Many airlines operate very successful charter flights on behalf of travel companies. For example, Qantas has for years been operating 747 charter flights both over Antarctica for the ’Antarctica Flights’ company, and around the world for ’Captains Choice.’ They can be very lucrative for aircraft that may not otherwise be utilised.
Continue reading: Wow: A Travel Agency Is Chartering An Etihad A380 For A Staff Party
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SXF/soon-to-be-open BER share a runway and the Berlin Airshow is held there — this year there have been EK A380, LH 748 and even AN225 there ( https://www.instagram.com/p/BiIGfaUhwKd/?taken-by=klausaa), so there's no worries about the airport handling that.
There are no regularly scheduled A380 flights to TXL, but LH did few one-offs there.
Lucky at this rate you may as well start writing posts about cooking recipes too.
Why not?
Sounds like a great perq to offer the sales reps (although the actual execution, Fight Klub in the sky, sounds like my idea of an awful trip).
Also sounds like a great reason to never, ever book travel through Flight Centre or any similar company in which the sales staff are incentivized in a direction that bears no interest to the client's needs.
Worked for An FC brand in the US for quite a while and honestly, nobody partied harder. I went to Global in Macao and you seriously left US on THU and came home on SUN, back at work on Mon (or else). The FC/Etihad relationship is strong, especially in AUS. Good on them...something tells me they got a pretty good deal on this though.
Then again, aren’t these wild investments hurting EY?!
@larryinnyc I concur. There was a documentary on British tv about their practices which didn’t reflect well on them. The pay of the travel agents is so low they have to be incentivized.
Yeah indeed. It’s $800 cheaper to fly on Singapore but I won’t tell you about that. Here’s an awesome deal on etihad.....
Plenty of Aussies still feel much more comfortable using Flight center than booking direct.
This day and age, I simply cannot understand why people would still be using brick & mortar travel agents... and they must be raking in huge profits for organising such an event each year.
Flight Centre bought Liberty Travel in the US several years ago, so they are also among the largest US offline travel agencies. Additionally, they are among the largest offline agencies in Canada.
Maybe this partially explains why EY101 AUH to JFK is operating with a 77W from time to time during the summer?
Sometimes EY451/450 operates with a 777. Perhaps they have used all of their 777s as well, but you'd think they have some spares for moments like this. Flight Centre seems to really love VA/EY/NZ/DL. I'm surprised how many Aussies haven't worked out that Flight Centre deliberately tries to avoid Qantas which most Aussies adore.
Yep I have been on the Flight Centre charter flights 3 years running now and they are a hoot! Think nightclub in the sky... The great part is the flight attendants always get into the fun, usually in costume of some sort and create a great vibe in the plane.
Great article again James. As a POME in OZ I regularly fly Etihad to MAN ( and pool the velocity points back to VA ) flight centre are always a rip off adding in huge “ extras “ however I always use them - search the web for an Etihad discount code get a big discount then head down to FC for a price beat - love it
Hi James, a few facts wrong here and in particular Flight Centre are a charter aircraft company. In 2016 Flight Centre took a majority stake in AVMIN a global charter aircraft logistics company. They provide charter flights for a range of clients including government bodies, bands such as cold play and celebrities such a Chris Hemsworth etc. anything from the above A380 to B747 to private jets stalkers turbo prop and helicopters.
In most sales roles the only way to hit your targets is to make sure your clients keep coming back, and refer their friends and family.
It's about building relationships, offering the right/best options, and having the experience and knowledge to back it up - there is value in human interaction.
Also here are much easier ways to make money, and if you ever do speak to a travel agent, you'll most likely find they didn't get into the industry for the paycheck.
Btw good on you Jay for saving $1. Sounds like time well spent.
Flight Centre Travel Group is one of the best companies to work for, truly a great place to be a part of. Strong employee engagement and empowerment.
It’s not just a travel agent event. This is a large global organisation with some 30+ brands (Flight Centre is just one of many) and anybody in the organisation essentially has an opportunity to attend and it’s linked to performance. From travel agents to accountants, technology, hr , supplier management, business development, account management etc - they have a chance to get there.
It’s a huge incentive to employees, the company gives back a lot when it comes to company culture. Not just this one mega event.
Although it’s a conference essentially, a huge part of it is about celebrating some of their best employees.
I used to work for FCUSA, and attended Global. They probably paid nothing or nearly so to Etihad for the charter; the airline gets exclusivity, their C-suite people at the event, and gratis marketing during event and afterwards, as well as the perk of getting agents to sell/upsell tix particularly for business class seats. Put your top agents on an Etihad flight, they'll do all the promotion that hard marketing dollars can't. The two companies have been working together for years, and both get lots out of the arrangement --- win-win-win for FC, Etihad, and the agents.