ContinentalEWR From United States of America, joined May 2000, 3762 posts, RR: 17 Posted (5 years 5 months 2 weeks 4 days 9 hours ago) and read 4089 times:
Swiss International Air Lines has got to be one of the last airlines to maintain a ticket office in Manhattan. They have a large one on 53rd between Madison and Fifth Avenues, complete with a scale model of an A340-300 in the window.
With paper tickets having gone the way of the Edsel and even Lufthansa not having a NYC ticket office, what is up with this?
LXA340 From Switzerland, joined Nov 2006, 2064 posts, RR: 5 Reply 1, posted (5 years 5 months 2 weeks 4 days ago) and read 3912 times:
Always when I pass by the ofice there is max one custumer in there however I gues that the amount of peopel booking flights online or by phone is still only making up around 50% so far but I don't know, this is just a pure gues. Having a town office in New York at one of the best adresses obviously is good for prestige reasons and as Swiss went trough restructuring and as a result closed several town offices world wide but kept the one in NY it seems worth it for them to have it.
I know that Lufthansa has their New York office on 680 5th Avenue in the Buchmann Tower with their name written on the outside in Gold however I don't know if it is accesible for the gerneral public.
STT757 From United States of America, joined Mar 2000, 15246 posts, RR: 55 Reply 2, posted (5 years 5 months 2 weeks 3 days 22 hours ago) and read 3812 times:
Perhaps they are waiting for their lease to expire, until it does might as well keep the office open.
You can't just get out of a lease (especially on 5th avenue).
Mir From United States of America, joined Jan 2004, 17799 posts, RR: 59 Reply 3, posted (5 years 5 months 2 weeks 3 days 21 hours ago) and read 3722 times:
If I'm not mistaken, Air France has one as well.
-Mir
7 billion, one nation, imagination...it's a beautiful day
LTBEWR From United States of America, joined Jan 2004, 11674 posts, RR: 8 Reply 4, posted (5 years 5 months 2 weeks 3 days 20 hours ago) and read 3683 times:
Probably Swiss is one of the few left. I believe that there are only a few other freestanding offices left and service counters in a common area of a couple of airlines near Grand Central Station.
I remember the heyday of the city ticket offices of many USA based and international airlines on 5th Avenue and other areas of mid-town Manhattan- NY City. I remember buying BA, Qantas, UA, TWA, Eastern and VS airline tickets in their respective city offices along 5th Avenue and other areas of the city (including CO in the lobby of the WTC back in 1982). I recall buying same day 'standby' tickets on BA on the way to work for flights to the UK that evening (I would just leave from work to the airport). Prestige, convenience to pax, that the UN is headquarted in NY City and just good marketing, encouraged these offices in the past. Many were quite flamboyant with large windows, displays of their aircraft, pictures of their staff and beautiful areas of their countries or areas they served and so on. Alas, improved computers and telephone systems, e-tickets, the internet, price competition, the costs of these offices, the end of many airlines, and so on killed off the city offices.
Why does Swiss and others still have city offices? Sometimes there are people who have language difficulties or speaking handicaps, frequent flyer ticket requests, complicated intineraries, cancelled flights or a need to otherwise rebook or change a reservation and just cannot handle it by phone or online and need to deal with a human.
I wonder if anyone has ever done a book, especially a picture book of such offices of the past...mmm...maybe an idea.
LHUSA From United States of America, joined Aug 2005, 550 posts, RR: 3 Reply 5, posted (5 years 5 months 2 weeks 3 days 20 hours ago) and read 3661 times:
LH does actually have a ticket office in Manhattan. It's also located on 5th avenue. Don't know the exact address but I believe it's very close to the LX office.
LH526 From Germany, joined Aug 2000, 2176 posts, RR: 20 Reply 7, posted (5 years 5 months 2 weeks 3 days 20 hours ago) and read 3597 times:
AIRLINERS.NET CREW FORUM MODERATOR
Quoting USADreamliner (Reply 6): All airlines offices are ticket offices, am I right?
Yeah, but you have to distinguish between ground level, fully designed offices that have that special marketing appeal on it, and merely "offices" on the upper floors, that also sell tickets but are mostly used for general office activites and don't have any representative attitude.
