I Can Make Your Holiday Easy

Mr. Ma has 3 years’ experience in a travel agency. He is mainly in charge of overseas travel planning. “We give them options of travel plans based on their schedule, budget & location preference.”

The ravel agent can handle everything for you:
“80% of our customers choose to join tour groups in China,” he said.  “So that they don’t need to worry about various worries like the travel route, visa application etc.” The tour groups always provide a package service including hotel, ticket, dining & transportation.

“As a result, sightseeing and shopping becomes the most important thing to tourists. They don’t really care about the airline selection besides the flight schedule.” In his point of view, flight is a part of travel, but not a part of the holiday.

“Medium distance flight is popular.” Mr. Ma quoted his business report, “A 7-8 hours flight is the most preferred choice. They don’t like to fly more than 10 hours, which means they will lose one day of their holiday and be very tired.”

That’s why travel agents won’t promote the airlines as a highlight of their tour package.

“We only care about the cost.” Mr. Ma said, “The cost of flight will affect the tour package and you know that tourists always choose cheaper ones.”

So we can see the growth of Spring Airlines, a famous local airline that provides the lowest price with limited service. “Spring Airline is the only profitable airline in China right now as I know it.”

Last but not the least, Mr. Ma also indicated that service would be the future opportunity of airline competition. “There have been some co-branding promotions of airlines and hotels or banks - and I believe it will become more and more popular in the short future.”

Emirates is a high class airline brand to Mr. Ma because of its unique A380, but he wonders if this famous branch could be launched in its China business.

Elaine: A World Explorer

Elaine Yang, an independent Chinese woman, 34 years old, optimistic with passion of life. She is full of curiosity about the unknown world; her intent is to travel around the world. “I can’t stop exploring as I've finally realized that the more I know, the more unknowns there are.”

She promised herself 1-2 times a year for overseas travel as a reward of hard working. “The meaning of earning is using them to explore the unknowns.” She said: “And the memorable travel experiences always encourages me to work harder & earn more money." It's a cycle.

Elaine’s ‘be there’ travel list is much longer than that of her colleagues and friends: Thailand, Indonesia, Korea, France, German, Russia, Malaysia, Czech, Australia, Spain, Japan, Iran, The United Arab Emirates and Vietnam etc. “My next stop is Kenya - another wonderland full of power & unknowns! ”

Making a holiday is not so easy.

Elaine is a typical self-service traveler who is always well- prepared for every journey. “There’re too many things I have take into consideration,” she sighed. She always does a lot of work to make plans e.g. screening, budget setting, time arranging, flight/hotel booking, etc. Her biggest concern is her visa application. “There’s still less countries that provide visa-free / visa on arrival for Chinese passport holders which may cause a lot of time on application and may face the possibility of rejection.” She really hopes for more convenient solutions in the future.


Cost is the key consideration of making a holiday.

Elaine is good at budget control. “Flight tickets and hotels cost a lot, so I spend a lot of time on searching economical options. I’d also consider the exchange rate for cost saving.” She is quite proud of being financially smart. “Enjoying a great holiday doesn’t mean spending extravagantly, even if I were to become very rich,” she said. “I believe in a Chinese saying: ‘Spend your money where it’s needed most.’ ”


After landing, the holiday really starts.

Elaine doesn’t quite care about the airline service. In her mind, there is no big difference among the airline companies, especially for economic class service. “Taking flight is a mandatory tool to bring me where I want to go and my holidays start after that. I’d pay more attention to the local conditions and customs.”

Her flying experience:

Elaine had the best experience on Korea airline. She got a free upgrade to business class. She was really impressed by the on-board service. “It was my first time in business class; the air hostess were really considerate; no wonder that cost so much.” She treats this experience as a bonus, “Versus the cost, the comfort could be sacrificed.”

The transit visa service offered by Emirates is also attractive. Once she traveled to Iran, she also got the chance to have a 3-day tour in Dubai which left her with great memories. Finally, I asked if she has some expectations, she said. “I’m not greedy, I just hope for something little but warm.”

Travel everywhere but live in Shanghai

Tracy, a marketing manager of a foreign alcohol company, is 35 years old and has more than 10 years of working experience in marketing and sales. Like a typical successful working lady in Shanghai, Tracy enjoys her current job and lifestyle quite well.

“If you talk about the future, I believe the first priority is to marry myself off,” she laughed. “In terms of career development, I think I do quite well compared to others because I’ve married my career already.” She’s correct. Tracy is a young person who believes in 'working hard and playing hard'; she’s also a party animal and never hides her sexy image even during the day time.

“I’ve tried lots of different airlines, mostly are for business, such as Virgin, United Airlines, Air France, ANA, China Airlines, Malaysia Airlines, Singapore Airlines, Cathay Pacific, etc.” Tracy showed her co-brand credit cards and mileage club cards and further explained, “Usually I select flights according to my schedule, but 99% I will choose these airlines and their alliances to get benefits from their royalty programs and promotions, you know my last vacation in Hainan started from free tickets for two redeemed by Phoenix mileage program.” She has three cards in hand which are Phoenix Miles (Star Alliance) which is her most often used card, and Eastern Miles and Sky Pearl Card (Sky Team).

Her criteria of choosing airlines especially for middle to long flights are brand reputation, local relevance, service and promotions. “Although a big name is important, I prefer select Japan airlines when I fly to Japan and SQ to South Asia.” But after all, we found service is the most key element for Tracy. When we asked her to describe her ideal business trip, she spent a lot of time to talk about her previous experiences in terms of comfort of seat space, in-flight dining and entertainment program, as well as a lovely, humorous steward she met at Virgin. “It would be better if they can provide extra services such as hotel rental discount, VIP waiting room service and transfer visa etc.”

“Emirates? Yes I’ve heard about it but never tried it before.” Like most Chinese travelers, Emirates is still a brand new name with a very  blurry image to Tracy. “My only impression about Emirates is its expensive price, but I cannot tell you more about it.”