry and we expect that the next 10 years will help us to innovate further,"

A year later there was a new CIO at Qantas (Jamila Gordon) and the good times continued. The companies announced that the Altéa system was fully implemented. Gordon was filled with the joy and expectation that can only be found in press releases

"Exceptional customer service is a key competitive weapon and you can only deliver this by understanding the needs of individuals which is what the integrated Altéa system provides." She added, "As the operating environment for airlines gets tougher, it is essential that technology is able to both deliver greater operational efficiency as well as support the implementation of policies that build customer loyalty and drive increased revenues."

Remember those words “deliver greater operational efficiency”.

Fast forward to Jan 3 2010 and the Amadeus and Qantas bromance took a blow (though it does not look fatal) when the Amadeus Altéa system appeared to suffer a world wide hour long blue screen of death crash-a-doodle-do. Automated check-in came crashing down. Customers were stuck and airline crews abused. Qantas firstly called it “intermittent” (SMH) . But later an ABC commentator found out that the system had crashed on three separate occasions during the outage period. Delays, angry customers and twitter rant–a-thons ensued.

Unlike the PR love-ins of the previous announcements, Qantas was very happy to very publicly blame the whole thing on Amadeus. Newly appointed Qantas spokesman David Epstein used all of the tact that his former Labour party bosses are famous for by being very polite in his finger pointing but stating clearly and cleanly

"We are seeking assurances this won't happen again,"

(according to a report from the ABC)

The Herald Sun very neatly summed up the response from Amadeus to the blame game “Amadeus could not be reached for comment”. I bet they couldn’t.

Thanks to Aaron Frutman over at Flickr for the phot of Kobe in flight

Seat Review - British Airways World Traveller Plus (Premium Economy)

A family emergency sent me to Berlin. The trip back (which was filled with stress and eventually relief) was on British Airways Premium Economy – branded World Traveller Plus. Due to the circumstances of the trip I was not in a good mood. This almost certainly impacted my attitude toward the flight and the product and therefore this review. That said, it is clear that World Traveller Plus (WTP) is closer to economy than business. It is a product a little above economy but well below business. The problem is that the pricing (absent a deal/special) is mid way between Business and Economy. Therefore without a deal or pricing special then WTP is not worth the money - especially if your frequent flyer status already grants you access to premium check in and lounges.

With that background, the BOOT rating for British Airways World Traveller Plus (International Premium Economy) is a 2 stars out of 6 or "Bad Seat". Here is the detailed review (Details and scoring system for airline seat reviews)

