Is ‘Smart’ fare system so clever?

To quote, these new fares ‘will give customers the ability to buy tickets which better fit their needs’ – I’m not sure that a three-tiered ticketing system with a range of optional extras (at an additional price) offers better flexibility for customers than a single ticket which allows you to travel with either hold or hand luggage (or both) at no extra cost. I believe the previous system is better tailored to our ‘needs’, and I’m not sure how this new system will improve ‘customer experience’ – I’d welcome the explanation, beyond the requirement for ‘marketing-speak’ to add gloss to the announcement.

I appreciate that they’re a struggling airline looking to make some extra cash, but perhaps it would be better not to treat their customers as imbeciles – we already have no choice but to use them, it would be nice if they didn’t patronise us in the process.

I wonder if perhaps a watchdog could be set up to ensure that more cheaper flights are offered on all routes, as promised here? And that these ‘Light’ fares are consistently cheaper than the current ‘lowest fares’ offered on their site? How many of these lowest cost ‘Light’ fares are available on each flight and how far in advance do you have to book? What price will the ‘Smart’ fares start at and how many per flight are there? How much is hold baggage as an add-on for a ‘Light’ flight? As always, I suspect we as consumers stand to pay out and lose out.

Of course, I could be entirely wrong. We could be about to see much cheaper flights to the UK. The ‘Smart’ (who came up with that name?) flights may not be much more expensive than the ‘Light’ ones, and there may be loads of availability of the lowest cost bracket options. But I’m sure if that is the case, I’ll be finding myself strapped in beside a Hampshire pig next time I board my flight to Gatwick.

DAVID

St Peter Port

Malcolm Coupar, Aurigny’s commercial director, replies: We do understand that this is a big change for our customers, but it is not a decision we have taken lightly. The changes to our fares and the introduction of hand baggage-only fares is a development we have been reviewing and carefully planning for a long time, with the aim of giving our customers access to more lower prices.

The new fare structure will also give customers the ability to buy tickets which best fit their needs. For the first time, they can save with the new, lower, Light (hand baggage only fares) and we have two other fare types, Smart and Flexi, that give passengers more flexibility and a lower price should they need to change a flight. We believe the changes will help us increase travel to and from the island and in turn support tourism and the island’s economy as a whole.

The availability of the lowest Light fares will vary from flight to flight, as our lowest fares do today. However, generally speaking, the Light fare will be £10 lower than the lowest fares were before the change.

You can see our current lead-in fares by using the low-fare finder on the homepage of our new website.

We appreciate people will have different views about the suitability of three different fare tiers.

However, we do believe it provides choices for people that don’t exist today and therefore we are improving on the ‘one size fits all’ approach.

As I’ve said, we have spent a long time planning this change to our fare structure because we believe it will enable more people to travel and at the same time improve our business efficiency through fewer empty seats.