Jet Airways desperate 50% off sale is disappointing

Jet Airways is disparate for cash. Having missed loan installments and various other payments, airline needs cash to survive. One easy way to raise quick money is run promotional sale and tempt customers to book more future tickets. Spicejet used to do this repeatedly when they were in crisis and they used it well and have managed to come out of their crisis.

Will Jet Airways succeed?

Jet is offering up-to 50% off on its international and domestic flights. Sounds like a good deal and I did begin my hunt for a mouth watering deal on Jet Airways website. But within minutes I was disappointed. Below are some of my observations

• Chennai Delhi at 2800+ one way is still a bit expensive than Rs 2700 one way I had seen during Vistara flash sale. Delhi round trip with Jet will cost almost 6000 INR after including Rs 450 convenience fee. This is not a cheap fare- I am more inclined to wait for next sale by Vistara or Indigo, so that I may get a return ticket cheaper or at similar amount but with a much higher certainty of flight operating as per schedule.

• Chennai-Paris round trip is available for about 37500 INR. [check this post for cheaper fare spotted earlier] This is again, good but not exciting enough to make me book taking a chance. Have seen similar fares on Qatar Airways during their promos, so I would rather wait and book on Qatar than take a chance with Jet. If I could get a return ticket to Europe for under 20-25k I would have taken the risk and booked on Jet Airways.

• No discounts on some sectors like Chennai Port Blair where there’s high demand and less competition.  Some sale amounts look ridiculous- like who will pay Rs 5700 + 225 convenience fee (6k total) for a one stop flight to Pune from Chennai?

•  Some sectors like Chennai-Coimbatore etc were candidates for lowest fares earlier- such as Rs 999 or Rs 768 etc. But this sector also now costs double.
• If there was a tempting deal to Mangaluru I would have probably booked and flown- but no such deals (most destinations served by one stop flights usually don’t get exciting deals during sales).
• For popular sectors like Mumbai-Delhi, when we search for various dates on Makemytrip, Jet Airways price is nowhere the cheapest despite the claimed 50% off- other airlines continue to dominate with lower pricing. (Jet is now essentially low cost carrier as food is to be bought onboard), so pricing should be more tempting than LCCs, at least during mega sale to impress!
• Most of the 50% discount seem to be on the business class- Chennai-Delhi Premier going for about 17000- but I had seen regular premier fares of 19 k earlier, so can't think of any real savings here (just about 10%)

Of course, I have only checked a few origin-destination combinations manually. You can check for destinations of your interest and see if the sale prices excites you.  You can book till Jan 11^th and travel date can be anytime after Jan 20^th

I don’t know what people at Jet were thinking- people will see 50% off banner and will blindly book at whatever rates shown to them? Customers do have a sense of what amount is high, normal and cheap. If you’re launching mega sale and desperate to raise cash, give good discount across the network, across a large date range, so that people can book tickets to destinations they have in mind, for dates convenient to them. With high chance of flight cancellations, if I have to take big risk and book on Jet Airways, the discount should be tempting enough and not name sake. Below are some target fares that will excite customers- if you wish to refine your prices

• India to Europe: Return ticket for 20-25k for popular destinations like Paris from big metros in India, 30k for other Europe destinations from less popular Indian cities
• India to other nearby international destinations (Singapore, Colombo, Dubai etc): return tickets for 10-12k (AirAsia can do it for half of that)
• Within India: Short haul flights for under 1000 (MAA-CJB, MAA-BLR, BLR-IXE etc), 1500-2000 or less for medium range destinations (1.5-2 hours) like Chennai-Mumbai, 2500 or less for flights 2.5 hours or longer

If Jet Management is unable to price it right, they should hire someone from Spicejet who had done similar work. (or consult me for free!)

Just a week ago Jet Airways concluded year end 30% off sale. Now 50%. Wondering what next- May be 70% next if this one doesn't generate enough cash?

Big concern still remains on the viability of the airline- what if airline takes your money, issues ticket and cancels flight the day before? You would have planned your holiday, booked hotels, got visa and so on- even if Jet promises refund, you will incur loss and lots of inconvenience. We shouldn’t hope for such a scenario but that is a real possibility. I usually take such risks if the fare is unbelievably low and I can plan a holiday such that even if flight is cancelled I don’t incur significant loss. In this case, you’ve to assess the fare, how tempting it is and your gut feeling of how likely everything will happen as per plan. Best wishes.