Orange UK giving away free flights to the US for the next 20,000 customers

[Fire14]

Orange UK Does a "Hoover"

Orange UK is to offer free flights to the USA for the next 20,000 customers who subscribe to its mobile phone service over the next few weeks - in a move which will heat up an already competitive series of promotions during the summer months amongst the operators.

Orange launched the promotion last week, and says that it has already signed up half of the allocated subscriptions and has not ruled out the possibility of extending the offer. Subscribers are required to sign up to a contract costing at least £30 (US$60) per month in order to qualify for a free flight to four US cities or a range of European destinations.

The special offer may however remind customers of the Hoover scandal of late 1992, where the UK division of the company offered two return flights to the USA for the incredibly low price of just £100. The offer was designed to clear a backlog of stock - but with the price being a fraction of the real cost of a flight, and a Hoover vacuum cleaner being available for less than £80, the company was swamped with customers and ended up losing nearly £50 million. The UK division was eventually sold to an Italian rival following a media scandal when it was found that customers were being actively discouraged from taking up their cheap flights.

The key difference here is that while the Hoover deal required an investment of at least £180 to qualify, the Orange deal would cost a minimum of £360 and the cost of flights to the USA have also plummeted in the intervening years.

Steve Weller, a spokesman for the price comparison site uSwitch, told the Independent newspaper that the Orange's offer is "one of the most attractive freebies we have seen in the mobile industry. Those who want to fly to New York could jet off with an extra £230 in their pocket from the money saved." However Mr Weller warned that strict conditions apply and that customers should ensure that the contract is right for their needs.

Orange UK Does a "Hoover"

[Etorres777]

Wirelessly posted (MOT-V3t/0E.C8.0DR MIB/2.2.1 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1)

This is an awesome way to attract customers. I'd switch to a carrier that offered that promotion.

[Andy]

Very interesting. While I was in the UK three weeks ago, one of my 3 GSM phones preffered to roam on Orange there and their network was very, very well built out, so this offer would be a no brainer to make the switch.

[RadioRaiders]

If Orange UK starts losing money on this deal, they can always just increase roaming tarrifs 400% at the destinations of these free flights

[Andy]

Originally Posted by esto

If Orange UK starts losing money on this deal, they can always just increase roaming tarrifs 400% at the destinations of these free flights

Haha, that was a good one. Smart thinking, esto.
A Little off-topic, but I came home two or three weeks ago from Europe and spent over a week in CH.

[scotsboyuk]

I just took out a new contract with Orange, looks like I should have waited a few weeks. They're a good network in my experience although I did have an activation problme with them a few years ago. They also have a deal on cinema tickets, 2 for 1 every Wednesday.

[Andy]

Originally Posted by scotsboyuk

I just took out a new contract with Orange, looks like I should have waited a few weeks. They're a good network in my experience although I did have an activation problme with them a few years ago. They also have a deal on cinema tickets, 2 for 1 every Wednesday.

Not bad, not bad. While I was there I saw a TON of Orange subscribers. Are they one of the price leaders I am guessing? My guess would be that Vodafone is expensive.

[RadioRaiders]

Originally Posted by Andy

Haha, that was a good one. Smart thinking, esto.
A Little off-topic, but I came home two or three weeks ago from Europe and spent over a week in CH.

Where were you? St. Gallen? Hope you had a good time. Altho it's been a really cool summer here.

[scotsboyuk]

Originally Posted by Andy

Not bad, not bad. While I was there I saw a TON of Orange subscribers. Are they one of the price leaders I am guessing? My guess would be that Vodafone is expensive.

The four largest UK networks all have roughly similar subscriber numbers with the top position having changed hands over the years e.g. BT Cellnet (now O2) was on top, then Orange I believe and now it's T-Mobile I think. It's very competitive because they have to poach each other's customers (plus there is a smaller fifth national network and various MVNOs).

Orange's tariffs aren't bad, they offer unlimited deals e.g. unlimited texts, unlimited landline calls, etc on certain tariffs. In my opinion T-Mobile's Flext tariffs are better; you pay a set fee each month and get an allowance to spend on calls, texts etc e.g. I pay £35/month and get £180/month to use up.

