BUZZ NEWS

Air New Zealand’s Saverjet: No Hidden Fees

Posted on February 4, 2009
Jessica Hartstein

Advertisers often try to make competitors sound much worse than they are. These infomercial tactics try to convince us that a company’ competitors are too costly, provide bad service, or make poor-quality products. They usually make me roll my eyes because the commercials’ exaggerations rarely are plausible and even more rarely make me laugh! That being said, Air New Zealand has managed to turn me around about “over-the-top, we’re better than the next guy” advertising. Maybe it’s not all bad.

Check out this video in which Air New Zealand stresses that its advertised fares are its final fares, unlike low-cost airlines which tack on additional fees after attracting customers with low (and false) airfares:

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t believe in the US our airlines have stooped to the level of low-cost airlines in other countries in terms of hidden costs (on Europe’s leading low-cost airline Ryanair, flyers are charged €12 just to pay for their tickets). Unfortunately, all of us, low-cost airline flyers or not, can now relate to paying for baggage and over-priced snacks. It seems regular airlines are taking tips from the low-cost airline business model, rather than the other way around. One aberration to the trend is that the only airlines in the US that don’t charge for luggage actually are low-cost airlines like JetBlue, Go, Virgin America, and Southwest.

Unlike this ad, I’ve never “paid” for cleaning services on a low-cost airline, but I don’t always find my seat clean when I fly low-cost European airlines, either! Of course the ad exaggerates, but it does so in a truly funny way that makes us relate to the customer on the other end of the phone and laugh at ourselves for accepting any condition as long as we think it’ll save us a few bucks. Or am I the only one who thinks that a 1am flight is worth it if it’s half-off?

Air New Zealand, you have reeled customers in and at the same time made your point explicitly clear with just a bit of well-placed humor. You’ve made us laugh at ourselves and reminded us to think twice before we get dooped by seemingly too-good-to-be-true airfare.