Airlines are doing early birds a little differently this year in order to beat those attractive $1,000 trans-Pacific flights and out-sell each other.
2016 hasn’t exactly been a year of stability for Europe, with Brexit and recent attacks in Paris, Turkey and Brussels creating uncertainty amongst travellers, to the point where new data from Compare the Market found more than half of Australians surveyed said they’d prefer to holiday in Australia than overseas.
In addition to travel uncertainty, Europe has had to compete with record low airfares to the US, which reached under $1,000 at the start of the year.
Now airlines are hoping a slight adjustment to early birds this year may help fill more seats to Europe.
Despite what you’d expect, their sell-tactic isn’t to drop prices to 2009 lows of under $1,000 return, but to lure travellers through extra incentives.
For example, Singapore Airlines launched its early birds yesterday with a lucky draw competition called ‘The Great Singapore Airlines Getaway’. In addition to flights to London selling from $1,387 or Paris from $1,262 return, the airline is giving travellers the chance to win prizes including a pair of First Class return tickets or Business Class return tickets to Singapore.
If that’s not enough to get travellers across the line, the airline also has a ‘Singapore Stopover Holiday’ program where holidaymakers can book a stopover package from $1 per person.
The airline’s Senior Manager Marketing and Alliances Australia, Dale Woodhouse said the Great Getaway incentive represents a new twist on the traditional early bird sale.
“This year we’ve looked to take the traditional early bird sale and re-energise it with a range of new offerings for our customers.”
Dale Woodhouse, Singapore Airlines Senior Manager Marketing and Alliances Australia
Over at Cathay Pacific, the airline has changed the name of its early birds to ‘2017 First In, Best Dressed’ to create a sense of urgency on the sale.
Additionally, the ‘quick smart’ offer comes with seven different reasons to book Europe and North America such as a mix and match offer where guests can choose to fly Premium Economy for one leg and Economy in the other; fly into one city and out another; add a stop over in Hong Kong; and extra baggage allowance.
Over at Etihad and Emirates, the UAE airlines are taking care of their loyalty members looking to book a trip to Europe over the next two months.
Etihad, which is offering flights from Brisbane to Frankfurt from $1,235 return; Sydney to Athens from $1,180; and Melbourne to Milan from $1,145, has also confirmed its Etihad Guest members can earn miles on all sales fares.
The airline has also made its Business Class more affordable, with the luxurious cabin selling from $5,276 from Sydney to Amsterdam; $5,373 from Brisbane to Paris; and $4,792 from Perth to Milan.
Meanwhile, Emirates’ Skywards members can book $1,479 flights to the UK and Ireland from Melbourne; and $1,399 fares to the UK and Ireland from Adelaide and Perth, using a combination of cash and Skywards Miles.
The airline said this will further bring down the cost of the fare and is available for members to use in any class.
“Now is the perfect time to make it happen and experience the world’s best airline, while taking advantage of these affordable fares.”
Barry Brown, Emirates Divisional Vice President – Australasia