Getting on Board	Score 0
Not sure why and it was not a factor associated with World Traveller Plus, but this was the slowest boarding I have every experienced on a 747. BA was using one door rather than two but even so there was an annoying long delaying in boarding and chaos at the gate. It felt at times like a queue for Space Mountain at Disney land, each time I eventually came around a corner I thought that it would be the last one and I would get a glimpse of the door only to be disappointed and realise there was another stretch of the gate and corner to go around. My mood was also a factor due to the nature of the trip but also because Terminal 4 at Heathrow is an abandoned wasteland with construction, closed shops and poor facilities. The BA lounge is sub-par by any measure (against competitors, against other airports and against BA’s other offering in Terminal 5). On board there is no pre-flight drink or other offering from BA in this class. Combined this contributed to me reaching my seat in an even worse mood.
The Seat	Score 0.5
There is a reason why the product of Premium Economy or World Traveller Plus is tied in its definition to the Economy product. The seat is a step above economy but it is not a leap above. Put another way this is not a product that sits in between the Economy Class and Business Class (Club World) products. Instead it is a noticeable but incremental improvement on economy. The extra seven inches of leg room is nice but not transformative. This means that you are more comfortable but is does not make for an ability to sleep for an entire sector (ie 7-8 hours). There were also some very annoying parts to the seat. Something (I think either the VOD unit or lifejacket) was placed under the seat in front in such a way that it impeded my ability to freely put my feet under the seat in front. For someone of my size (185 cm) the foot rest is useless (too high) and the leg rest is meaningless (does not come out far enough) so the benefit of the extra leg room comes from the ability to put my feet under the seat in front. This is not as possible in this BA product as it should be. Also annoying is the location of the Entertainment (VOD) remote control. I had this issue on Qantas economy also. The controller is at thy height in the arm rest. Means that each time I moved my legs, I hit the controller which paused, fast forwarded or otherwise messed up the movie I was watching. In the end had to store the controller in the magazine flap in back of the seat in front which was annoying for me and the passenger next to me when she tried to go to the bathroom.
The Service	Score 0.5
The service provided is attentive, punctual and functional but it is also procedural. That means I felt I was on the staff’s timetable with limited flexibility. I would have liked to have received a little more proactive service such as bringing me more drinks and walking around looking for passengers needing help. The trick to long haul Europe to Australia is to stay awake for the first sector and sleep for the second. That way your longest period of sleep ends with the early morning landing into Australia. This means staying awake for 12-13 hours. To do that I need a lot of support in drinks and other care. I feel there could have been more. I did like the dedicated cabin aspect. Regardless of food, seat and service, having less people fighting for air, toilets and attention is valuable.
The Food	Score 0.0
As with the seat, the food is a step above economy but two or three below business class. It is a one tray service, all packaged and very carbohydrate heavy. The last meal of the trip (breakfast) after 9 hours of flying from Bangkok was a “deli box” – something that should be more at home on a Sydney to Melbourne flight than a meal designed to break a six hour break without food.
The Entertainment	Score 0.5
The Entertainment is solid enough with a fair selection of movies and TV. But BA VOD is a step behind the leaders in this space (Cathay and Singapore). Issues that detract from enjoyment of the system and place it a step below the leaders are: (1) the delay in starting – 15 minutes after seat belt sign is turned off; (2) the location of the controller (see above); and (3) turned off tow soon – 30 minutes before landing.
The BOOT factor	Score 0.5
It my BA Business Class review (Club World) Review I expressed my annoyance that World Traveller Plus is located between door one and two giving WTP passengers a head start off the plane over business class. When in business class this annoyed me. Now I am in WTP, it is a nice bonus. BA’s other WTP twist is their “raid the larder” snack program where business and premium economy passengers can access a mini bar area with drinks, fruit, candy and sandwiches. This used to be one of my favourite parts of the BA premium product experience. But on this flight it was not as good as I remember. It could have been my grumpy mood but it did not look as enticing as previous flights.
Final Score	2.0 - Bad Seat

Details and scoring system for airline seat reviews

thanks to caribb for the photo

Jetstar on Virgin Blue - Perils of in-flight TV

In flight TV is all the rage with Low Cost Carriers because it opens up a revenue stream without the complexity of managing a video on demand system. Unfortunately streaming live TV comes with a lack of editorial control. Here is a photo of me watching a Jetstar TV advertisement while sitting in a Virgin Blue seat somewhere between Sydney and Melbourne. That is 192 people looking at your competitor's brand while consuming your product.

Lies, damn lies and statistics about Jetstar

I hate it when Airlines use statistics to tell bald-faced lies and make themselves sound more successful they they deserve to sound. I hate it at a purest marketing level and also because it helps perpetuate consumer mistrust of travel companies.

I came across a piece on TravelWeekly (AU) titled "Jetstar edges out rivals in share battle". Summary of the piece is that the Qantas owned Jetstar is now ahead of Singapore Airlines and Air New Zealand in Australia in term of international market share. This (in theory) puts Jetstar in the number two international carrier spot behind Qantas. Jetstar's share (according to the article) is 9% of the international market in May up from 6.1% the previous year. But over the same period Qantas' share dropped from 26.2% to 22.4%. A large part of the drop in Qantas is because Jetstar flights replaced Qantas flights. A simple carrier for carrier switch by the parent company. Clearly the near 3% lift in Jetstar numbers was helped by the near 4% drop in Qantas carriage share. Jetstar CEO Bruce Buchanan (in his press release on this story) clearly attributes the results to the performance of the airline and does not credit being given free traffic and passengers by Qantas. By "free customers" I mean customers they did not have to earn by marketing to and beating a rival to acquire.

