RBA And.....

...One angry employee ( BB Opinion 24 Sept 2008):

What's happening with our national carrier?

Where is our national carrier Royal Brunei Airlines heading?
A few months back, I remember they were boasting about the arrival of their new airplanes, the Boeing 777. But the new airplane is nowhere to be seen.

All that is left are the old Boeing 767s with seats, which in my opinion, is worse than a budget airline.

I do not see any major improvement as yet. First, the gone B777 deal and this year, the hope of getting merit increments and bonus for staff look bleak with nothing so far.

Unfortunately for those who resigned, the employer's TAP contribution is also affected from the employee's end of service benefits.

In its commercial side, I see failures especially in the decision-making. I have been in the sales and marketing industry and I personally think their commercial department needs a major overhaul putting those specialising in that field rather than putting a pilot or engineer instead. I guess, they just have the wrong people for the wrong critical positions.

Salaam.

Consumer Loyalty Switch

I received the email from RBA informing that they have achieved the e-ticketing target. So, what does that mean? Would they be able to improve their performance and sales? Because I can tell you that our loyalty to our national carrier has now been transferred to another, due to their poor service and sales strategy.

It happened about 4 weeks ago. When I received the (most) distressing news (ever in my whole life) from my sister, we wanted to fly home immediately, as in the very next day. It was on Saturday afternoon. I called RBA London and was answered by a machine saying that the office was now closed. I was shouting my heart out! This was Saturday afternoon in England! For goodness sake, why the BL**DY H*LL are you closed?!! Saturday in England is like THE day for business to make a lot of money.

Then we tried the RBA website. And guess what, the earliest travel date that I could book from their website was in the next 48 hours! I was gobsmacked! How ridiculous is this? RBA website is not some travel agent’s website trying to sell other airlines’ tickets. It is selling its own tickets, isn’t it? Why isn’t the website connected to their booking system? Honestly, I nearly fainted! Furthermore, the price it quoted me to travel in 3 days time (the earliest available seats) was double the normal ticket (about GBP1200 per person, if I’m not mistaken). Now where is the economics in that? Aren’t few cheaper seats better than empty seats? Charging higher fare for the last few seats is only justifiable and economically sound if there is no other airline travels to the same destination.

So, my husband calmed me down and suggested that I tried Singapore Airlines. Lo and behold! Within 5 minutes, the website gave me all the combinations of the travel dates that I could purchase, as early as the very next morning! And the prices…oh sweetness… (Thank You ALLAH!) were about GBP700 for an adult and about GBP500 for a child RETURN tickets inclusive of tax and services.

And YES, it was the double-decker Airbus 380. “WOW…” was the word uttered by my 2 daughters when they entered the aircraft.
And... RBA has lost in sales of 4 used-to-be loyal customers.

What I like even better is the fact that the SQ offered a straight, uninterrupted journey to/from Singapore, which is fantastic especially for my children. They get to have enough sleep. They sleep, we sleep. And therefore we wake up happy. Unlike RBA. We have to make a transit in Dubai, which honestly is the MOST annoying thing to do for travellers with children, especially the journey returning to London. Just imagine parents travelling with small children, who have to be woken up from their sleep- grumpy and tired, just to get off the aircraft and make a long walk along the Dubai airport just to board the aircraft again in 15 minutes. It is ridiculous!

And after sampling A380, with its fantastic uninterrupted, perfectly working personal screen in-flight entertainment [don’t even let me start on RBA’s in-flight entertainment! Which has to constantly be reset by the air-stewardess which results in my children getting angry and I (almost always) bang my head on the screens], my husband and I have promised ourselves that WHENEVER POSSIBLE, we will not use RBA for any long distance journey again. EVEN if there is a price difference. Because some things, such as COMFORT and peace of mind, are simply priceless.

I am no expert in airlines or even travel business but I’m sure it is all about satisfying customers. Plus the airline business is also in a perfect competition market. If RBA continues its shoddy sales strategy, funny flight route combinations and poor in-flight entertainment, I’m not surprised that it will be losing more and more of its customers.

Salaam.