Cathay Pacific could become the first Asian carrier to auction seats. The Hong Kong carrier is mulling out this option to fill up unsold seats.
HONG KONG – El Al in Israel, Etihad in the UAE, Virgin Atlantic, TAP Portugal or Air New Zealand. A bunch of air carriers already propose to sell in an auction their unsold seats to passengers ready to upgrade themselves.
Hong Kong carrier Cathay Pacific is now studying to process with an online auction system to fill its planes more often. Passengers would then bid for the upgraded seat. Cathay looks at boosting its revenues and will launch a pilot project to sell through auctions some of its premium economy and business class seats. Any passengers could then apply for the auction. The bid among passengers would be made available up to 48 hours prior to departure.
The move could however infuriate the most faithful members of Cathay frequent flyer program, the “Marco Polo Club”. For now, members of the Marco Polo Club often have the opportunity to upgrade their seat for a fixed fee from their travel agents. It is also possible that the most faithful of Marco Polo Club flyers can benefit from a free upgrade, especially when the economy class is overbooked. In a forum on internet, a spokesperson of Cathay Pacific indicated that the airline is also looking at ways to ease upgrades in a different way for its Marco Polo Club members.
At Air New Zealand, seats’ upgrade on auction are only for the next available class of service. Economy passengers can bid then for an economy premium seat while Eco Premium passengers can look at business class seats.
However, auctions can sometimes turn more expensive than buying special promotional fares on premium classes online. But this is the rule of the games…
Luc Citrinot a French national is a freelance journalist and consultant in tourism and air transport with over 20 years experience. Based in Paris and Bangkok, he works for various travel and air transport trade publications in Europe and Asia.