At a conference last year a Jetstar rep put up a graph showing the domestic number passengers that Jetstar was carrying per month since its launch in 2004 and compared that to the number of passengers that Ryanair was carrying four years after its launch. On that comparison Jetstar was way ahead of Ryanair, the clear implication being that Jetstar is a better LCC that Ryanair at this stage of their development. They supplement this on their website by praising themselves for winning awards such as the "Top 5 Carriers for Passenger Growth 2009" award.

However just like international it is unambiguous that Jetstar owe more of their domestic passenger growth to the huge amounts of "free" traffic/passengers they were given from Qantas routes being handed over to Jetstar than to any creative marketing or pricing on Jetstar's part. In fact I would argue that a number of their marketing campaigns would do more to turn customers off the airline rather than on. Whereas Ryanair had to steal/lure away each customer from BA, easyjet, Aer Lingus, Jetstar simply had to wait for the customers to turn up looking for a red rat tail and then resign themselves to being served by people dressed in grey and orange.

I am not arguing that Jetstar is a bad airline. They have a much more enjoyable product offering than Ryanair and other LCCs I have flown. But to celebrate this growth as if they had started from a zero base (like Raynair and Virgin Blue) is disingenuous to say the least.

Am I being too tough of Jetstar? What do you think?

Thanks to StarvingFox at flickr for the photo

Airline sector to lose US$9 billion this year - Wharton

BOOT read of the week is a June article from Knowledge @ Wharton called "The Airline Industry's Rising Crisis". The article quotes IATA's Giovanni Bisignani as increasing his estimates on 2008 losses for the air industry from US$8.5 billion to US$10.4 billion. Passenger traffic is not the only area of pain - cargo is likely to drop by 17%.

The article tries to point to some good news such as fuel back below $100 a barrel, increasing consolidation and teaming up by airlines and new technologies helping to reduce costs.

The final part of the article gives some specific and detailed analysis of the LATAM aviation market.

June 2009 stats from IATA (care of e-tid registration required for link) are tracking June revenue on international markets down a horrifying 25-30% with load factors of 75.3%, down from 77.6% in June 2008.

Top 5 ways to know that your airline is trouble

Madame BOOT's sister lost a day and hundreds of Euros this week with the collapse of Italian low cost carrier MYair as her flight from Paris to Venice ceased to be. Two things came out of this. First - it is one thing to have travel insurance (which my sister-in-law has), but it is another to find in the fine print that the policy excludes costs from airline bankruptcy. This is definitely something all consumers should be checking before buying travel insurance. Second- it turned me to thinking about the top five signs that your airline or flight is in trouble. Here they are

5. Like USAir flight 1549- Kamikaze Canadian Geese are seen in the vicinity for your aircraft;

4 Like United Airlines - you put your very creative but completely incomprehensible sea orchestra advert on Youtube and hit 16,500 views. Then an unknown Canadian country and western band do a cheesy song on your baggage handling stupidity and who cares customer service attitude and it gets 4.3 million views and a distribution deal with iTunes;

3. Like Alitalia - the leader of your country (Berlusconi) promises to revolutionise your national carrier (Alitalia), keeping it in local hands, restoring it to its former glory and bringing back profitability, sunshine and smiling children. Result a much smaller airline, part owned by foreigners Air France, merged with a smaller rival (AirOne), still stuck with the same union contracts and children crying over lost baggage;

2. Like Qantas - you spend 2 years developing a brand new video on demand system and claim that it is the best in the world. It does not matter that it is not the best system in the world but it does matter that for more than two years the VOD system does not work ; and

1. Like Italian Low Cost Carrier MYair - your airline is so badly run that even the Italian Civil Aviation Authority feels compelled to suspend their lunchtime nap and annual "bring your mates to work" day celebration to suspend your licence.

