Skift Take
Airlines are taking cues from sectors outside the travel industry, including dining, wellness, and retail to better target and engage with their passengers. The key to success is delivering personalized messages through the smarter and secure use of customer data, experts said.
Over the past few years, many of the world’s largest airlines have made major changes to their loyalty programs. American Airlines, Air France–KLM, Delta Air Lines, Lufthansa, and United Airlines now offer rewards based on dollars spent rather than miles flown. While some high-mileage frequent flyers may quibble with the changes — saying they now get fewer benefits for the same amount of travel — the truth is that most airline loyalty programs were overdue for such major disruptions. “Travelers are less interested in the drumbeat of accumulating points and more in how they can use those points for unique experiences,” wrote Skift contributor Grant Martin earlier this year. “In short, they want faster gratification and deeper engagement from their loyalty programs.”
Airlines are starting to pay attention. Just this year, American Airlines launched a partnership with Hyatt, Accor and Air France teamed up, and Marriott and Emirates combined forces. All three tie-ups are intended to make points more flexible and loyalty programs more rewarding, according to a Skift report.
But there’s still plenty more work to be done, said Patrick Reynolds, the chief marketing officer of SessionM, a customer engagement and loyalty software platform that helps brands better filter and utilize data.
“Airlines were early pioneers of loyalty programs,”
