Comments on: Open Skies Concierge

By: Robert

Robert — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 22:40:56 +0000

Great post. I hope the concierge service works as well as they say it will. I have a site that focus on Jet Setters. The URL is http://www.jetsetlife.tv. Let me know what you think. I’ll keep reading yours. My blog is http://www.travelhip.tv/robsblog

By: CF

CF — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 04:30:43 +0000

David – My sense is that this won’t be limited just to travel agent services. It could be more like a concierge that recommends restaurants and makes reservations for you as well. But also, I think there are a fair amount of leisure travelers and unmanaged business travelers that may use the travel agent services as well.

Zach – The initial route was either Paris or Brussels and Paris won, so I have to assume that Brussels will come at some point. The BA A318 service is still planned, and they’ve ordered planes for it. But, I don’t think this is the end of the widebody. Open Skies is really targeting a very specific, niche market here. They are not going to serve the large numbers of travelers that need to go back and forth between major cities, but instead they want to serve the premium passenger. Coach is such a small part of the aircraft that it’s almost an afterthought. So, I wouldn’t worry. They’ll keep flying widebodies.

By: Zach

Zach — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 04:17:24 +0000

Will they be flying 757s nonstop BRU-NYC? I guess this is well within the type’s range, especially with winglets, but is BA also still planning on operating the A318 service from London City to JFK? I understand that NWA, US, AA, and others have been operating 757s on transatlantic service for some time, but it still seems that you are more likely to fly a widebody across the pond than a narrow body. Do you think that these two services by BA will hasten the death of the transatlantic widebody? In other words, are the days of widebody service between North America and Western Europe numbered?

By: David

David — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 03:10:10 +0000

I wonder how much the service will be used. The front cabin people usually don’t make their own travel plans, they have travel agents. Those that travel for business have the company agency would handle all their needs using company contracts. Leisure travelers mostly use travel agents or go with packages they find online. Who will these people be helping?

By: CF

CF — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 20:00:00 +0000

Court – It doesn’t seem to differentiate by class of service in the blog post. With that many concierges, I would assume it would include economy passengers as well otherwise they’d have a lot of free time.

By: Court

Court — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 19:57:47 +0000

At $580 for a restricted one-way economy ticket, are they going to have this service for the economy passengers as well? I’d also be very interested in hearing if the cost of these concierges being at least somewhat offset by ancillary revenues. If successful from that standpoint, it stands to reason that we may begin to see these type of “business travel agents” at other airlines.

By: Roger Ritchie

Roger Ritchie — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 19:08:06 +0000

Re. the BA “Open Skies” concierge –
A program of this kind can be self-supporting with generated revenue (as well as goodwill) from services and Customer Resource Management (CRM)- systems.
Continental Airlines proved this concept, way back in the late sixties (on B707′s) when I was LAX-based with the carrier. The DPS – Director of Passenger Services – lifted the ticket coupons during the flight in order to offer return confirmed bookings to ‘open’ return passengers and offer destination services (such as accelerated connection service) for inter-lining passengers. The goodwill the DPS team generated was worth millions in business for Continental. I was manager of Publicity for Continental at these times and I know for certain what benefit(s) the Concierge-type service, in this case on-board, service can bring to the airline in a quality-revenue operating environment.