Virgin Atlantic Gives $20 Worth of “English Sunshine"

A couple weeks ago, I got an email from Virgin Atlantic. The email was an offer for $20 off when you book your flight between May 25th and June 8th for travel to the UK between June 1 and September 30. You get this discount only if you’re a member. You need an advance purchase of 7-42 days.

Why did I find this interesting? It wasn’t because of the booking schedule or the advanced purchase needed. It was simply the offer. First of all, it costs roughly $1200 at the low end for a coach class ticket to even set foot on the plane from San Francisco ($245 are “fees” and surcharges). At that point, $20 becomes a rounding error. I’m not sure $20 would “drag me over the finish line” of deciding whether or not we make the 10 hour trip to London.

I’m all for price testing by the way, I recently wrote about it here. What the heck, if you’ve got 4 different prices you want to test and you’ve got the list that can handle it then this makes sense. But let’s face it, VA is trying to be the upper class of airlines, I’m not sure a $20 discount is going to cut it.

We came up with some suggestions on how VA might have tried to fill their planes during this time:

• Price test higher discounts since the flights are pretty pricey.
• Absorb some of the taxes and surcharges (Fly tax-free!)
• Give double miles. You can give away a ton of free miles that may equal $20 in the long run, but 1,000 miles sure sounds better.
• Give the “English Sunshine” payoff - Package a hotel room with the flight so people don’t have to think about where they will stay.
• Give the $ off on a dinner at a fancy London restaurant (The airlines pay the restaurant).
• Get a posh London picnic to bring to a beautiful park in London (The airlines pay the gourmet food bill).

Hey, who knows, maybe we were a tiny test of a few thousand that got that offer and no we’re not airline marketing executives, but we do know a bit about email marketing. $20 off Mr. Branson? It’s just not enough.

Comments

[A.J. Akoto]

Yes, $20.00 offer will not cut it as an incentive, however, it may be possible it was
just to create a buzz. At least you wrote about it. There are discussions about it.
A few free press ink...

It may be a mistake BUT we may also never know the strategy behind it..

[Geoffrey Ponder]

Yes, this offer of $20 off hardly seems worth writing home about. Maybe the marketing department have made a mistake, or quite possibly just being reminded about Virgin will raise sales to people contacted by 5%.
As I'm sure you know, Branson gives a lot of attention to his marketing, and he has a particular liking for bizarre activities (such as crossing the Atlantic by balloon) which nearly caused his death. And he still wants us to think that Virgin is cheaper than its rivals, which actually isn't the case.
www.Networking-Knowledge.com

[Janine]

Rich, it could be an error. Do you think it should have been $200? THEN I'd bite. You bring up a great point though, today VerticalResponse made an error by sending out last week's subject line for our newsletter about our new Trends Report. So everyone is entitled to their errors.

[Rich Ottum]

Janine:

While this might be a test panel, it could also be an error.

You'll recall our friends at Media Post Publications recently sent everyone on their list a free VIP invitation to an expensive email summit at a resort in Arizona. See my post on Marketing Blurb:

http://www.marketingblurb.com/2006/04/media_post_bungles_resort_invi.html

Rich Ottum

[JEB]

You're exactly right! There's so much unimaginative marketing, especially "$ off" stuff, not only in travel but across the board.
I find your suggestions excellent. I guess they would involve a bit more legwork to implement, but in my opinion, don't offer anything if you can't make it relevant and interesting.
This one is especially miserly - twenty bucks off an airfare - Sir Richard are you kidding....!

[Yvonne]

Interesting article. And I agree $20 does seem a little stingy. However, could it be that MR. Branson is not looking to effect your decision of whether or not you book a flight to England, rather who you choose to book with. As an expat Brit, I am always price shopping for flights to the UK, and they are often within a few dollars of each other. A $20 offer like this might just clinch the deal - that and the fact that I prefer Virgin over most other airlines.