Skytrax lost any shred of credibility when they rewarded 2-2-2 Lufthansa 5 stars and kept the designation for years.
Qatar Airways just loves to have beef with everybody. They joined OneWorld and started a long term quarrel with QANTAS. They banned John Cahill and keep banning him instead of trying to find a solution. They rather fight with Airtbus over A350 paint instead of finding a solution. And now SkyTrax is the new play partner for a riot.
They act a bit like drama queens. Not surprising if you ever looked Al Bakr in the eyes. A soul is missing behind them. I'm sure his successor is of the same breed.
The A350 debacle was a huge loss of face for Qatar. At least it gave the board an excuse to finally ditch that odious Al Baker character for good.
But are they still the best ? I have not traveled with them in a long, long time. But during the pandemic i looked at their first class lounge menu online and the selection of food and beverages was out of this world. Pretty sure, unmatched by any other airline. I saw that online menu about 6 months ago and the choice of F&B was not that impressive.
Off course i have not experienced that first class lounge in person. So I will defer to someone who has had first hand experience.
All "ratings" no matter what the overseeing entity are biased and should be taken with a grain of salt. There is no transparency behind the ratings. Skytrax (and Fifa for that matter) should disclose thier financial relationships along side the ratings. However, if that was done, then legitamacy would evaporate. Its a marketing tool; nothing more for the "airline paying for consulting" of the body.
For example, i have plenty of "industry publications" suddenly calling me want to highlight our business cuz of all the "excellent ties we have with X company and Y company" who paid for the article to be done. So they want $$$$ to be mentioned in the article; otherwise, i wont be mentioned in the article as participating in the project. Of course that company was featured highly on thier "ratings" lists in the publication.
Skytrax is no different. Heck even OMAAT is biased to thier network of contacts to some degree; cuz if you are negative to them...they wont give you the scoop....this is just how the world works.....
Case and point: skytrax 5 star airports/reginonal airports contain HOU, EWR (new terminal), LGA....yet dont even mention SFO...which by all accounts is a great airport versus those especially HOU.....
in terms of airlines...AC is rated higher than Alaska...yet AC is a dumpster fire in service, reliability and food.....air transat is 4 star...worst airline in Canada.....
This is all a pay to play to get the rating....skytrax is very much like FIFA....pay us or we can sink you with our social network.
does that mean the absolute nonsense about doha being the best airport will also go now that qatar have stopped buying the 'award'?
The majority of these so-called airlines ratings are crap. Emirates used to keep on winning but an EK flight attendant told me they had to fill in the forms so EK got the votes to make sure they got over the line.
I am yet to encounter an airline other than QR that uses the term ‘award-winning’ in its marketing… or, for that matter, uses the world’s biggest sporting event as a trumpet for itself. Can you even imagine SQ or Air France doing this?! Have you ever seen AF (practically the only truly luxurious Western airline today) promote its Skytrax rating? Or ANA and JAL? Therein lies the answer…
Turkish often include their Apex awards in marketing. I googled "award-winning airline" and the first page included lists of awards on the Cathay, Virgin and Singapore sites.
Qatar has flooded the market already. People who travel know the expectations. They won’t loose premium passengers because a ranking if service stays in line with what people expect. Travel advisors will still recommend them, if service doesn’t deteriorate. And yes, they could make a lot of money doing business or sponsorship another way. If dollars and Qatar thought they needed Skytrax, they wouldn’t leave point blank. Qatar doesn’t need them.
“you’d think this would be a new business opportunity for FIFA, to get into the “airline ratings” business…”
I don’t quite get this - are you meaning FIFA as in football?? I don’t follow football so maybe that’s why I don’t get it.
Yes. FIFA recently went through a big to-do where the president of FIFA proposed selling a good portion of the rights to the World Cup to a new corporation headed up by a private investment group. The president of FIFA was to be brought on to that new corporation in a senior, and presumably extremely lucrative, capacity. Various regional soccer governing bodies objected, the whole thing was dropped, and it has yet to be seen if the president is forced out. Adding to the drama is that the president of FIFA has been flying around, including during the recent World Cup, in a private airplane owned by Qatar Airways. Thus, maybe FIFA would give Qatar Airways a top ranking.