Flight Instructors please stop flying for free.

[Goldmember]

It's Christmas time and gift certificates are everywhere and so, too, are Groupons and Living Socials. Several have crossed my email over the past couple of days offering discovery flights for very low prices. I know all the owners of the flight schools here in Louisville so I asked them how they could offer prices that low as we certainly can't. Basically, the revenue from the flight covers gas and their instructors are donating their time for free in hopes of getting new students. STUPID STUPID STUPID. Conversion rate on the RANDOM discovery flight is somewhere in the neighborhood of 5-10%. Probably 0-1% if you count the clowns you're now going to get into your plane at $35 a half hour. Come on guys, be smarter than this and stop flying for free, it's hurting all of us and that attitude is going to carry with you later on in life.

 

[Matt13C]

It's Christmas time and gift certificates are everywhere and so, too, are Groupons and Living Socials. Several have crossed my email over the past couple of days offering discovery flights for very low prices. I know all the owners of the flight schools here in Louisville so I asked them how they could offer prices that low as we certainly can't. Basically, the revenue from the flight covers gas and their instructors are donating their time for free in hopes of getting new students. STUPID STUPID STUPID. Conversion rate on the RANDOM discovery flight is somewhere in the neighborhood of 5-10%. Probably 0-1% if you count the clowns you're now going to get into your plane at $35 a half hour. Come on guys, be smarter than this and stop flying for free, it's hurting all of us and that attitude is going to carry with you later on in life.

I would love to see the actual redemption rates on these deals. Normal gift cards are redeemed around 90% I believe, but they also tend to generate extra spending over and above the card amount so it is win win.

I would bet these have a lower redemption rate. A gift card to Best buy is easy to redeem and most people can find something to buy, a gift card for a flight is not. It takes time and a true desire to want to go up in a small plane, if there is even the slightest bit of hesitation then they simply wont use the card. If they dont redeem then the flight school pockets the money. If they do they get a new potential sale they most likely wouldn't have had.

I am not sure why you consider them giving their time away either, it is an intro flight. They are not instructing, they are trying to win a new client. Car dealers let you take the car out for a drive as a tool to get you to purchase and are not paid for it unless you buy. No difference here except you have the person in the best seat possible, in the aircraft. It is about getting people through the door to make the sale.

 

[HVYMETALDRVR]

It's Christmas time and gift certificates are everywhere and so, too, are Groupons and Living Socials. Several have crossed my email over the past couple of days offering discovery flights for very low prices. I know all the owners of the flight schools here in Louisville so I asked them how they could offer prices that low as we certainly can't. Basically, the revenue from the flight covers gas and their instructors are donating their time for free in hopes of getting new students. STUPID STUPID STUPID. Conversion rate on the RANDOM discovery flight is somewhere in the neighborhood of 5-10%. Probably 0-1% if you count the clowns you're now going to get into your plane at $35 a half hour. Come on guys, be smarter than this and stop flying for free, it's hurting all of us and that attitude is going to carry with you later on in life.

Jeezzzzz. Groupon is absolutely useless. My old flight school was the big GROUPON school down in the MIA/FLL area. For us they paid $50 per flight to GROUPON I think... then, when the customer showed up they had to pay the tax which was about another $6. My boss would hook us up and when he greeted them he would always ask that they tip the pilot. That said we were still paid $10 base per the .5 flight plus tip. It was really annoying the instructors would pass the flights around like a hot potato and no one wanted to do them. It usually ended up being some loser that couldn't pass a drug test to save his life and complained and said he "didn't know he had to pay the tax" even though it was right no the voucher, or some other jerk that wanted to bring his girlfiend, sister, brother, mom, and dad and didn't realize you can only fit three other people besides the pilot in the Cessna if they're not heavy. Even though it said that on the voucher also. And the retention rate was definitely less than 10% we got three students out of it, one got his pvt, the other two quit pre-solo. It was a small school and I did some work around the office and the hanger, I can also say that from an accounting standpoint they are complete jerks. It often took months for them to settle they're account and when they did pay it was never the full amount so the base amount kept growing that they owed us and here and there we would get a $500 check.

The living socials we did were tours, and it was $20 for .8 and sometimes I got lucky like a fresh off the boat Chinese girl with no friends here in the US or two crazy Russian girls, nuff said.

Rant over, but thanks for reminding me of this scam.

 

[frog_flyer]

The living socials we did were tours, and it was $20 for .8 and sometimes I got lucky like a fresh off the boat Chinese girl with no friends here in the US or two crazy Russian girls, nuff said.

 

[Murdoughnut]

People aren't exactly lining up to become pilots anymore. There aren't many people dumb enough to spend $150 an hour on something that doesn't lead to a happy ending. If you have to fly 100 discovery flights to hook someone, maybe that's just what you have to do. Flying is like crack - the only ones you'll hook are the ones who can't live without it (most of us), and someone has to get them started.

 

[milski]

They have a fairly high redemption rate. The school where I work did a similar deal with one of the groupon knock offs this summer and it was a disaster. Pretty much all certificates sold lead to an intro flight and none of them turned into a student. On the bright side, we were still getting paid for two hours of dual, but the flights were at a loss for the owner.


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I am here: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=47.655678,-122.338936

 

[Cessnaflyer]

Yeah I am getting paid for mine and we have turned over two students from about 50 flights. Not too bad I guess. They said they would have never started if it wasn't for the living social deal.