Update - had to add a number 6 that I remember

6. Like World Focus Air - your airline has a "W" as the key brand icon and changes its name from "World Focus Air" to "Ank Air" but keeps the "W" prominently displayed on the plane (check out the original post and picture if you do not yet get the almost not safe for work reference)

What other signs do you have for an uncertain traveller to watch for?

thanks to break.com for the photo

AirAsia bidding for hotel words in Google - Low Cost Carrier embracing quasi-OTA status

Back in December I re-posted a story from 2007 (and one of my original tips from the t-list posts) that contained my three recommendations for airlines that were winning with supplier direct online on how they can improve their online offering.

One of the recommendations was to " invest in being a true online hotel (land) business". We has seen strides from the low cost carriers in this first (for example Easyjet's seamless packaging integration). Now I have seen another next step from a low cost carrier - reports have come in of KL based AirAsia have been bidding on hotel based keywords on Google. In effect competing head to head with online travel agents, hotel only intermediaries and hotel suppliers on hotel sales rather than waiting for air cross sell to provide ancillary revenue.

This has been hard for me to replicate in a screenshot to show you as it looks like they are currently targeting certain Asian IP addresses (ie customers) and not yet targeting Australia. John Fearon of Asiarooms sent me through this shot from an Alexa search he was doing. You can clearly see AirAsia targeting Bangkok hotels along side Booking.com and others. It is the second time Fearon has spotted AirAisa actively promoting hotels.

I applaud this move by AirAsia. It is consistent with there "we do want we want and love to break the rules" brand message and it embraces my rules for growing airline online share. That said as an online hotel player is gives me the willies. Anyone else seen more examples of AirAsia or other airlines bidding for hotel words to support their ancillary business.?

thanks for the tip John.

Baggage container meets airline and square peg does not fit in jet engine hole

What happens if a airline cargo box full of luggage gets stuck inside a jet engine of a 747 aeroplane? Have a look at the below video and find out. I can imagine the exchange

"What do you mean you lost my luggage, where is it?"

"um...well.. sir... it is here at the airport"

"It is, great. I thought it might be in Timbuktu. OK. Can you organise for someone to deliver the luggage to me."

"Not really you see the luggage is in the plane"

"Even better. If it my bag is on the plane can't you just send someone over there to pick it up and bring it to me"

"No sir...sorry...I said 'in the plane' not 'on the plane'"



Direct link to video if embedding not working

hat tip to latimes where I saw the story first

Qantas Hotels - temporarily unavailable

Bad day at the office for Qantas.com. First time I have seen on their website a promotion around "no hotel booking fees" and at the same time their "hotel bookings are temporarily unavailable" Oops. Image below.

United Airlines wants to know everything about me....and I mean everything

While boarding a recent United Airlines domestic flight I was presented with a "Survey America" which is United's customer survey form. You know the type - where an airline asks you a series of questions about you and your experience using the airline. In exchange you all you get is a nice smile and a warm feeling or sometimes (as with United) a nice smile, warm feeling and a slim chance of winning something. Normally I love a questionnaire. It helps pass the time on the flight and I feel like I have a place to vent about the experience on the airline.

But the United "Survey America" contained questions that I am surprised that anyone wants to let any company know about them, let alone an airline. Plus the way you post the form back to United guarantees that the whole world will know more about you than you could ever want.

Below is a (badly) scanned picture of the worst page but let me list for you a few of the questions on this survey that United is crazy to think that consumer would want to answer and consumers would be mad to answer. On their own (some of) these questions might be ok, but put together the would tell United (and a lot of other people) enough about you for United to all but take over your life (ok maybe that is a bit over the top but still).

