How much free travel does Air New Zealand give journalists?

Forums › Transport (cars, bikes and boats) › How much free travel does Air New Zealand give journalists?

Zeon

3912 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#268109 28-Feb-2020 12:48

Seriously EVERY day Air New Zealand has a headline about something. I really wonder what kickbacks the journalists and editors (or even media companies themselves) get in return for this type of promotion of that particular airline? I think there must be a couple of dozen airlines that service New Zealand and the others are virtually never mentioned. I'm unsure of passenger numbers, but while sizeable Air New Zealand will only have a portion of the overall market but get a completely disproprioanate media stories. E.g. today:

Can understand the feeling of many towarsd the media these days.....

Speedtest 2019-10-14

1 | 2

2715 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#2428802 28-Feb-2020 13:00

Is it not just a case of airnz media team pumping out press releases likely to be picked up by the lazy journalists?

Tradepub

Free professional, reference and technical white papers (affiliate link).

xpd

Geek @ Coastguard NZ
13657 posts

Uber Geek

Retired Mod

ID Verified

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2428803 28-Feb-2020 13:02

nickb800: Is it not just a case of airnz media team pumping out press releases likely to be picked up by the lazy journalists?

Doubt it... that would infer NZ has journalists.

99% of stories these days are just sourced from overseas or generated from press releases by bots.......

Gavin / xpd / FastRaccoon / Geek of Coastguard New Zealand

LinkTree - kiwiblast.co.nz - Lego and more

Support Kiwi music! The People Black Smoke Trigger Like A Storm Devilskin

NZ GEEKS Discord______________________________

Bung

6323 posts

Uber Geek

Subscriber

#2428834 28-Feb-2020 14:13

The usual free travel involves travel to a specific destination stories and the free travel is declared in any articles.

In Stuff at least the $69 fares to Australia story included comparisions to several other airlines whose fares were around $100 and that Air NZ had 43% of trans Tasman business. If your favourite airline is feeling left out maybe they could try offering $65 fares.

wellygary

8171 posts

Uber Geek

#2428837 28-Feb-2020 14:19

In response to the title of the thread, the answer is LOTS, -

They have a very slick public and government relations team that keeps things spinning in their direction,

gehenna

8427 posts

Uber Geek

Moderator

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2428891 28-Feb-2020 14:50

xpd:

Doubt it... that would infer NZ has journalists.

There's a ton of great journalists in NZ. I worked with many of them in the past. Everything is cyclical. Once the current trend of clickbait crap is on it's last legs the public will be crying out for editorial again. Right now it's just not a priority, and that sucks.

gzt

16815 posts

Uber Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#2428905 28-Feb-2020 15:25

xpd: 99% of stories these days are just sourced from overseas or generated from press releases by bots......

This is factually incorrect.

sbiddle

30853 posts

Uber Geek

Retired Mod

Trusted

Biddle Corp

Lifetime subscriber

#2428911 28-Feb-2020 15:38

The simple answer is very little.

In response to today's stories it's easy to write content when Air NZ are sending out press releases with everything in it.

Air NZ are selling airfares for essentially the price of tax (around $200 for a return flight to Australia) simply to have seats on planes. Never before has anybody done that and had zero revenue. I know a number of people who have booked $220 return flights today that Air NZ will make $20 on after they've paid the tax

mattwnz

19996 posts

Uber Geek

#2428913 28-Feb-2020 15:40

$69 is cheap if you only want a one way ticket. But the price to come back is more than double that!

sbiddle

30853 posts

Uber Geek

Retired Mod

Trusted

Biddle Corp

Lifetime subscriber

#2428915 28-Feb-2020 15:41

mattwnz:

$69 is cheap if you only want a one way ticket. But the price to come back is more than double that!

Not entirely true.

It's not double (but close to it) because Australia have departure taxes that are some of the highest in the world. The actual fares coming back are still at cost and only just cover the taxes.

Taxes to Australia are basically $69ish and around $130ish to fly back to NZ, hence Air NZ selling $69 fares over and $140 fares back which they're making $10 on.

floydbloke

3473 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

#2428941 28-Feb-2020 16:32

wellygary:

In response to the title of the thread, the answer is LOTS, -

...

sbiddle:

The simple answer is very little.

...

Well that's cleared that up. Thanks guys.

Roses are red, that much is true, but violets are purple, not ****ing blue!

Geektastic

17927 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2428971 28-Feb-2020 17:06

If you knew how much free stuff and how many commission sales greased the tourism industry worldwide, you’d be stunned.

Famils are a stock in trade way of getting publicity and showing potential sales channels what you’re selling. I know of journalists who have done stories on the luxury lodge market here getting a week of free nights that retail at $2000 a night, free trips - even free Business Class flights from the USA.

I was once handed $500 in cash by a helicopter company in NZ as commission I wasn’t expecting for booking some charters for clients.