Vodafone aren't that bad actually, their Stop the Clock and Passport schemes can be good and they recently spruced up their data tariffs. They could do with offering a bit more though in my opinion.

It can be difficult to say why people choose a particular network over another though because the networks offer various other incentives to sway people besides their tariffs and handsets. For example, my fiancé currently wants to go with Orange because she would get a free pair of hair straightners (good ones I believe)! Orange also offer free broadband with some of their tariffs so that might attract people. I seem to remember some deals not long ago featuring free Wiis although I'm not sure what network that was with.

Sometimes the network will ring you up and make you an offer to stay with them. I was once offered a deal by O2 that would have given me 2000 off-peak minutes each month, a free W800 (around £300 at the time) and £100 cashback for something like £5/month. If I had stayed within the free minutes allowance I would have actually made money from that contract.

[Andy]

Originally Posted by esto

Where were you? St. Gallen? Hope you had a good time. Altho it's been a really cool summer here.

Esto, I actually spent a lot of time at my uncle's near Winterthur (Hagenbuch) and then went to Lugano and visited a lot of places inbetween.

[Fire14]

Originally Posted by scotsboyuk

The four largest UK networks all have roughly similar subscriber numbers with the top position having changed hands over the years e.g. BT Cellnet (now O2) was on top, then Orange I believe and now it's T-Mobile I think. It's very competitive because they have to poach each other's customers (plus there is a smaller fifth national network and various MVNOs).

Orange's tariffs aren't bad, they offer unlimited deals e.g. unlimited texts, unlimited landline calls, etc on certain tariffs. In my opinion T-Mobile's Flext tariffs are better; you pay a set fee each month and get an allowance to spend on calls, texts etc e.g. I pay £35/month and get £180/month to use up.

Vodafone aren't that bad actually, their Stop the Clock and Passport schemes can be good and they recently spruced up their data tariffs. They could do with offering a bit more though in my opinion.

It can be difficult to say why people choose a particular network over another though because the networks offer various other incentives to sway people besides their tariffs and handsets. For example, my fiancé currently wants to go with Orange because she would get a free pair of hair straightners (good ones I believe)! Orange also offer free broadband with some of their tariffs so that might attract people. I seem to remember some deals not long ago featuring free Wiis although I'm not sure what network that was with.

Sometimes the network will ring you up and make you an offer to stay with them. I was once offered a deal by O2 that would have given me 2000 off-peak minutes each month, a free W800 (around £300 at the time) and £100 cashback for something like £5/month. If I had stayed within the free minutes allowance I would have actually made money from that contract.

So when the market reaches this type of saturation & coverage is as good as it is over there, the customers can benefit with better deals, We have some time to go here in the US, even though Market saturation is slowly getting there, it's coverage that's going to take a while especially in the more rural area's.

[RJB]

How did I miss this thread maybe virgin mobile here can do this here and give us free trips to the UK.

[scotsboyuk]

Originally Posted by Fire14

So when the market reaches this type of saturation & coverage is as good as it is over there, the customers can benefit with better deals, We have some time to go here in the US, even though Market saturation is slowly getting there, it's coverage that's going to take a while especially in the more rural area's.

The market is very saturated; the current UK penetration rate is around 137% according to Vodafone. Coverage isn't really an issue any more so the networks here use price, handsets, services, and offers to compete. Hence we see free games consoles, tellys, flights, money, etc.

Customers do benefit from better deals through competition since that's one of the main areas the networks here can compete in. The other areas would be services e.g. implementing new 3G services, and handsets. Most handsets are available on all the major networks, but sometimes a particular network will get an exclusive, which can give them a boost.

I think coverage will always be an issue in America to some extent because there are parts of America that will probably never have good, or even any, coverage owing to sparsity of population or difficulty of terrain. That doesn't mean that coverage can't be at blanket levels in the bulk of the country of course.

[Mobile Mike]

Originally Posted by RJB

How did I miss this thread maybe virgin mobile here can do this here and give us free trips to the UK.

Yes, I'd go for a promotional opportunity to go to Europe!