Exclusive HfP competition: Win two flights to New York – and YOU pick the airline

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• Adam says:

  4 Jan4 January 07:22

  Cool comp.

  Bit confused by the addition of the “other” option…. if I pick this and I’m randomly put on one of the six options, what information are they actually getting?

  Surely by getting the winner to select one of the six it shows a preference – even if the winner considers their selection to be the best of a bad bunch, it does still show a preference.

  Am I missing something?

  • Andrew (@andrewseftel) says:

    4 Jan4 January 08:08

    Presumably it stops people with no opinions from skewing the research.

  • Rob says:

    4 Jan4 January 08:16

    You are really showing no preference. However, if you actively dislike an airline on the list, picking ‘other’ is a mistake as there is a 1 in 6 chance you get that one!

    • ThinkSquare says:

      4 Jan4 January 08:28

      “other” does not mean the same as “no preference”. For example, I’d like to fly with Qatar, Singapore or Cathay. From Manchester!

      • Rob says:

        4 Jan4 January 09:01

        Qatar to New York would show a high degree of commitment, as it would be a 16 hour trip.

      • James A says:

        4 Jan4 January 14:45

        Thomas Cook from Manchester have an excellent economy product but sadly aren’t included.

• JamesB says:

  4 Jan4 January 07:31

  Being on the short side I don’t need to worry about the seat so much so my priority would be ‘schedule/timetable’ and it’s not on the list. My next most important factor would be ‘fare conditions’ and that’s not on the list either. Seems to me like they are trying to guage the what drives the choices of ‘idiot’ travellers from smart HFP readers. A fun competition but poorly conceived at the more detailed level.

  I cannot see how they are going to stop the winner receiving status benefits such as priority check-in and lounge access, especially if the flight is with a competing airline? Are they going to put a huge star on tbe reservation saying “treat these passengers like dirt”?

  • Paul says:

    4 Jan4 January 08:26

    Agreed about status. My bet is that it’s been said as a white lie to try and set the base for the research

    • Rob says:

      4 Jan4 January 09:03

      No, they will be issued as travel trade tickets and so restricted.

      When I dd the Ras Al Khamah trip for Qatar two years ago I got one of these and was not allowed lounge access despite having a business class ticket (First Class for Doha to Ras).

      • JamesB says:

        4 Jan4 January 09:55

        Interesting, does this apply to tickets solely used within the travel trade or can we find ourselves unintendedly booked on such tickets via a TA sometimes? If so, is there any way for us to know if we have such a ticket before arriving at the airport?

        • Rob says:

          4 Jan4 January 11:34

          I did run an article a few years ago about how Amex Travel stuffed a reader by selling him a restricted Delta ticket which earned no miles – and he needed those miles for status requalification. The best bit was that Amex Travel had marked up the ticket to the same price as a standard Delta ticket so they made a massive profit on it and, as the reader paid the same price as the Delta website, he was none the wiser.

          You should always check the fare bucket (eg Y, J, R, I etc).

      • JamesB says:

        4 Jan4 January 11:51

        Thanks, now that you mention it, I recall that story. Will search it oug fof another read.

      • Lady London says:

        4 Jan4 January 23:35

        British Airways did just that to one of my travellers some years ago. He was ticketed to return from NY on Concorde but needed to change to the slower plane at the last minute.
        British Airways reissued the ticket for the full retail price of a flexible ticket for the one way of approximately $6,000. But the ticket was issued by them non-endorsable, completely unchangeable, nonrefundable etc, the most restricted ticket at that full flexible price.

    • Alex W says:

      4 Jan4 January 10:00

      Agreed. It would be bad PR for an airline to deny normal lounge access to a status passenger.

      • Rob says:

        4 Jan4 January 11:32

        Do you know how many people travel each day of staff tickets or their cross-airline equivalents in premium cabins and don’t get lounge access?

  • Hannah says:

    4 Jan4 January 08:52

    I work for an airline where on staff travel tickets you don’t get lounge access etc even if you have status that would otherwise give lounge access so I suspect the ticket will be coded as if for staff travel to prevent the lounge access (though I suspect priority check-in would still work because otherwise they have to send you to the back of a queue after you’ve made it to a desk which they’d probably rather avoid).

    • JamesB says:

      4 Jan4 January 12:57

      Hi Hannah, can you folks go through crew security lanes with your ID when off duty? Just curious as I recall seeing people out of uniform using those lanes from time to time.

• Mr(s) Entitled says:

  4 Jan4 January 07:38

  Choice would be direct from MAN or whichever offerred the best (ie shortest) connection time. Of the options listed my choice is none.

  Not trying to be difficult or offensive, but for research purposes ‘none of the above’ may be of interest.

• CV3V says:

  4 Jan4 January 07:42

  2JU

  (one for old time readers)

  • JamesB says:

    4 Jan4 January 07:58

    Been enjoying HFP from the start, jolting my memory but I cannot place it?

    • LB says:

      4 Jan4 January 08:24

      In the past the last 3 digits of your postcode was enough to enter a competition.

      • JamesB says:

        4 Jan4 January 08:35

        Ah, thx 🙂

  • Alan says:

    4 Jan4 January 10:18

    Haha classic!

    Interesting twist but won’t be entering – if going TATL economy I’d at least do it direct from Edinburgh, but thankfully New York is one of the few locations that has easy Avios availability and need to get doing some spending (have a few vouchers needing used).

    Sent from the Private Room at Changi, about to fly Suites to AKL 😀 So far had a suite upgrade in Hilton Frankfurt and Conrad Singapore with fantastically late checkouts provided by both 🙂

    • JamesB says:

      4 Jan4 January 11:59

      Did you book the SQ suite or was it a comp upgrade? SQ between Xmas and NY is a great booking either on cash or miles. Loads, especially on the 26th, are so low the least you can expect is fab service. I would expect flights to be full first few days of the new year though.

