Chinanews client, Beijing, August 5 (Zhang Xu) Recently, "fly as you wish" has become a hot word in the aviation travel circle. Following China Eastern Airlines, Hainan Airlines, China Southern Airlines and other airlines, online travel platforms have also entered the game and launched similar products.
Why does "Fly with Heart" attract so many players, and should consumers snap up?
On June 3, passengers prepared to travel at the departure level of Beijing Daxing International Airport. Photo by China News Agency reporter Hou Yu
Airlines and OTAs have entered the game one after another, and "fly as you like" has become popular
At the beginning, China Eastern Airlines launched "Fly with Your Heart", followed by airline companies such as HNA, Chunqiu, Xiangpeng, China United Airlines, Sichuan Airlines, and China Southern Airlines. At present, more than 10 airline companies have launched similar series of products, such as China Southern Airlines. "Happy fly". The HNA server crashed twice as a result of hot buying.
The market response of "Flying as you wish" products is so enthusiastic that not only has aviation companies participated in the war, but also OTAs (online travel platforms) have moved their minds.
Feizhu said that the "66 yuan to fly to the whole country" tickets launched by the platform on July 15 will be increased again, and the event time will be extended to August 13. After consumers purchase this product, all domestic air tickets below 500 yuan can be directly reduced to 66 yuan, regardless of airlines, routes, and travel time.
Recently, Ctrip and Qunar announced the launch of inter-airline infinite flight products. The products on these two platforms are all "weekly small holiday" products jointly launched by the three airlines of Okay Airlines, Qingdao Airlines and Ruili Airlines. The applicable dates are flights from August 5, 2020 to January 25, 2021. .
Popular route data published by Qunar.com.
According to Gou Zhipeng, president of Qunar.com, this is the first time that three airlines from different aviation groups have jointly launched a package product, covering popular routes covering Tianjin, Qingdao, Kunming, Chengdu, Xi’an, Changsha, Harbin, Sanya, Haikou and other popular domestic tourist destinations. Consumers who purchase the product can redeem economy class tickets on domestic self-operated routes of three airlines at the same time, with no limit on the number of flights.
Ctrip said that in its live broadcast on the evening of July 29, it launched the above-mentioned "weekly small holiday" product for the first time at 2,980 yuan, with a limited edition of 4,000 sets, which was immediately rushed for sale.
"Let me fly" offline on the same journey, or it may touch the cake of airline companies
OTA platforms and airline companies have entered the game one after another, but the same journey has begun to fall apart.
On July 30th, Tongcheng Travel announced the launch of the product "Anyone on the same flight". The product is aimed at economy class air tickets with travel dates of less than 1,000 yuan on Saturdays and Sundays before the end of the year. There are no restrictions on airlines and unlimited times. The price is 1999 yuan, a full refund is available for unused within the validity period. You can also enjoy double mileage points for the same journey and airlines with this package.
However, on the day when the deposit payment was opened, Tongcheng Travel issued an announcement saying that it was suspended due to technical reasons. This move caused widespread concern and dissatisfied users who intend to buy.
Tongcheng Travel APP announcement
Industry insiders pointed out that the same journey originally planned to subsidize and distribute profits by itself, but because the package price of the same journey was lower than the previous activity price of the airline, the airline company could not accept it.
Why Ctrip, Qunar, and Fliggy can launch "Fly as you wish" products, and the same journey has died? Li Hanming, the founder of Li and Li Data Analysis, pointed out that the biggest problem with Tongcheng Travel's products is that it has snatched the capital flow of airline companies.
"In the cooperation between Qunar and the three airlines, Qunar is only the role of the channel. Under this role, the risk that OTAs need to bear is 0; Fliggy’s 66 yuan nature is a single-use coupon, and there is a limited amount. The pressure on the company is also less."
"The reason why airlines build'XiXiFly' products is to allow passengers to prepay part of the funds in advance. However, Tongcheng's approach directly greatly shortens the airline's pre-sale payback period-from the At that moment, it was transferred to the moment of'exchanging tickets'. It was expected that the airline and Tongcheng would turn their faces." Li Hanming said.
Li Hanming told Chinanews that as early as the non-"flying as you wish" era, airlines were "upgrading and descending generations" to compete for the "entrance" of facing customers. Nowadays, the "entry" dispute is intensified, in addition to the customer resources, but also the consideration of cash flow. At present, the tourism and aviation industry has been shrinking due to the impact of the epidemic, and cash is the main trend of airline companies.