Mario
LH526
Trittst im Morgenrot daher, seh ich dich im Strahlenmeer ...
San747 From United States of America, joined Dec 2004, 4897 posts, RR: 14 Reply 8, posted (5 years 5 months 2 weeks 3 days 20 hours ago) and read 3587 times:
Quoting Mir (Reply 3): If I'm not mistaken, Air France has one as well.
They do. I've seen it in Manhattan, I forget the exact address, but when I saw it, I thought, "Wow... Airlines still have offices like that?"
Goldorak From France, joined Sep 2006, 1538 posts, RR: 3 Reply 9, posted (5 years 5 months 2 weeks 3 days 18 hours ago) and read 3503 times:
Quoting Mir (Reply 3): If I'm not mistaken, Air France has one as well.
Quoting San747 (Reply 8): They do. I've seen it in Manhattan, I forget the exact address, but when I saw it, I thought, "Wow... Airlines still have offices like that?"
Airbazar From United States of America, joined Sep 2003, 6150 posts, RR: 8 Reply 10, posted (5 years 5 months 2 weeks 3 days 17 hours ago) and read 3443 times:
If you look for it you'll find that a lot of non-US airlines still have ticket offices, especially the large ones. It's just that most of us have grown accustomed to not needing an airline office, so it never even enters our mind to look for it. Also, a lot of the large display offices we once knew have been downsized to smaller less prominent locations for obvious reasons. Maintaining a local representation for the support of one's customers is called "service", something most airlines around here are not familiar with
Say you're in a unfamilar city and need assistance. What would you rather do? Make an outrageously expensive phone call from your hotel to some voice recognition system or walk up and talk to someone in person, in your own language?
Ahlfors From Canada, joined Oct 2000, 1297 posts, RR: 7 Reply 11, posted (5 years 5 months 2 weeks 3 days 16 hours ago) and read 3371 times:
Might also be a Swiss thing. I remember when I moved to Geneva I was very surprised by the number of different airline offices downtown. Maybe the Swiss are used to having airline offices, so Swiss has decided to keep theirs at a large outstation.
Malaysia From United States of America, joined Nov 1999, 3150 posts, RR: 0 Reply 12, posted (5 years 5 months 2 weeks 3 days 16 hours ago) and read 3369 times:
I think most would think ground floor ticket offices... Those are dissappearing, but actually many airlines still havev a check in counter style area even in the offices that are now on higher floors in office buildings. It consists of the sales offices, the administration offices, etc but you enter the door and it has a waiting room and a counter for customer service if needed. some do look like Doctors Offices, some do have glass doors to make it look custom and attractive for a closed office location on a 10th floor address or something.
There Are Those Who Believe That There May Yet Be Other Airlines Who Even Now Fight To Survive Beyond The Heavens
Goldorak From France, joined Sep 2006, 1538 posts, RR: 3 Reply 15, posted (5 years 5 months 2 weeks 3 days 14 hours ago) and read 3249 times:
Quoting FlyboyOz (Reply 14): Air France and Lufthansa dont fly to SYD but they still have their own offices in the SYD downtown
Absolutely. And still for AF, we spoke earlier about NYC office but they have also agencies/offices open to the public in other US cities :
- chicago : in the J. Hankock building (32nd floor - nice view !!)
- washington : connecticut av
- Atlanta : peachtree st (we could have guessed as all streets in Atlanta are names peachtree !! )
- miami : brickell bay drive
- los angeles : S. Figueiroa
- houston : allen center / dallas st
- san francisco : pine st
Stylo777 From Turkey, joined Feb 2006, 2751 posts, RR: 11 Reply 16, posted (5 years 5 months 2 weeks 3 days 14 hours ago) and read 3210 times:
If I personally could chose between paper ticket and e-tix I would decide for the paper one and would book it at such an office. And I am sure it's not only me who thinks so and because of this they left the offices open.
No, it's not anymore the office located on 5th Avenue and 49th or 48th right across of Sacks Fifth Avenue. There is now a Lacoste store instead, however the Switzerland Tourism Office is stil in that building on the first floor. Swiss moved to it's new location on 53rd Street just off 5th Ave when the airline was founded in 2002, nevertheles still a great location.