Selected Questions

18. Including this trip, how many round trips by air have your flown in the past 12 months (by class and airline)?

19. In total how many times in the past 24 months have you flown to Europe, Asia, Latam?

21. List all the frequent flyer programs you are in and which you are an elite for (check box will all the majors)

22. a) are you Male/Female
22. b) Age
22. c) Approximate household income (in thousands)
22. d) Occupation (with check boxes)
22. e) Race (with check boxes)

then - space to fill in your full name with middle name, address, phone, email etc

And here is the best part. When you fold up the questionnaire to send it to United with the prepaid address on the front, then Question 22 (income, age, sex, race) and your name, home address and contact details appear on the back for any and all to see.

Amazing. Who in their right mind would would complete this survey. Here is a shot of the back page.

PS - was trying to put up a link to a pdf version of the whole survey. I used to be able to load pdfs onto Google Base and then do a link but could not get it to work. Anyone know how to a pdf or link to a pdf on a blogger page?

Southwest Airlines Rapping announcement "you will not get that on United Airlines"

It is going to be United Airlines week here at the BOOT. Already had a seat review, prediction of the death for the brand and now a video of a rapping Southwest crew member giving United a hard time (and I have another post up my sleeve before the week is out). Thanks to my mate Chris from San Fran for sending through the video link



hat tip to Huff Post.

Budget and United make 24/7 Wall St's list of 12 brands likely to disappear

Equities and investor blog 24/7 Wall street posted last week on the "Twelve Major Brands that Will Disappear" - joining the likes of Ansett.

Topping the list was the struggling former Car Rental giant Avis/Budget. As I talked about in this post Avis/Budget (CAR) is a shadow of its former self. Having just avoided de-listing on the NYSE, the company is struggling under a mountain of debt, mounting costs and falling revenues.

At number twelve on the list is United Airlines (UAUA). 24/7 Wallst puts United among American and US Air as the three most at risk airlines in the US and in convinced that someone like Continental will step in as an acquiring for one of these. United is most at risk among the three (according to 24/7) because their passenger numbers are dropping faster (despite your BOOT correspondent's recent travels with United). In my 2009 predictions I mentioned that I thought more airlines would go bust (hardly a revolutionary prediction).

Full details over at 24/7 Wallst.

Here is the full list of the 12 brands at risk
1. Avis/Budget
2. Borders books (BGP)
3. Crocs footwear (CROX)
4. Saturn vehicles
5. Esquire Magazine
6. Old Navy apparel
7. Architectural Digest Magazine
8. Chrysler brand cars:
9. Eddie Bauer (EBHI)
10. Palm (PALM)
11. AIG
12. United Air Lines (UAUA)

Hat tip to Seeking Alpha where I first spotted the story

Thanks to Adelaide Archivist over at flickr for the photo

Travelocity to remove air ticket fees on 31 March: the razor blade model and online travel

Back in December 2002 Travelocity announced that it had joined the industry trend for fees on airline tickets by introducing a modest $5 fee (original CNET story). Six or so years later, the WSJ has the story that fees will be removed on airline tickets by Travelocity starting 31 March. As I mentioned in the post on Expedia's decision to do the same, the industry is changed forever by this move. The media model will get a boost from this decision and become more important. So do the produce efforts around cross sell.

I recall in the early days of airline commission reductions and online hotel sales (around 2000, 2001). The industry was a-buzz with analogies for describing the new models taking hold. Milk at the back of the store" and the "would you like fries & a coke with that" were being used by online travel strategists as we planned moves to following offline retailers into the world of cross sell and margin managementl. The message being that the low margin product (air/milk/burger) was the lure to sell the high margin product (hotel/candy/post mix soda).