"Fly with your heart" may not be able to follow your heart
Although "Flying Xpress" is very popular, and prices are repeatedly increased on the second-hand trading platform, "Flying Xpress" may not be able to follow your heart.
Various restrictions on airlines' "fly as you wish" products directly affect passengers' experience. For example, there are restrictions on the flight dates that can be exchanged. Many airlines exclude the National Day holiday, that is, passengers cannot redeem it from September 30, 2020 to October 8, 2020. The National Day is a rare time period that most office workers can freely allocate.
HNA’s “Flying as You Like” does not include the 11th Golden Week. Product rule screenshot
Moreover, many "Flying with Heart" products are only available for redemption on Saturdays and Sundays, which means that if you go to your destination on a certain Saturday, you either choose to come back on Sunday, or you can only set off on your way home until the next Saturday and Sunday.
Lin Xue (pseudonym) of Shanghai is trying to "fly as you wish". She left for Chongqing on Saturday to eat hot pot with friends, and came back on Sunday. "Finally, the ticket exchange was successful, but the air ticket from Shanghai to Chongqing is only available at night, and it is midnight when I return to Shanghai on Sunday."
After experiencing it, Lin Xue felt that "flying as you wish" was not so as you wish. "The air ticket is not expensive at this time, and it's not much cheaper. If you don't change the ticket, you will have to lose money. The main reason is that this trip is too tired. It is very different from the previous vacation."
It's hard to snap up "fly as you want", and even harder to grab a ticket
There are also restrictions on the number of seats that airline companies can give to "fly as you like" products. For example, Hainan Airlines can reserve 20 seats for each flight, and remind passengers that there may be a risk of not being exchanged; Spring Airlines said that it guarantees that each flight is limited to 20 tickets, but the specific seats available are uncertain .
Some consumers reported that they thought very well when they bought the "Flying as you wish" products. They went on Saturday morning and returned on Sunday evening. However, because of the large number of people buying the products, it was difficult to get the ticket (exchange). Another consumer response is that "fly as you wish" products do not have direct flights between some cities and need to be transferred. It takes more than 10 hours from the departure city to the destination city, or even the next day.
"Flying with my heart will cost more than three thousand yuan. I also have five days of annual leave a year. It would be a pity to spend all of it on one trip, so I guess I still have to buy another ticket back." I originally planned to buy "flying with my heart." Zhang Yining (pseudonym) of China dismissed the idea of buying "fly as you wish" after calculating vacation and air ticket prices.
"The most feared of such pass products as "Flying as you wish" is overbooking. For OTAs, it means buying air tickets from airlines at a high price, which is a loss of cash; for airlines, it means airlines. The company needs to arrange for passengers to change their bookings. Whether it is an airline or an OTA, it must carefully consider the risk of overbooking when designing to fly freely, so that users can be more satisfied in use and fly more freely." Li Hanming said.
Data map: Aircraft on the tarmac. Photo by Yin Liqin
It is difficult to cancel the flight and refund the ticket, and the customer service does not have the authority to refund the ticket
Mr. Li, a citizen of Qingdao, redeemed two flights on July 4 with "Flying as You Like". But not long after, China Eastern Airlines sent a flight change reminder notice, and one of the flights was cancelled due to the epidemic. According to the notification, Mr. Li applied for a refund through the China Eastern Airlines APP and China Eastern Airlines official website. However, due to system reasons, the operation was not successful. He dialed the China Eastern Airlines hotline 95530. The customer service did not have the authority to directly refund the ticket and could not solve the problem.
"In the process of using "Fly with Heart", I didn't get a pleasant experience, but encountered problems again and again." Mr. Li said that he spent a lot of time calling customer service for inquiries, and he had to prepare various information to pass to the customer service. , In the end, no problems can be solved.
"Fly with your heart, not everyone is suitable for buying." Some people in the civil aviation industry said that low prices are not necessarily worth buying. For most consumers who cannot travel at any time in the second half of the year, discounted economy class is already cost-effective. Instead of paying for an uncertain itinerary, it is better to spend the money on the blade.
Have you bought the "XiXinFly" product, have you used it? (Finish)