Steve Hui, The Points Whisperer, iFLYflat joined to discuss emerging trends in airline loyalty programmes and share insights into his upcoming sessions at Aviation Festival Asia.
This five-minute conversation highlighted the importance of AI and ML in meeting passenger expectations, with Hui noting the need for airlines to improve the quality of their data to fully leverage tech to its full potential. Speaking on the topic of personalisation, Hui stressed that airlines must go further to create individual loyalty:
“It is not just about personalisation, it’s about individual loyalty – creating options for people to choose. So, in some of our discussions, we’re going to cover how some airlines allow you to choose from maybe two out of five options for your loyalty status. So you can pick and choose what is it that you like about it, rather than being gifted everything (just because you’ve reached this level), when you might not want all of it.”
Looking at the post-pandemic loyalty landscape, Hui explained that there are now a plethora of infrequent passengers. At the event, the audience can expect discussions around how the industry can learn from supermarket, retail, and restaurant loyalty to engage passengers, touching on micro discounts, instant discounts, trickle down benefits and more. Offering insights into the evolving landscape of loyalty and the strategies airlines are employing to adapt to changing customer behaviours, Hui concluded the interview setting out a debate around who constitutes the most valuable customer in today’s landscape:
“It is going to be interesting discussion about who is actually the most valuable customer today. It could be someone who does not actually fly, but earns a lot of points and then uses them once in a while.”
At the event, Hui will be speaking to Air India, Pegasus Airlines, Garuda Indonesia, Finnair, and more. To attend these sessions in person – book your ticket now.
For more on what to expect at the event see:
- Moderator insights: Airport tech with Steven Dickson
- Moderator insights: Kat Morse (IATA) on industry trends and gen AI hype cycle
- Moderator insights: Henry Harteveldt on contrasting views of AI