Chicagoflyer From United States of America, joined Jan 2006, 242 posts, RR: 0 Reply 19, posted (5 years 5 months 2 weeks 3 days 13 hours ago) and read 3163 times:
When I lived in NYC 7 or so years back, I actually used the old SwissAir ticket office. As I recall, I needed a change to my ticket, and since it was a paper one (forgot who issued it, maybe Expedia) I could not do it by the phone. I have fond memories of the place, since the agent actually found a lower fare that more then offset (then-small) change fee. I agree, it was a nice space in a premium location, and I am in fact surprised that the "New" Swiss keeps it.
I think ticket offices are not a thing of the past in most places outside of the US, even for US-based airlines, since not a lot of people in the rest of the world book their travel on the Internet yet...
And if you recall a recent thread about the Aeroflot marketing video, they boasted of having more than 100 ticket offices in it (mostly outside Russia as I recall).
So this dinosaur (the ticket office) has not been fossilized yet.
LASOctoberB6 From Japan, joined Nov 2006, 2380 posts, RR: 1 Reply 20, posted (5 years 5 months 2 weeks 3 days 13 hours ago) and read 3124 times:
United used to have one in Las Vegas on the corner of Maryland Pkwy and Tropicana. i bought this nifty UA 747-400 a couple years ago (like 5), and tried to go back, but found that they left. i figured they moved so ive been lookin all over town for them. no luck yet.......
BTW, the 3 AA ticket offices still remaining, after closing down more than 100, sell a lot of tickets via cash.
A lot of customers in south Florida and metro NYC pay in cash (read: those with family connections to the Carib. and Latin America), a business that is hard to cater to from the internet.
In the old days, like meals in coach, ticket offices were just something big airlines automatically provided, cost be damned. Now, at least for US majors, ticket offices remain only in places where non-internet-using customers are in high number.
Malaysia From United States of America, joined Nov 1999, 3150 posts, RR: 0 Reply 22, posted (5 years 5 months 2 weeks 3 days 9 hours ago) and read 2988 times:
Quoting LASOctoberB6 (Reply 20): United used to have one in Las Vegas on the corner of Maryland Pkwy and Tropicana. i bought this nifty UA 747-400 a couple years ago (like 5), and tried to go back, but found that they left. i figured they moved so ive been lookin all over town for them. no luck yet.......
They had tiny ticket shop in Bethesda, MD once and they were selling Flight Miniature 1/200 scale 777 models for 10 bucks. I got one, and they had the 747 too, but it was always out of stock. so I lost out on that one. the place closed though and an shared AA/US ticket office was down the road as well.
There Are Those Who Believe That There May Yet Be Other Airlines Who Even Now Fight To Survive Beyond The Heavens
Nycfly75 From Italy, joined Aug 2005, 746 posts, RR: 11 Reply 23, posted (5 years 5 months 2 weeks 3 days 7 hours ago) and read 2935 times:
Alitalia also used to have a very prominent office on the ground floor of 666 5th avenue. It moved upstairs in the late 90s when the building was renovated and then they moved to the Empire State Building, where they are currently located.
25 Wjcandee: At the rent that they're probably paying (i.e. very low compared to what ground-floor space like that rents for today), they have probably had a zill
26 TWFirst: Most major airlines have local sales offices in NYC, and in some other major markets. It's not really about selling leisure tickets to the general pub
Sponsor Message: 
From United States of America, joined May 2000, 3762 posts, 
From Switzerland, joined Nov 2006, 2064 posts, 
From Germany, joined Aug 2000, 2176 posts, 
From France, joined Sep 2006, 1538 posts, 
From Canada, joined Oct 2000, 1297 posts, 
From Belgium, joined Jun 2001, 2307 posts, 
From Australia, joined Nov 2000, 1740 posts, 
From Turkey, joined Feb 2006, 2751 posts, 
From Japan, joined Nov 2006, 2380 posts, 
From , joined Dec 1969, posts, 
From Italy, joined Aug 2005, 746 posts, 
Printer friendly format 
