Jet Airways’ is evidently embarking on a new advertising blitz this month, where they are making the point I have been making about full-service carriers all along, for a little more, you get more.

There is a new splash all across the airline’s website and other digital properties, and a television and press advertising campaign is coming out as well, where the airline is trying to educate everyone of the philosophy of flying Jet Airways.

On the back of the fact that Jet Airways has consolidated their brands in 2014 and become a full-service carrier, is adding new services such as wifi based in-flight entertainment during this year, and the price difference with no-frill carriers is only a few hundred rupees, the point is, why shouldn’t you fly full-service over no-frill carriers.

Clearly, as one of the oldest airlines of India, Jet Airways has the network to take you all over. It still beats me about how they skip some cities such as Bhubaneswar, but they have an elaborate network from most parts of India and this works for me usually.

The Value Add

Personally, I am biased towards flying a full-service carrier, over a no-frills carrier such as Indigo, SpiceJet or GoAir to the extent possible. Why so? Because, gone are the days that the no-frills carriers were low-cost carriers. They have similar pricing to full-service carriers, and the few hundred rupees that get saved flying them, you would be spending that money eating a cold sandwich on the plane most of the times.

This is the point Jet Airways is trying to drive with the campaign, that everytime you fly them, you get to go from point A to point B, and you get the following benefits as well:

• Better Airport Experience: For instance in Mumbai and Delhi, the FSCs use the better terminals (Terminal 2 and Terminal 3, respectively), while the no-frills carriers don’t
• Mileage programs: Hey, if there were no mileage programs, I won’t have been able to visit friends in the US on a whim not worrying about having to buy an expensive last minute ticket! Or those random trips!
• Better International Network: The no-frill carriers are a largely India play but you get a bigger network flying the FSCs
• Meals on board: Most people eat on planes, period! Most of the times out of boredom, and a lot of times out of looking at the next guy. Back in the day, meals were standard accompaniments on flights. So they are still expected. On an FSC you get them as a part of your ticket, on a no-frills carrier you buy them, and still get them cold!
• More Privileges: Frequent flyers get more privileges with FSCs because they start giving them free baggage allowance, lounge access, free cancellations and a lot more privileges, things a no-frills carrier would never dream of doing.

In fact, in a recent interview to announce the launch of the campaign, a senior personnel indeed put up a value to these benefits as well:

Colin Neubronner, Senior Vice President, Sales and Marketing, Jet Airways, said that if fares charged between the various domestic airlines are broken down the difference between them is about ₹ 200-300 on a one-way ticket.

“But the actual monetary value that Jet Airways provides in terms of the food and beverage that we serve is about $3. For those who are members of our privilege miles programme they get miles on flights whether it is long or short haul which gives an adjusted value of $6. Then there is the lounge (the cost of) which has gone up tremendously. If you add up $3 from the food and $ 6 from the miles and $ 11 from the lounge you save $ 20 which is about ₹ 1,300. What our consumer gets is four times of the ₹ 200-300 price differential,” Neubronner told BusinessLine.

All in all, I’m waiting to see how Jet will be able to make people understand why should people fly their airline over the others. I understood this long ago, and hence, as long as it works for my schedule, I always choose to get more!

What do you guys prefer? The lowest fare or more benefits?

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