Comments on: Oz vs NZ: Qantas attack

By: Ben@Crikey

Ben@Crikey — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

Qantas says the NZ lounge will remain open and that QF points will be earned on the fully flexible fares.

However there is overwhelming dislike of the Jetstar product by business travellers, and in my opinion it only serves to drive customers away to Virgin Blue here. Anyone who flies in one of Virgin's E-jets is unlikely to want to go back to a 737 or A320 or a turbo prop with any carrier but as yet there are none of their Embraers in NZ.

The game is on as you say, but Air NZ needs to persuade a reluctant majority shareholder in Wellington to be a player.

By: Geoff (not Dixon)

Geoff (not Dixon) — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

Thanks for the heads up on Qantas cancelling its Sydney-Beijing service from 17 April, Ben. Better service than I’m getting from Qantas. As I am booked on that service on 27 April, I rang their reservations service, you know, just to see if there was something they wanted to tell me. Nope, they don’t know any more than what’s in the press release but try back in “a few days”. Spirit of Australia? We’re stuffed if it is.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

Actually, there is another view one could take on the NZ reorganisation: Qantas is going for the private traveller by pulling its Qantas brand out of NZ - which one assumes means closing its lounges an corporate programmes as well. Business travellers hate Jetstar with a passion - the lack of service, inflexibility of fares and charges for almost everything. If anything, Pacific Blue is the winner here: it is gradually ramping up its business appeal and will no doubt take over those vacant lounges in a flash if it can. Jetstar is clearly trying to wrap up the leisure market - to date Pacific Blue’s customer base, but its least contributors to profits. Air NZ will not have to keep looking over its shoulder at Jetstar - rather at the other Australian Red Peril.

And one assumes Jetstar flights won’t earn Frequent Flyer points for Kiwis (or Australians flying internally), who might now consider migrating to the Velocty programme, or to Air NZ’s. It’s game on, not game over!