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reasonable fares that they might visit their families. At that
time I had been in business on my own some fifteen years and during
that period I had enjoyed a considerable amount of success. On
behalf of the members I approached the major airlines, British
Airways, South African Airways and Qantas to negotiate special fares
for our members, anticipating two or three thousand travellers
during the first year. I was absolutely shocked by the
attitude of these airlines, who were part of a cartel fixing fares
and also fixing commissions for travel agencies at nine per cent.
They would not even talk to me as I was not a travel agent, so I
immediately bought a small travel agency and went back to the
airlines with my proposed volumes but it was like talking to a stone
wall, "nine percent and that's all whether you have one thousand or
ten thousand passengers". This was contrary to all my business
instincts and a situation that I refused to accept. I promptly
went around a number of other airlines and found in particular,
Sabena and Iberia were particularly interested to have our business.
One of my businesses at the time was publishing, Western Sporting
Press, Welsh Rugby Magazine, Welsh Boxing and also a licence to
publish the fixtures of the 92 football league clubs as well as a
number of smaller publications. I also had an exhibition
company which organised exhibitions in Cardiff, Birmingham and
Blackpool. I approached the marketing side of Sabena and
Iberia and asked them if they would spend money on my publications
and exhibitions and they both agreed to spend, with my publishing
companies, up to 20 per cent of the value of the airline tickets
bought through our travel agency. My companies then
contributed fifteen per cent towards each airline ticket bought
through the Associations. This scheme produced a massive
increase in the membership and in the second year we arranged over
twenty thousand reunions to far flung parts.
After two years and thousands of members travelling on European
carriers the major airlines came to the party and this was the
breaking of the cartel on price fixing, which has brought about a
massive reduction in air fares. In real terms the economy
fares slashed from ten weeks average wages in 1968 to two weeks
wages today. My new partners, British Airways, South African
Airways and Qantas were not happy about our control of a substantial
amount of the reunion market. Subsequently, in 1976 they
launched their own reunion clubs, appointing paid secretaries with
many perks, in many major towns and cities in the UK and spending
over two million pounds on the launch in order to take members away
from our Association and control the market themselves, obviously
with an ambition to create a new cartel and jack up the fares.
Two years and a further million pounds later they accepted failure
and asked me if I would take over their membership and service their
members as they wished to close the operation and not pour any more
money down the drain. The main reason they failed was that
their sole objective was to put passengers on seats, to make profits
for the airlines and cut serious opposition. There was no
over-riding caring attitude, merely the hard-nosed bottom line that
exists with all airlines today. They care little about the
individual, what they want is just your money.
The aforementioned is the reason why the Friendship Associations
have thrived over the past 42 years. We care about you, the
member. As you will have noted we have introduced further
caring benefits for our members who book through the Association,
not only do you get a fare comparable with anything on the market,
but we have introduced a Serious Accident Emergency Travel Benefit
covering you and your nominee for the duration of your trip.
Our staff are there to assist you with your arrangements and be
there to solve any problems you might have. The South
African members can have a free mobile phone whilst in South Africa.
We have introduced a number of other benefits to make you feel at
ease when booking through the Membership Associations. We
recognise that after your house and your car, probably your reunion
trip is the next highest spend you have. Therefore, it is so
important that you are looked after properly.
If you are not planning to travel this year still keep up your
membership for the other valuable benefits, including the Emergency
Accident Benefit, Gift Schemes, Free Flight Draws and just belonging
to what I am proud to call one of the most caring organisations you
will ever be part of.
Regards.
STUART WEAVING,
Founder &
International President
PS: My eyes are improving all the time.
Click here to read
extracts of the speech made by Stuart Weaving at the Friendship
Associations fortieth anniversary banquet
Click here for "Ambassador of Friendship" by
Frederick Cleary,
Foreign editor “The Star” Johannesburg
Click here for extracts from a speech made by Stuart Weaving, Office of the Order of Good
Hope, at Sandton Sun, 4 November 2004, to celebrate forty years connection
with South Africa |