      • Rob says:

        4 Jan4 January 12:23

        It was booked via Amex MR points, channelled via an ICC Amex for the 35% uplift bonus (as Alan is now on the plane).

    • TripRep says:

      4 Jan4 January 12:55

      Live the Changi Private Room.

      Good results on the Hilton & Conrad.

      When you say fantastically late, just how late for the room and then for the exec lounge?? Wee might have a competition on our hands for the Hilton KL.. 🙂

• Barry Neaves says:

  4 Jan4 January 07:45

  I’ve entered. And opted for Norwegian. I flew with them recently and was amazed about the service, professionalism and how great everyone was. The seats had plenty of room, no issues that my bag was overweight and they were just the friendliest people – which considering it was a late night flight, it can’t have been their first flight of the day. fabulous.

  • Nic Evans says:

    4 Jan4 January 17:47

    I agree with you Barry. A couple of years ago I would have chosen Virgin as the challenger airline that tries harder with their basic product. Now that place has been taken by Norwegian. All new fleet, best seat pitch, free wi-fi- what more do you need? All the short haul economy flights I’ve taken with them have been great value and service as good as full cost airlines. I’m looking forward to winning to try out their long haul service. If it’s good I’d be tempted to try Buenos Aires.
    An interesting question – no loyalty, no points, no frills, who would you fully with?

• Michael_s says:

  4 Jan4 January 07:52

  I’m not gonna tell the answer in order not to spoil the survey but there is ONE specific flight departing from London which has been consistently lower than a third of economy seats taken for the last 3 years. Hence it becomes (almost) a flat bed service since you can pick up an entire middle row

  At least I will vote on that basis

  I would be truly interested in finding out results to this survey though, which I believe won’t be made public

  • the real harry1 says:

    4 Jan4 January 07:59

    if it’s Virgin sponsoring it, they won’t exactly be shy about coming 1st

    I suspect it’s likely (in order of sponsor likelihood) to be:

    Virgin (are they still loved head & shoulders over the others?)
    BA (why aren’t they liked any more?)
    Delta (why has nobody much in the UK heard of us/ considered us, especially when we’re the giants?)

    • Rob says:

      4 Jan4 January 08:11

      I honestly don’t know if we will say afterwards who is sponsoring this, although the winner will know. If it goes well and we think we might repeat the format again then we probably won’t. I will ask.

    • JamesB says:

      4 Jan4 January 08:12

      The comments about meals being included with Norwegian seemed a bit ‘off’ to me so I’m guessing Norwegian. Also, I suspect all the others have long term market research deals so would just have sent out a survey by email.

      • the real harry1 says:

        4 Jan4 January 08:18

        who got the invites to the HfP do?

  • Rob says:

    4 Jan4 January 08:14

    We have not discussed this, if I am honest. It did cross my mind yesterday. The only downside is that the company underwriting the prize will have funded research for all the other airlines who will see the results.

    Perhaps we name the sponsor and not the results. Or we give the results but don’t name the sponsor. Or both. Or neither.

• me_not_me says:

  4 Jan4 January 08:04

  Definitely missing some options there:

  1. Prefer LGW or LHR
  2. EU261 availability on the way back

  If every airline flew from LHR I would have chosen differently.

  • Rob says:

    4 Jan4 January 08:09

    I did not pick the reasons!

    • JamesB says:

      4 Jan4 January 08:15

      I seriously doubt anybody thought you did Rob.

    • me_not_me says:

      4 Jan4 January 19:17

      They did look a bit like they came from a marketing department!

  • pauldb says:

    4 Jan4 January 08:25

    Appreciate EU261 is a factor generally, but you won’t get it on this prize: a free ticket.

    • JP says:

      4 Jan4 January 10:38

      I don’t think the price of the ticket (free or not) has any effect on EU261, as it is about be compensated for the inconvenience of the delay. Otherwise EU261 would probably be worded more like the airline should just refund the price of the flight when you are delayed (Ryanair would much prefer that!)

      • John says:

        4 Jan4 January 11:17

        Not as simple as that. From the horse’s mouth:

        3. This Regulation shall not apply to passengers travelling free of charge or at a reduced fare not available directly or indirectly to the public. However, it shall apply to passengers having tickets issued under a frequent flyer programme or other commercial programme by an air carrier or tour operator.

        The first sentence would seem to be the case here.

      • Stu N says:

        4 Jan4 January 12:23

        Yep EU261 doesn’t apply to free flights or trade/ staff travel. Does apply to reward flights though.

• EBungle says:

  4 Jan4 January 08:26

  Maybe an Economy competition on a (mostly) business class website is a bit off target – but it’s a free flight so why complain?

  I’ve entered, If i win it will be my first economy flight in years but also my cheapest so defenitely won’t be complaining.

  • Troubleonline says:

    4 Jan4 January 12:51

    Good for you but actually I’ve never had the pleasure of flying business class it still find HFP very useful and interesting.

  • Lumma says:

    4 Jan4 January 13:02

    Personally, I feel business to east coast USA is a massive waste of money/points. By the time you’ve had something to eat and drink on the westbound you’re practically half way there and the flight isn’t long enough for meaningful sleep on the return

    I’d rather keep the 100,000-120,000 avios for something else and pay £400ish in economy

    • Alex W says:

      4 Jan4 January 14:29

      Disagree. My 5 to 6 hour sleep in J back from JFK was bliss. Just have to be disciplined about it, do your indulging in the lounge beforehand, start relaxing as soon as you board and sleep as soon as you can lie the seat flat.

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