Now I believe that the airline ticket business in online travel is more like the Razor Blade/Razor model. This is where component one of a product (razor/polaroid camera/game console/air ticket) is sold at a loss to drive sales of the second component of a product (razor blade/film/game/hotel). With this model change comes substantive industry change.

thanks to B Tal over at flickr for the gnome shot

Proving an Airline Depression - Top three reasons you know the airline industry is screwed (for a while)

Three things I noticed recently that really prove it is hell on earth for airlines:

1. Air New Zealand agreed to pay commission on fuel surcharges. Finally proving what we have all known, that fuel surcharges were a complete travel agent income denying scam and that airlines are getting more and more desperate to find ways to convince travel agents to shift share;
2. 2008 compared to 2007, Cathay Pacific carried 7.3% more passengers, generated 14.9% more revenue but lost US$1.1 billion. How is that for a collection of numbers; and
3. In 1990 I bought my first long haul airline ticket with my own money. A European round trip ticket from Sydney on Qantas to go backpacking. Cost A$2,100. In 2009 a close friend bought seats for him, his wife and two sons round trip from Sydney to Los Angeles on Qantas. Cost A$2,700. 1 person 17,000 kms, 19 years ago for just $600 less than 4 tickets to go 12,000kms . Given the inflation rate, $2,700 in 2009 is less than $2,100 in 1990.

What have you seen?

thanks to temp13rec for the photo

Plane landing on water animation with voices - US Airways - 1549

Quote
Tower "which runway would you like in Teterboro"
Airline "we are going to be in the Hudson"
Tower "say again"
(all in the calmest voices imaginable)

This is a must watch animation of the landing of US Airways flight 1549 in the Hudson with the actual verbal exchanges between the tower and the aircraft. Video includes animated Geese. Voices prove that the pilot was/is the calmest man in the world. I have made calls to my wife telling here I will be late for a dinner date that have been more stressful. Can a plane land on water? Yes it can....!


Thanks to TechCrunch

Seat Review - Singapore International Business (Raffles) Class

This week took me to Singapore for time with Asian based team members. Was my first opportunity to try out the (now not so) new Singapore Airlines International Business Class (or Raffles Class if you prefer). On the homeward leg I also had my first chance to fly the over-hyped Airbus A380.

I say over-hyped because I find the reactions of the passengers dumbfounding and a confirmation that great PR can convince the world of absolutely anything. At the heart of this PR blitz is to convince people that this is something different about the A380. I don’t see it. As human beings we are used to air travel and we are used to it in very big aircraft with lots of people. The SQ A380 only takes about 15-20% more passengers than the largest configuration of the 747. But the PR spin around the A380 has convinced travellers that something different is happening. People are shuffling with excitement at the gate before boarding, pausing on the gangway to take photographs, giggling with amazement that there are split levels for boarding and so forth. Yet at its heart it is just an airplane. Sure it is a little bigger and sure it is a little quieter but really it is just a plane. Anyway – back to the seat review.

Singapore business class remains a benchmark for the industry. The atte

ntion to detail from the staff is second to none. The smooth and diligent processes they have set up for managing the flow of food, entertainment and service perfectly matched my needs. But (and this is a big but) I don’t like the new seat. It is significantly wider than any business class seat in the sky. However the trade off on width has somehow had an impact on length. For a person who is more than 180 centre meters length of the seat is everything. Sleeping was better than sitting but I struggled to find the comfort levels that the old seat used to provide.



The BOOT rating for Singapore International Business Class is a 5 stars out of 6 or "Great Seat". Here is the detailed review (Details and scoring system for airline seat reviews)

