ZIPAIR, a new Japanese carrier owned by Japan Airlines, is offering Basic Business Class and it’s a great solution to a problem many travellers face.
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What Is Basic Business Class?
Business Class often comes with lots of extras: checked luggage, a pair of hot (“gourmet”) meals, lounge access (sometimes both at origin and destination), an amenity kit, extra miles, priority boarding, expedited security, and most importantly, a seat that converts to a lie-flat bed.
ZIPAIR has unbundled business class to give customers more options. Customers can buy just the seat or can add on any number of additional options – think Spirit Airlines, but really, really deluxe.
The carrier isn’t the first, in fact, it’s not even the first to offer it in Asia. Air Asia XL sold unbundled business class seats on routes to and from Malaysia aboard its A330 though the product is now mostly aligned with traditional business class offerings. Initially, some of those flights were as far as London and Paris. Norwegian offers a business class product but, again, includes extras. Emirates unbundles the fare for those interested.
A few more trans-Atlantic products might be classed as Basic Business Class such as XL Airways, La Compagnie, and Air Transat depending on how closely the definition is followed.
Who Is The Customer?
Who wants cloth seats in a Mercedes? Those that want a premium product without all of the premium frills is a pretty narrow market. However, for business class seats, I can see a use case for myself and many others. One in, particular, would be the trans-Atlantic market (which in turn also makes sense for ZIPAIR due to the duration of the flight and the number of time zones crossed.)
Sleep is incredibly important on trans-Atlantic flights from North America to Europe or Africa in order to avoid jet lag. But some of those flights simply are not very long. Boston to Dublin, for example, is a shorter flight than Boston to San Diego. Instead of crossing three time zones across the US, there is a five-hour difference to Ireland and the UK, six hours to continental Europe. The flights are so short that many of the carriers offer a far more impressive meal service in airport lounges on the ground rather than investing on the inflight service because that’s what customers want.
Likewise, the proposed ZIPAIR flight is about seven hours from Tokyo to Honolulu; six hours from Tokyo to Bangkok, another destination in their scopes. The wholly-owned subsidiary of Japan Airlines (JAL) started flights to Seoul from Tokyo this month.
Why Is It Great?
For those flights, I don’t care about the meal. I may use the lounge but probably won’t, opting instead to get into the city as soon as I land and having eaten hours before departure. I may have a bag to check, but depending on the duration in Europe, it’s possible I am just carrying on. The extras are nice to have but honestly, I am really just paying for the bed.
For business customers and those who fly back and forth frequently, the bed can be a game-changer, saving a week of jet lag with a sturdy 4-5 hour nap on the plane and a very long day upon arrival.
Many simply don’t need all of the trappings of business class for these specific flights. Passengers like me cannot sleep sitting up, whether in coach or Premium Economy, but do not see as much value in the rest of the service offerings. I’d rather save money or points by just buying what I want.
Businesses who have traditionally flown their executives in business or first class might take advantage of cheaper coach seats in a tight economy. Those that will allow employees to buy Premium Economy tickets may find the jump to Basic Business a tolerable increase in costs for improved productivity for their staff.
I hate paying for things I am not going to use. Getting a boxed sandwich on British Airways due to COVID-19 seems particularly wasteful, I’d rather save the money.
Conclusion
I have spilled copious amounts of ink (digitally) about my love for Spirit Airlines, despite being both a United 1K and American Airlines Executive Platinum member. Why? Because for some flights you don’t need the extras. I love Polaris lounges and for long haul flights, it is about far more than just the seat/bed. But ZIPAIR has the right idea with unbundling those extras from the seat. Given the time change from Honolulu to Tokyo, it makes sense to buy an unbundled product and I can only hope more carriers offer this to fill a market gap between Premium Economy and Business Class.
What do you think? Would you buy a Basic Business Class seat at a reduced price (miles, points, or dollars?) Do you fear this only further degrades the experience?
Sometimes those discount/no frills business carriers can be a good choice. Air Asia is not too bad ex Bangkok ( although they use DMK rather than BKK), with good connections onward via KUL.
But gradually the price crept up, to a point where the difference wasn’t that great between them and the full-service carriers, at least when booking a return ticket.
They still make some sense because they offer reasonable one way deals, making it possible to construct combinations of paid J and Y, and points, on complex itineraries.
Jetstar is a similar concept, although a vastly inferior product.
I dont care about amenity kits, fancy meals, booze, points, bowing and scraping flight attendants…just a good seat/bed with privacy and a safe, reliable service/convenient schedule.
I would consider myself an ideal customer for a product like this.
I am 6’3 with long legs and broad shoulders. I cannot sleep or even rest comfortably in coach or most PE and it’s particularly bad if the person sitting next to me is also tall and/or wide. So I am more than willing to pay a premium for business class seating for anything over 5 hours, esp. at night.
At the same time, I don’t drink alcohol at all and generally dislike the hot meals on airlines regardless of the cabin or carrier, unless it’s Q-Suites on Qatar. So paying a premium for food on the plane doesn’t interest me.
I find amenity kits wasteful, yes I will usually take one if offered, but won’t miss not being offered one.
Lounge access is nice, but hardly a dealbreaker, and for a short visit, a Priority Pass lounge is probably OK, so again, happy to forgo it and be charged less.
I can’t remember the last time I checked two bags, or when I traveled with. bag weighing more than 35lbs.
Of course, if J is unbundled, what will happen to reward redemptions is presumably that you will redeem for the seat, and not get any of the other amenities.
I remember an F redemption on Emirates a few years back, being very pleasantly surprised that it actually included the limosine service both here in the USA and in the UAE. I used it upon landing to go from DXB to Abu Dhabi (it was good anywhere in the UAE) – an amazing extra on an award ticket.
The writer is living in a dream world utopia where he thinks that by deleting services, the core product will be cheaper. It won’t.
All that will happen is that the fully inclusive product price increases and the pared back product price aligns with the current norms.
Thus, you are now paying the same for an inferior product that you “wanted”.
This is the Emperor’s New Clothes – only the blind cannot see it.
At least in the case of ZIPAIR, prices appear to be cheaper than comparable business class on the same routes.
In a monopolistic world, then sure, but the airline industry is highly competitive. Prices are set based on what the market will bear (in normal times, when the market is not distorted by massive subsidies). Airlines will be more willing to supply basic business at a lower price due to their lower cost, while people will only be willing to pay less for reduced services. The result is a more efficient market by price discrimination (don’t get triggered by that word), regardless of overall demand. An efficient market is a good thing.
Your view of economics seems to be that of a “big evil corporation” conspiracy theorist.
You’re not taking the economics of foreign exchange equation into consideration. This is still written with the mighty dollar in mind.
Hello Kyle & Team, PRIMERA AIR offered similar option on their shortly lived YYZ/YUL/BOS/JFK/IAD to CDG/STN routes. Their Premium class was comparable to Premium Economy on Legacy carier if booked in advance out of YTO was a flat fee $400 add on to the Basic Unbundled Economy class however right after boarding /on board was a flat fee of GBP 99 per flight (to CDG) a saving of aprox. $250, but sans the Lounge, sans the food (You still have to pay for food), You do get however the amenity bag. so to recap turned out if purchased in advance You paid an extra $250 for: 1. a Lounge access, 2.a meal service. 3. a Booz service. and 4. ‘FREE checked bags which sounds about right $50 Lounge access+$110 checked luggage fee + $ 40 meal service $50 Booz.’