Price and convenience

The fortunate few, with cash or company-earned frequent flyer miles can, of course, treat themselves to business class, but that is not available to most of us.

In the last 15 years, I have done a lot of inter-continental travel – both for business and pleasure and in economy class as well as in the front of the plane – and the experiences have varied widely.

Much of our private flying – and I’ll wager, most of that done by ordinary South Africans – has been driven by price and convenience. We are willing to pay a slightly higher fare if it means flying direct, for example.

South Africa, while it is an “end of hemisphere” destination, is still a highly profitable route for many airlines. That is one of the reasons that South African Airways 2.0 (the phoenix which arose out of the ashes of business rescue) revived two of its most popular global routes – to Brazil and to Australia.

When SAA started off on the Australian route early last year, it was the only carrier offering direct flights, following the withdrawal from the route of the Australian flag carrier, Qantas, from the route during Covid.

It didn’t take long for the Aussies to realise the potential gold mine in that route and Qantas put its flagship Airbus A-380 aircraft on to the route. Apart from carrying more passengers, the A380 is one of the most comfortable, and quietest, airliners in service today.

#Orchids&Onions: Carling Black Label's Mother's Day ad challenges traditional masculinity

Brendan Seery  12 May 2025

But, still, you have to get people to buy the tickets and I think the latest TV ad by Qantas, which is flighting on TV stations in SA and on YouTube at the moment, does that well. Even though it is a generic ad applicable to any number of markets, it stands out because it is simple – and because it features all classes in the plane, rather than just the top end business or first class which is how many airlines flog their products.

It’s headlined Australia in the Sky and you can almost feel the “g’day mate” warmth for which Aussies are known.

We get to see business class, premium economy and international economy, where the crew make a special fuss over a little girl and her pet turtle. That’s refreshing…

If I was flying to Australia, I would certainly consider Qantas – not because I’m not patriotic or don’t trust SAA, but because I feel I would be welcome by the crew on the red-and white planes.

I’ll bet your load factors are going to be good, Qantas. Effective advertising will have played a major role in that. Which means you get an Orchid from me.

Meandering tale

This is a tale of two different airline ads. While I like Qantas because it speaks to a broad range of people, I wonder about the new ad for Qatar Airways. This tells a meandering tale of star-crossed romance, which starts from an accidental meeting in London, to encounters in Cape Town, on safari reserve, in New York and, of course in Doha itself.

Titled Star in your own adventure, it’s a sweet little story but every time I look at it I wonder what on earth it has to do with getting bums in airline seats… which should be the purpose of advertising. Flying economy class for 12 hours may be an adventure but I would hardly label it an experience I’d want to star in…

There is a lot of focus in the ad on Qatar’s elite offerings, although the man chasing the woman around the world does seem to occasionally fly economy class.

The whole thing is just weird. Cinematically, it’s a fine production but I think it is moving away from the basics.

I’m not going to give it an Onion because I think it could well be show that Qatar is so supremely confident that it doesn’t have to worry about mundane marketing, but I will say it is odd and it doesn’t work for me.

And that is interesting, because I am a fan of Qatar, having flown on it a number of times. It’s a great airline. Maybe that’s what great airlines do... who knows?