 

[thevideographer]

The flight school I used to go to is offering holiday intro flights for $99. That includes .5 flight and 1 hour ground. It makes me glad I finished up my license before their rates increased or I would still be working on it

 

[HVYMETALDRVR]

I was there

 

[JOEFRIDAY2]

I'm going to have to agree with some of the others. This is marketing pure and simple. You want to get folks in the door to take the introductory flights. If you get enough in the door and you handle it properly then you should get some students out of it. You probably need to box in the restrictions on the coupon so that it works out for your school. Also plan on selling them something at the end of the introductory flight at a special price. (a log book, private pilot kit, tee-shirt, etc.) The more you can get them to "buy in", the better results you will have.

Joe

 

[Old Dominion Flyer]

When I instructed, my employer had a gift card program with a site similar to groupon for intro flights. We were paid our normal rate, but only for the Hobbs time. Not ideal, but better than donating our time.

As far as the success of groupon, let's hope Ben Zwebner chimes in. During his instructing days, his company had tremendous success with groupon. I recall him speaking of Saturday BBQ's and the school's schedule being filled with intro flights for the entire day.

 

[Goonie]

I recall him speaking of Saturday BBQ's and the school's schedule being filled with intro flights for the entire day.

That sounds like a ginormous kick to the balls.

We did a free intro flight special years ago and all we got were truckers strung out on meth. One did put 15K down for his training and never showed up again. So meth actually helped us out.

 

[PhilosopherPilot]

It's Christmas time and gift certificates are everywhere and so, too, are Groupons and Living Socials. Several have crossed my email over the past couple of days offering discovery flights for very low prices. I know all the owners of the flight schools here in Louisville so I asked them how they could offer prices that low as we certainly can't. Basically, the revenue from the flight covers gas and their instructors are donating their time for free in hopes of getting new students. STUPID STUPID STUPID. Conversion rate on the RANDOM discovery flight is somewhere in the neighborhood of 5-10%. Probably 0-1% if you count the clowns you're now going to get into your plane at $35 a half hour. Come on guys, be smarter than this and stop flying for free, it's hurting all of us and that attitude is going to carry with you later on in life.

I hear ya, I do. But if part of being in a free market is that someone can give their goods away at reduced rates if they want. Of course, you can move to a communist country if you want, where the worker doesn't own the product of his labor...

We can't control, and shouldn't try to control, the market in that way.

 

[ChasenSFO]

Really? I know at the school I rent out of in SDF, the CFIs pocket 100% of the cash and act as freelance CFIs. So I'd imagine they must pocket something off a discovery flight, even if under the table. I know if my boss tried to make me do a discovery flight free and it policy to pay the CFI direct in cash regardless of the school's fees, I'd collect a little "tip". And I'd like to see the boss try to fire me for it, I don't work for free, I'd quit before that happened.

 

[Goldmember]

I've been doing the instructor thing for 3.75 years and trust me, I used to think it was about getting them in the door to hook them. Not the case these days. People who want to fly will find a way to and not but getting a half off coupon to get them going. Go to schools, talk to kids about flying, be a real marketer of a good product.

 

[A150K]

I've been doing the instructor thing for 3.75 years and trust me, I used to think it was about getting them in the door to hook them. Not the case these days. People who want to fly will find a way to and not but getting a half off coupon to get them going. Go to schools, talk to kids about flying, be a real marketer of a good product.

I tend to agree, especially with the last scentence. The flight school at KSAF did a groupon thing and gained 0 students out of it.

 

[CoffeeIcePapers]

These outfits usually will run themselves into the ground. You don't pay bills by flying for gas money.

 

[Autothrust Blue]

I've been doing the instructor thing for 3.75 years and trust me, I used to think it was about getting them in the door to hook them. Not the case these days. People who want to fly will find a way to and not but getting a half off coupon to get them going. Go to schools, talk to kids about flying, be a real marketer of a good product.

And. Have a good product, of course.

 

[Winglet]

When I instructed, my employer had a gift card program with a site similar to groupon for intro flights. We were paid our normal rate, but only for the Hobbs time. Not ideal, but better than donating our time.

As far as the success of groupon, let's hope Ben Zwebner chimes in. During his instructing days, his company had tremendous success with groupon. I recall him speaking of Saturday BBQ's and the school's schedule being filled with intro flights for the entire day.

CHIME!

Yup, when I was the chief pilot of my flight school we ran 4-5 different Groupon/ Living Social Deals over the course of last year. We did them right, paid our instructors fairly and here are the results:

Prior to Groupon:

Maybe 1 Intro flight per weekend
2 Instructors were enough
3 Cessna 172s in the fleet
Working out of a run down hangar at the far corner of the field

AFTER we ran the first groupon:

Sold 1800 intro flights (just on that FIRST groupon, over 3500 intro flights sold total)
Flew 25-35 intro flights PER DAY on weekends for almost 3 months straight. We even had our own special xpndr codes from Potomac App and Homeland Security issued to us for use in the SFRA due to our volume of flights. Today we average 5-6 Intro flights per weekend.
Hired another two full time CFIs
Expanded to a fleet of 6 Cessna 172s to accomodate the new students retained from our Groupon / Living Social deals
Moved into main FBO building with potted plant and receptionist

When you couple the marketing power that Groupon provides with the proper business model and you concentrate on customer enjoyment, it works. Plain and simple.

 

[Cessna414JJB]

I'm going to have to agree with some of the others. This is marketing pure and simple. You want to get folks in the door to take the introductory flights. If you get enough in the door and you handle it properly then you should get some students out of it. You probably need to box in the restrictions on the coupon so that it works out for your school. Also plan on selling them something at the end of the introductory flight at a special price. (a log book, private pilot kit, tee-shirt, etc.) The more you can get them to "buy in", the better results you will have.

Joe

Doesn't that require CFI's and staff members with at least a basic understanding of customer service and sales?