Air France to launch domestic Business Class offering

eastafspot · Tue Jan 28, 2020 1:37 am

From the 4th of February 2020:

- No curtain on CR7
- No curtain on A321 until end of 2020
- 6 XP per segment
- 8 XP per segment for Abonné card holders

https://www.afklm-biztravel.com/nos-act ... courriers/

https://corporate.airfrance.com/fr/actu ... domestique

Just to compare fares on the 10/02/20 between the (éco flex) l'Eco Abonné and (business flex) business "abonné"/discount pass on the route rtn 1) Marseille - Orly and 2) Marseille - Orly - Brest rtn the cheapest.

1 – Marseille – Orly

Eco Flex – Eco Abonné:
- €384, ou €313

Aff Loisir – Aff Abonné:
- €572, ou €524

2 – Marseille – Orly – Brest (West Normandy!)

Eco F – Eco A
- €515, ou €507

Aff Loisir – Aff Abonné:
- €705, ou €645

Hope with this new offer, AF will challenge EZ on the domestic routes :smile:

berari · Tue Jan 28, 2020 5:42 am

Is it still not easier to take a train between Paris and Marseille?

Theotime74 · Tue Jan 28, 2020 7:41 am

Not really, it will take around 3 to 4 hour and cost you even more than taking the plane

Asiaflyer · Tue Jan 28, 2020 11:54 am

Theotime74 wrote:
Not really, it will take around 3 to 4 hour and cost you even more than taking the plane

Where do you get that from?
A 1st class TGV train normally cost between 90 and 150 Eur with a travel time between 3h 5min and 3h.25min. 2nd class TGV starts at 19 EUR.
You dont fly faster between the cities than that, including airport transfers and margins at the airport.
The price speaks for itself.

runway23 · Tue Jan 28, 2020 12:06 pm

Asiaflyer wrote:
Theotime74 wrote:
Not really, it will take around 3 to 4 hour and cost you even more than taking the plane

Where do you get that from?
A 1st class TGV train normally cost between 90 and 150 Eur with a travel time between 3h 5min and 3h.25min. 2nd class TGV starts at 19 EUR.
You dont fly faster between the cities than that, including airport transfers and margins at the airport.
The price speaks for itself.

That is assuming you are doing downtown to downtown. When you take into account connecting passengers or those who aren't going downtown, the plane has its place.

The cost to AF of offering business is an empty seat (made up with extra revenue from business class pax), but considering the fact that the trains are faster, there's probably less need for Y capacity and more of a need to ensure you don't stick a passenger who has just flown la première or affaires into a middle seat in an A320 - especially when all your long-haul competitors offer business class products to the French regions from their respective European hubs.

jetwet1 · Tue Jan 28, 2020 1:54 pm

Sorry, I just don't see it, as others have stated, the TGV will eat this alive, 100 euros each way, factor in getting to the airports etc and the train wins every time.

tootallsd · Tue Jan 28, 2020 1:56 pm

And the greater comfort of a train ride. You can walk around. The seat is not confining.

cedarjet · Tue Jan 28, 2020 2:04 pm

I think the pricing per sector is a formality, most people who will fly this are connecting from long haul, and it’s less of a shock to the system if they have a blocked seat next to them, a glass of champagne and a nicely presented snack tray. And a bit of extra comfort for local traffic that have paid full whack for a fully flexible, fully refundable ticket. Same with any euro business product.

TObound · Tue Jan 28, 2020 6:04 pm

cedarjet wrote:
I think the pricing per sector is a formality, most people who will fly this are connecting from long haul, and it’s less of a shock to the system if they have a blocked seat next to them, a glass of champagne and a nicely presented snack tray. And a bit of extra comfort for local traffic that have paid full whack for a fully flexible, fully refundable ticket. Same with any euro business product.

Eurobusiness sucks. I don't much get the point of it.

Thibault973 · Tue Jan 28, 2020 7:42 pm

jetwet1 wrote:
Sorry, I just don't see it, as others have stated, the TGV will eat this alive, 100 euros each way, factor in getting to the airports etc and the train wins every time.

Well I've only been to Marseille once (I'm Paris based) and we flew in and out. AF was about half what SNCF was asking so while it's definitely more convenient to hop on a train, it's not always cheaper. Same with Paris - Lyon, I've been tempted many times to fly AF since the train is so damn expensive (180e return base price, excluding special offers) but LYS is just too far away to the city center so I always end up putting the extra bucks.

mig17 · Tue Jan 28, 2020 10:27 pm

I did Paris -> Marseille -> Paris with AF last week for work to attend a meeting at Istres.
I left at 6:15 from home inside Paris, this early it took me only 15 minutes to reach Orly. 15 more minutes to spend in the airport before boarding and we took off at 7:15 and arrived at 8:30. At Marseille we rented a car. So yes it was faster than TGV, only 2h20 from home without having to get out of the centre of Marseille. Last time I took TGV, from Paris to Bordeaux, it took me 2h15 to reach Bordeaux from home and 1h to get out of Bordeaux ... So Faster but it was also more expensive : more than 300€ including return but I wasn't paying.
But neither I nor my compagny would ever pay such a prenium to book a business seat on such a short flight. So except for connection on a long haul, I don't see the need for this product.

mercure1 · Wed Jan 29, 2020 12:28 am

There is an important place for planes.

Not everyone travels from city center to city center and accessing airport for many is quite convenient.
Additionally rail travel is hardly cheap with air fares especially with growth of LCC often fraction of rail travel.

And maybe most apt for Air France specifically and why they are doing this is because they want to recapture lost premium traffic on their network to/from regions which today opt to fly via other European hubs.

Air France to launch domestic Business Class offering

Air France to launch domestic Business Class offering

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