12th April, 2022
The definition of a meaningful engagement especially during a phase when one couldn’t travel proved to be a formidable challenge for travel marketers. Airlines chose to rework on their loyalty initiatives and finalised partnerships in order to offer what the members expected from them during the earn and burn cycle.
The coming together of brands or inclusion of offerings is essentially all about value that perceivably goes up since the member ends up having a stronger affiliation with the loyalty program.
On one hand the program thrives by enabling members to dream and plan for aspirational destinations/ dream holidays and on the other, create everyday engagement and let them make the most of their loyalty currency or the earn and burn cycle by indulging in shopping or other activities associated with daily lives.
During one of Ai’s events last year, Air Canada explained the same by referring to partnerships with Rocky Mountaineer and Starbucks. The airline did acknowledge that tangible benefits emerged post Aeroplan’s decision to go for a tie-up with a brand of Starbucks’ stature. Be it for members acknowledging such association initiated by Aeroplan to let them link their Aeroplan account to a Starbucks Rewards account or to check what can be done with the points gained and so on, all of it does show signs of “continuous engagement with members”.
For the same, agility is of paramount importance. In order to address the long tail with new partners, an entity has to act fast to offer a luring proposition to their customers. Also, the value of the currency, especially in terms of it can be used for means other than flights, should be understood by the customer.
Other than offering choice for earning and burning miles/ points, more carriers are now streamlining the option to pay via the loyalty currency and or mixing the same with their credit card with one-time integration of the card in the loyalty app.
How are airlines, including FSCs, going about partnerships at this juncture?
By Ritesh Gupta
Ai Team
Follow Ai on Twitter: @Ai_Connects_Us