Money slushes through the travel industry like water in one form or another. Free trips, free stays, commission payments etc etc.

sbiddle

30853 posts

Uber Geek

Retired Mod

Trusted

Biddle Corp

Lifetime subscriber

#2429076 28-Feb-2020 21:26

Geektastic: If you knew how much free stuff and how many commission sales greased the tourism industry worldwide, you’d be stunned.

Famils are a stock in trade way of getting publicity and showing potential sales channels what you’re selling. I know of journalists who have done stories on the luxury lodge market here getting a week of free nights that retail at $2000 a night, free trips - even free Business Class flights from the USA.

I was once handed $500 in cash by a helicopter company in NZ as commission I wasn’t expecting for booking some charters for clients.

Money slushes through the travel industry like water in one form or another. Free trips, free stays, commission payments etc etc.

Industry freebies and kickbacks are pretty normal - but very different to airlines giving away flights to journalists.

1024kb

1154 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Lifetime subscriber

#2429100 28-Feb-2020 22:16

In a past life I was editor of a monthly lifestyle magazine. Every day I’d arrive to my desk covered in freebies, every single day. All the new products & the T-shirt promoting it, tickets to all events & hotel accomodation while you’re there. If a PlayStation game was released, they’d send 10 copies & 20 T-shirts & often (another) PS console too. There was so much more too, in every category - clothing, food, perfumes, gadgets, books, CDs, appliances, stuff everywhere. I literally couldn’t give it away fast enough.

But my all-time favourite was the envelopes from travel agencies. Usually 4-5 day freebies flying business to some hot destination of the moment - Buenos Aires, Tahiti, Fiji, Hawaii, Vietnam - each month somewhere different & fully paid for. Premium hotels too, Le Meridian & Sofitel level. My hotel tab was always complimentary, no matter what I ate & drank. I never had time to attend all of the outings, events, tours & shows that were available if I wanted something to do in these exotic locations. Transport? There’s your rental car or would you prefer we drive you?

There was no written agreement regarding promotional stories in return for their hospitality, but I always filled a couple of pages with attractive reporting on that destination’s appeal. The airline & agency would purchase print ads around my article & everybody was winning.

Yes, Air NZ uses the appeal of their product to create positive press & generate sales. As did almost every other company too.

This is the thing that influencers seized upon to create their industry. Magazines barely exist now.

Megabyte - so geek it megahertz

bmt

574 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2429452 29-Feb-2020 21:58

sbiddle:

mattwnz:

$69 is cheap if you only want a one way ticket. But the price to come back is more than double that!

Not entirely true.

It's not double (but close to it) because Australia have departure taxes that are some of the highest in the world. The actual fares coming back are still at cost and only just cover the taxes.

Taxes to Australia are basically $69ish and around $130ish to fly back to NZ, hence Air NZ selling $69 fares over and $140 fares back which they're making $10 on.

Confused about this post, you say not double "because Australia have taxes...".

On a sample $129 one way fare Auckland to Melbourne, the following taxes apply:

F1 International Border Clearance Levy $2.94
IA Passenger Security Charge $15.62
KK Passenger Service Charge $17.15
WY Passenger Service Charge International $22.00
Total $57.71

The NZ fare has tax, the Australian fare has tax, so how is it "not entirely true"?

sbiddle

30853 posts

Uber Geek

Retired Mod

Trusted

Biddle Corp

Lifetime subscriber

#2429509 1-Mar-2020 09:33

bmt:

Confused about this post, you say not double "because Australia have taxes...".

On a sample $129 one way fare Auckland to Melbourne, the following taxes apply:

F1 International Border Clearance Levy $2.94
IA Passenger Security Charge $15.62
KK Passenger Service Charge $17.15
WY Passenger Service Charge International $22.00
Total $57.71

The NZ fare has tax, the Australian fare has tax, so how is it "not entirely true"?

Because taxes to fly Australia to New Zealand are around double that of the taxes to fly New Zealand -> Australia. Taxes also differ on the route - to fly to Sydney for example taxes are $69 over and just on $130 for the return flight to NZ. This is mostly because of the AU passenger charge of $62.50 for departures.

OP's context (and many commenting online) is that Air NZ are only selling $69 fares to Australia and that fares coming back are twice the price inferring that Air NZ are making money on the return flights, which is incorrect. Air NZ are selling most of these S class seat only basis fares for the cost of tax + $10 meaning they are making $10 revenue from.

A $79 flight AKL-SYD is $69 tax + $10 revenue for Air NZ and the return SYD-AKL for $140 is $130 tax + $10 revenue... So a $219 return flight is basically $199 of taxes.

It's also worth noting that the taxes don't include many airport charges which are not included in the taxes because they are not a per person charge levied by the Government, but simply a charge levied on the airline by the airport.

1 | 2