Getting on Board	Score 1.0
As a biz class boarder it is always a joy to be able to sweep your way on board without queuing. All the major airlines have provided a dedicated channel for business class passengers but Singapore Airlines has managed to improve this process will a simple technique stolen from Walt Disney and your local bank. The gate queues in Sydney (both economy and premium) are separated by snake like marked out areas using ropes and poles. A simple thing but is makes the boarding process easier and faster for all.
The Seat	Score 0.5
If you read the description and saw the photos your expectations are that the new “mega seat” should be a hit. It is wide, it converts to a bed and has buttons and compartments for everything (including a do not disturb sign). But as wide and interactive as the seat is, it does not feel long enough. I could not get comfortable sitting. I always felt like I had to contort my legs into unnatural positions. When it came to sleeping it was like they were squeezing a herring bone experience out of a standard forward facing seat. By herringbone I mean the angular seating you see on Virgin-Atlantic Upper Class and the new Cathay Pacific business class. This meant I was sleeping on an angle on a straight seat. It felt odd and impacted on my rest. Unfortunately I think the new seats are a mistake. They are not a disaster but I now rank the BA, CX, VS, QF (flat) and old style SQ seats above this new seat.
The Service	Score 1.0
The attentiveness of the staff is world class. I feel they are completely committed to me enjoying the flight. The processes they have set up support meeting your needs quickly. Drink orders are taken before take off, ensuring speedy delivery of the first beverage after take off. Regular visits with water come without prompting or reminding. I have heard some criticise SQ staff as being too robotic and not being able to respond to out of the ordinary request. I have not found this. I love that each time I turn around looking for service it is there. Whenever I press the button for service someone appears. That I never seem to have to ask for a drink as the staff always seem to get to me first to ask me what I would like. Service is a nearly unmatched area of success for SQ.
The Food	Score 0.5
Fine. Good. Enjoyable. No Complaints. But (could you sense the “but” coming), it is not as good as it should be. Like all the big airlines, SQ opens their menu/dinner story with the names of their consultant chiefs. They list some of the most famous chefs in the world including Matthew Moran, Sam Leong, Gordon Ramsay, George Blanc and more. As a result you have expectations of the food being world class. Unforgettable. Unmatchable. But instead the food is (just) good. At times I found the food too complicated. Meaning that the flavours either did not match the description or there were too many flavours on the plate and they conflicted with each other. Not a strength.
The Entertainment	Score 1.0
If the measure for victory in the in-flight entertainment battle was the number of options, then Singapore Airlines would win by knock-out. Listed they have 112 movies, 181 TV shows and some 740 CDs available for video on demand. These numbers overstate the choice a little because some of the options are niche or targeted to specific audiences (ie 5 Musicals and 8 Operas listed in the movies option). But there is plenty to choose from and the system is easy to navigate. If I could find one area of criticism it would be that while there are an extra-ordinarily large number of TV shows to choose from I miss the great feature from Cathay where they carry a whole season of a show like “24” rather than just single episodes. The screen is enormous and the resolution near perfect – I am constantly amazed on competitor products how often I have to turn the contrast/brightness up to maximum yet am still unable to see all that is going on.
The BOOT factor	Score 1.0
Many examples of unexpected twists that heighten the experience. The iPod dock allowing me to land with a fully charged iPod. The large supply of magazines brought round to me rather than having to be found scattered around the aircraft. The size of the bathrooms, enabling me to get changed into comfortable clothes without needing to contort myself in a cramped and damp environment. These add so much to the enjoyment of the flight.
Final Score	5.0 - Good Seat

Details and scoring system for airline seat reviews

Thanks to alex-s over at Flickr for the photo

Seat Review - Qantas international economy class

Recently I flew economy class on Qantas from Sydney to Singapore and back. It was the first time I had flown long haul economy in about 5 years. I was nervous but by keeping the flights to single legs and flying during the day I found it manageable. The Qantas economy experience was better than I expected with some pleasant surprises but still some disappointments in service delivery and entertainment. The service elements drags down an otherwise great experience.



The BOOT rating for Qantas International Economy is a 3.5 out of six or "Good". Here is the detailed review (Details and scoring system for airline seat reviews)

