Jetstar to offer assigned seating

[Standby]

http://www.jetstar.com/pdf/news/20060619a.pdf

Interestingly they are doing this free of charge...seemed like a good opportunity to ask for $10.00 per perallocated seat in their user pays world.
Obviously you wont be able to block yrself an exit aisle but a move in the right direction

 

[Mal]

Definately a change for the better.

Will help ease the "scrum" mentality of the boarding/waiting process.

I feel sorry for the Jetstarters who are all queued up hours before their flight in their "elite" boarding groups...

 

[Yada Yada]

Interesting quote from the press release:

“Jetstar will in three years be a predominately international business and consistency of an allocated seat for all Jetstar services is fundamental to our product offering."

I bet QF crews won't like the sound of the first part of that sentence.

 

[N860CR]

I'm sure they all saw it coming though.

It's good to see Jetstar is finally taking some steps to improve its less than impressive public image. The "free seating" policy was one of the airlines least popular aspects so I have no doubt it will be a popular change. I think people don't mind "free seating" when they are flying on a discount airline offering true discount prices, not when they pay up to $400 for a one way ticket Hopefully they'll eventually start to address all the airlines other issues and maybe oneday they'll be a viable choice... maybe

 

[NM]

Interesting quote from the press release:


I bet QF crews won't like the sound of the first part of that sentence.

Or does that mean they plan on pulling out of domestic routes? And perhaps subcontract to O7?

 

[JohnK]

Interesting quote from the press release:

Originally Posted by Alan Joyce
“Jetstar will in three years be a predominately international business and consistency of an allocated seat for all Jetstar services is fundamental to our product offering."

I bet QF crews won't like the sound of the first part of that sentence.

Love that statement "Jetstar will in three years be a predominantly international business".

Unless they pull out of domestic routes they will have 6 or 7 international destinations and 40 or 50 domestic destinations. Has the meaning of predominantly changed in the last day or so?

 

[jakeseven7]

Love that statement "Jetstar will in three years be a predominantly international business".

Unless they pull out of domestic routes they will have 6 or 7 international destinations and 40 or 50 domestic destinations. Has the meaning of predominantly changed in the last day or so?

I was thinking about this the other day, we know QF introduced JQ primarilly becuase of the inflexibility the QF unions and subsequent higher cost base..

Maybe Jetstar is one big longterm plan to kill the unions completely, and in 10years or whatever Jetstar will just become a 'Jetconnect' or an 'Australian' or a 'Ozjet' operating flights for QF under the QF brand which is argueably one of the strongest in Australia.. If they could do this, and bring alot of other things into line obviously, it would actually be much cheaper running one brand - Qantas (maybe Jetstar leisure destinations get badged Qantas Express or something) than Qantas and Jetstar...

Thats my hit prediction anyway - I mean NZ are doing it with Freedom on some flights - their A320s.

 

[Yada Yada]

Love that statement "Jetstar will in three years be a predominantly international business".

Unless they pull out of domestic routes they will have 6 or 7 international destinations and 40 or 50 domestic destinations. Has the meaning of predominantly changed in the last day or so?

Exactly. That was an interesting statement.

I cannot remember how many of those 787's they were taking in the recent purchase announcement from QF but it sounds ominous for the competition, including QF.

 

[aspro2]

Ignoring the comment about becoming predominantly international, is it possible that this move just shows QF's intention to move most domestic routes to Jetstar? If they want to feed mainline/intl passengers onto Jetstar they have to have through-checking of baggage, seat assignment...

 

[jakeseven7]

To the OP - Really happy they are actioning some improvements on JQ.

I'm not part of the 'hate everything JQ does' club here, I don't mind JQ for short leaps and getting seating allocation will mean no chaos at the gate anymore!

 

[jakeseven7]

http://www.jetstar.com/pdf/news/20060619a.pdf

Interestingly they are doing this free of charge...seemed like a good opportunity to ask for $10.00 per perallocated seat in their user pays world.
Obviously you wont be able to block yrself an exit aisle but a move in the right direction

Why not? You can block exit aisle seats on flights to NZ, I can't imagine it would be any different for domestic flights.

 

[NM]

I was thinking about this the other day, we know QF introduced JQ primarilly becuase of the inflexibility the QF unions and subsequent higher cost base..

Maybe Jetstar is one big longterm plan to kill the unions completely, and in 10years or whatever Jetstar will just become a 'Jetconnect' or an 'Australian' or a 'Ozjet' operating flights for QF under the QF brand which is argueably one of the strongest in Australia.. If they could do this, and bring alot of other things into line obviously, it would actually be much cheaper running one brand - Qantas (maybe Jetstar leisure destinations get badged Qantas Express or something) than Qantas and Jetstar...

Thats my hit prediction anyway - I mean NZ are doing it with Freedom on some flights - their A320s.

I think this is close to the mark, or at least an "option" that JQ brings to QF in the longer term. The QF labour costs are a significant impediment to QF being able to compete with airlines whose labour costs "more flexible" than QF's.

 

[Standby]

Its more than a coincidence that Jetstar will take the 787's first and thus set the benchmark rate for tech crew costs before the mainline get theirs

 

[jasonja3]

Do you think there will be any preferred seating for QF status members-catering for those forced to travel JQ on old QF routes?

 

[jakeseven7]

Do you think there will be any preferred seating for QF status members-catering for those forced to travel JQ on old QF routes?

Doesn't appear to be at this stage but wouldn't be suprised if it ends up happening over time

 

[ansettrule]

So they should, I couldn't think of anything worse than having to fight for a seat.
Although I won't fly "Deathstar" until hell freezes over,Qf in disguise.
Bring back Ansett i say.
Memories!!!!!