1Time too many Kulula jokes and great service
by Shane on 10/08/07 at 11:48 am
2 comments
Remember when Kulula had just launched? The whole superhero vibe was refreshingly funny and people laughed at the jokes. At the time it was just what SA needed and I am grateful for their hard work in bringing low cost flights to SA. We salute you Kulula! A couple of weeks back I did a Cape Town to Joburg stint and flew with Kulula. This flight round, I must admit it all felt a little stale. The jokes were a little irritating, no one laughed, and somehow something had been lost.
I also remember flying 1Time shortly after they had launched. You always knew who was flying 1Time – they were all the exhausted looking people who had just walked to the furthermost boarding gate in the airport. I remember sitting at that furthermost gate, wondering whether the plane was going to make it, knowing that these start-up airlines tend to use reconditioned planes (the ones SAA were throwing out). I felt a little nervous and wished I had paid the extra and gone with SAA’s shiny new planes. On the flight, there were no jokes and no super hero jumping out of the cupboard type stuff – but the service was really good. I remember telling the story to quite a few people as to how good it really was.
A few months back I flew with 1Time and again enjoyed their fantastic service and equally important, their generous leg room and the fact that they were the cheapest!
There’s a lesson in this for me. Make sure that your unique selling point has VALUE – The kind of service you give and the way you give it. Not your super cool ads, or your funny holding music. Fluff is fluff and at the end of the day is not really worth much.
I don’t run an airline and it’s easy to pass judgment from the blogging sideline – but I must say this…I will continue to support both airlines, they’ve managed to do extremely well with no Government funding like some other airlines we know and they’ve paid a big part in small business across the country. Keep up the low cost flight fight guys!
On the side:
This morning I was checking some flights online and noticed that Kulula’s pricing is not tax inclusive. Airport taxes are added separately. Huh!? Reminds me of the old days when things were still complicated. 1Time has picked up on this and are very openly making this known on their site. Can they do this? Check it out.
Shane Dryden is the 'Maven' at Ideate. The driving-force of Yuppiechef, Shane loves to write on advertising and innovation. He spots the non-obvious stuff behind the obvious, which seems obvious, but isn’t really that obvious (obviously). View more articles by Shane.
Nicola
Aug 10th, 2007
I love the low cost airlines, and it’s great South Africa has a few of them so the prices remain competitive. Although being a foreigner and only having a UK credit card I had an awful time trying to book a flight with Mango. I did persist as they had the cheapest flight, but thinking back was it worth the R200 saving to have to drive to a Nedbank, fill out a deposit slip, pay the money over, and then find somewhere with a fax machine so I could confirm I had made a payment, (for some reason they do not except a scan and an email of this confirmation). I would really suggest they start to except bank transfers and International credit cards. Surely they are loosing out to the International market who want to book before they come on their holiday to SA.
Mike
Aug 13th, 2007
I don’t think they can do it, but I applaud them for it anyhow