#128: American Airlines & AAdvantage Loyalty Insights (Short Summary Show)

PAULA: Welcome to Let’s Talk Loyalty, an industry podcast for Loyalty Marketing Professionals.

PAULA: I’m your host, Paula Thomas, and if you work in Loyalty Marketing, join me every week to learn the latest ideas from Loyalty Specialists around the world.

PAULA: This show is sponsored by Comark, a global provider of innovative software products and business services.

PAULA: Comark’s platform is used by leading brands across all industries to drive their customer loyalty.

PAULA: Powered by AI and machine learning, Comark technologies allow you to build, run, and manage personalized loyalty programs and product offers with ease.

PAULA: For more information, please visit comark.com.

PAULA: Today’s episode of Let’s Talk a Little Loyalty is a summary of an interview with the head of one of the very first loyalty programs in the world and now also one of the largest.

PAULA: At the time of recording in April 2020, Bridget Blaise-

PAULA: Shamai was the Vice President of Customer Insights and Loyalty and President of the AA Advantage Programme, responsible for all aspects of loyalty, including recognition and rewards, all mileage partnerships, customer service and customer relationship management initiatives.

PAULA: In total, Bridget spent more than 25 years with American Airlines, with senior roles in finance, revenue management, alliances, sales and loyalty.

PAULA: When we started by discussing Bridget’s favourite statistics, she mentioned several KPIs that I expected, including how many people are joining the AA Advantage Programme and of course the breadth and depth of how they engage with it.

PAULA: But in fact, she also mentioned one KPI they measure, which I hadn’t heard before as a programme priority.

PAULA: But since then, I really realise is incredibly important, the speed by which they get their members engaged.

PAULA: This was a key insight from the huge amount of data that American Airlines collects from its members.

PAULA: The window of opportunity they noticed as a limited period of time after new members join, give you some important information about themselves and then of course have an expectation that you’ll use it in a way that is both relevant and respectful to them.

PAULA: This focus on the speed of first engagement was a really interesting insight and I’ve used it a huge amount in conversations ever since.

PAULA: Bridget then talked to me about her background at American, which spans many internal departments and explains that culturally at the airline, it’s very common for ambitious executives to move around internally to make sure they get to learn the business.

PAULA: This gave her experience initially in finance, then in revenue management and distribution.

PAULA: And she then took on a commercial role, supporting the launch of the One World Airline Alliance.

PAULA: The exposure she got to other global airlines with powerful loyalty programmes gave Bridget her love for the loyalty industry.

PAULA: The combination of powerful data and partnerships, as well as responsibility for such a significant P&L for the airline, has kept Bridget super excited about both the airline industry and the loyalty industry.

PAULA: And at the time of recording, she had been leading the AAdvantage Programme for three years.

PAULA: She emphasised how important it is to treat customer relationships as a two-way street, ensuring a fair and balanced value proposition for customers.

PAULA: We talked about the original idea, and why American Airlines first identified the need for a loyalty programme, which had started as one of the first in the world in 1981, making it now 40 years old.

PAULA: At the time, most reservations were coming in via travel agencies, who of course then gathered all of the insights and customers, which the airline actually needed.

PAULA: The second reason for the programme was that flights can often be seen as quite a commoditised product, and the idea was to create a point of distinction and a unique selling point for people to choose to fly with American instead of other carriers.

PAULA: Finally, they wanted to create a personality for the American Airlines brand, which can sometimes feel otherwise like quite a transactional relationship with customers.

PAULA: I then asked Bridget about key trends in the industry.

PAULA: With the profile of frequent flyers who typically skew as wealthier, more highly educated and spending more on discretionary items, the first trend to note is heightened consumer expectations that will continue to grow even more important, with an ever increasing need to be more frictionless and more personalised with customers.

PAULA: Bridget shared that while she believes they are already doing some great work to personalise their programme, it is an ongoing journey that in fact will never end.

PAULA: With her team of over 700 professionals across customer service, data analytics and operations, she said that she insists that they each approach this business opportunity with both humility and curiosity, constantly asking what more can they do.

PAULA: And this commitment ensures the programme engenders ever stronger loyalty with customers.

PAULA: Finally, with the pandemic having just grounded airlines around the world, Bridget shared the approach being taken by the 130,000 employees of American Airlines globally and the loyalty initiatives already put in place to allow members to redeem their miles for ground-based rewards, as well as maintaining tier status for premium members.

PAULA: I really loved this conversation with Bridget Blaise-

PAULA: Shamai.

PAULA: So, if you’d like to hear the full interview, it’s episode 32 of Let’s Talk Loyalty.

PAULA: This show is sponsored by The Wise Marketeer, the world’s most popular source of loyalty marketing news, insights and research.

PAULA: The Wise Marketeer also offers loyalty marketing training through its Loyalty Academy, which has already certified over 170 executives in 20 countries as certified loyalty marketing professionals.

PAULA: For more information, check out thewisemarketeer.com and loyaltyacademy.org.

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