Getting on Board	Score 0.5
It is hard to give a fair measure of the economy class boarding experience as my Qantas frequent flyer platinum status means I can check-in via the first class window and board early. That said the people around me appeared to flow quickly. Sure we took off late - but that is now a given at Sydney airport
The Seat	Score 0.5
Snaps to QF for giving me the best economy seat they could (exit, aisle, left hand side). The seat itself is comfortable (standard 31'' pitch). The recline is standard economy with the adjustable headrest being a real bonus. The controls for the video system are in an odd spot. They are at knee height meaning each time I moved while watching a movie I bumped the control and interrupted the film. Eventually I needed to take it out of the holder and hung it over the side of the seat.
The Service	Score 0
Qantas runs a process culture at present. Meaning that staff are well versed in processing a customer through the stages of each flight. But they are missing the important part of customer service - meeting the unexpected needs of the consumer. Great customer service comes with a customer is surprised by how quickly their needs are anticipated and met. During the flight I made a number of requests that were ignored or took too long to fulfil such as request for drinks outside of food service and requests for another pillow. Am hoping to find out more about planned improvements here soon.
The Food	Score 1.0
Food is one of Qantas' consistent strong points. The meals were tasty with fun touches in desert and snacks
The Entertainment	Score 0.5
I come to any review of Qantas inflight entertainment with a bias drawn from continued system failure and apparent ambivalence from Qantas (previous stories here). On this occasion the entertainment system worked and there was a fine selection of movies but there were sill three annoying features: 1 The placement of the control (see above); 2. The time to activation. Qantas seem to delight in waiting as long as possible before turning on the service and playing compulsory videos to further delay the time before I can press play and zone out. Competitors in this space make videos available as soon as the seatbelt sign is off. On QF it can take as much as 20 mins past that point; and 3 Limited TV shows. Competitors such as Cathay and Virgin Atlantic are offering whole seasons of shows (watched a whole season of '24' on a recent CX flight). These are missing from Qantas. But it was working so can't complain (too much)
The BOOT factor	Score 1.0
Two things pleasantly surprised me about the flight 1. A trolley service after the main meal with hot chocolate and peppermint tea came as a complete and very pleasant surprise. I would not have thought to ask for peppermint tea but it hit the spot on refreshment mid flight 2. A trip planner leaflet was handed out listing when during the flight things would occur such as meal service. This little thing (which I've not seen before) made the flight more enjoyable as it took out guess work from the flight
Final Score	3.5 - Good Seat

Details and scoring system for airline seat reviews



thanks to fboosman on flickr for the photo

Qantas feeling world pain and wont return my calls

Despite a revenue growth of 2% to $7.92 billion, Qantas has joined the list of airlines being beaten up by the economic smack-down. Profits are down 66% to $210mm for the second half of calendar 08 from $618mm the previous year. Shares are currently in a trading halt - at time of writing - pending an announcement on a capital raising (full news story here care of SMH). I would not normally run a post on declining results for an airline like Qantas (because that is what we have online newspapers for) but in this case it reminded me that I have been trying to get in touch with Qantas media/comms staff and have heard nothing.

Last week Qantas announced a new $10 million customer service training centre. This peaked my interest as I have regularly commented that Qantas appears to have a culture of process rather than service. I wrote to the media contact at Qantas (bottom of the press release) and asked if they would be interested in giving me a briefing on the new facility. That was last Friday. As of today - Wednesday - no reply.

Now it is possible that they think I am so negative on Qantas that it is not worth giving me a briefing. But that would be an unfair assessment of the BOOT. While there are plenty of critical comments on the blog about Qantas - especially on the glitches/failures on of the in flight entertainement system - I also have positive comments such as my post "In defence of Qantas" and have rated Qantas as number 5 on my list of top 5 airlines. But even so, surely they would want to talk to any commentator - especially negative ones- about service improvements. The other possibility is that that the Qantas media/PR team simply do not reply to bloggers. If that is true, then they have their heads in the old media sand. There are so many examples of social media impacting on Qantas as a brand. My blog is the number two hit in Google (on my results) for "Qantas VOD". Message board and info-blog FrequentFlyer.com.au is the number two in Google for "QFF" (the shorthand for Qantas Frequent Flyer). Twitter is awash with commentary about Qantas etc etc etc

I hope the real answer is that they just haven't gotten round to writing back yet. If so, Qantas - if you're listening - email me.