Source: CCTV news client
Entering November, the civil aviation tourism market entered the traditional off-season. Superimposed on the escalation of the epidemic prevention and control situation, airlines have tried to find ways to supplement the load factor, and the air ticket product "Fly Freely" launched last year has made many airlines taste the sweetness, and another batch of upgraded products has recently been launched.
Recently, a number of airlines have launched ticket "sub-cards" on joint ticket booking platforms. Simply put, consumers pre-purchase tickets for a specific route at a fixed price, and in the next month, they can choose to redeem the ticket at any time on the airline's open flight. In addition to the fuel cost of 50 yuan, there is no need to pay any additional fees.
Wang Guangyu, product director of Qunar air tickets: For example, the locked price in Beijing and Dalian is 190 yuan, and the price of Beijing to Sanya is more than 400 yuan, so the cost of a single purchase is lower for users. The average price is about 300 yuan. The inventory of reserved "secondary cards" per flight is generally 10 to 20 sets.
Yuan Huifang, manager of the marketing management center of the sales department of Hainan Airlines: This model of redemption through the sales of the distribution platform and the self-operated channels of the airline has been issued for four consecutive periods, with a cumulative sales of more than 80,000 sets. Passengers cannot redeem this flight, can choose another flight or change the travel time, and if they really can't redeem it, they can also choose a full refund.
Compared with the "free fly" products launched by major airlines last year, most of the prices are about 3,000 yuan, and the average discount of the "secondary card" of the ticket is about 20%. Civil aviation industry insiders said that such a single small amount of "secondary card" also put forward a greater test for the reservation ability of airlines and ticket platforms.
Qi Qi, associate professor of Guangzhou Civil Aviation Vocational and Technical College: Obviously, its threshold is relatively low, which can meet the scattered consumption of consumers. If this product is from the entire pricing and the interests it ultimately pays, it will definitely lose money for the airline, which is actually just a stage of the industry's self-help behavior.
Ticket pre-sale products have been iterated rapidly in the first half of this year, including the "ticket blind box" and "ticket prepaid card" that were popular in the market before, which are essentially ticket pre-sale products. The pre-sale products have mixed reviews in the market, and the marginal benefits of marketing are also decreasing, and consumers' travel decisions will also be affected by the occasional epidemic in the country and the restrictions of epidemic prevention policies.
Qi Qi, associate professor of Guangzhou Civil Aviation Vocational and Technical College: It is recommended that consumers should not treat the "secondary card" of this time with the psychology of wool, like the products that fly freely, before purchasing, be sure to carefully read the instructions of related products to meet their needs.