Paula: Hello, and welcome to today’s episode of Let’s Talk Loyalty and Loyalty TV. As many of you know, my favourite topic on this show is airline loyalty. As it brings me back to the very first time, I fell in love with a credit card that was giving me free flights.
So today, I’m thrilled to be talking with JetBlue, a relatively young New York based airline that began back in 2000 with a vision of bringing humanity back to air travel. As an airline, JetBlue’s focus is mainly on premium leisure travellers, which of course requires a very different mindset for a loyalty program than perhaps a long haul carrier might have.
Joining me today to share those insights and nuances and how their business strategy guides their loyalty strategy is Ed Pouthier, Director of Loyalty Programme and Experience with JetBlue.
I first met Ed at the Comarch-CUG Client Conference in Krakow earlier this year. And I loved his focus on simplicity, flexibility and relevance for their entire customer base. Which really feels like they’re committed as an airline to being loyal to their customers in order to cultivate loyalty from them in return.
I hope you enjoy learning all about TrueBlue from JetBlue.
So, Ed from JetBlue, welcome to Let’s Talk Loyalty and Loyalty TV.
Edward: Thank you, Paula. Excited to be on here. As they say, a long time listener, first time caller. So excited to get in.
Paula: Honestly, you’ve just made my day. So thank you for saying that. I’m almost like a little embarrassed to ask people if they do listen to the show or have listened to the show. I just realized we’re publishing so much content. I’m barely managing to listen to everything myself. So there you go. It’s a high quality problem. So thank you for being a long time listener, first time caller. And we did get to meet each other in person, actually, a couple of months ago at the Comarch User Group. So a pleasure to be sitting down, having the conversation. You did a sensational presentation, Ed. So I’m thrilled to be able to share it with the audience today.
But before I get too into it and too excited, of course, as you know, we have an opening question, which is super important just to get a sense of you as a loyalty professional. So let’s kick straight into that, Ed, and please do tell our audience what is your favorite loyalty program?
Edward: Well, thank you. I know this is one I’ve thought long and hard about, because as I listened to the show quite a bit, I know there’s a lot of pressure on people for this one. Mine is, it’s not one I use every day, but it’s one that I have the most professional admiration for.
It’s actually Aeroplan from Air Canada up in Canada.
I’m just really amazed by how they managed to just create this utility for their program that really spans and expands beyond their borders. A very small Canadian airline in the grand scheme of things, but something that has so much utility for customers, whether they’re in the US, whether they’re in Canada, whether they’re in Europe even. And so especially as I see how they make it so easy to use, especially with their app and using it on an everyday basis even, is just something that really appeals to me. And it’s something here at JetBlue as well, we kind of look to as a shining example of how you can do this and how you can go outside your natural boundaries.
Paula: Amazing. Well, we’re definitely overdue having Aeroplan on the show, Ed. So thank you for the reminder. And we’ll make sure to give them a nod and let them know they got a vote of confidence from JetBlue. So we do love the professional admiration. And actually, somebody said on the show recently that I think we are actually a very generous industry and people do kind of look to each other for inspiration. So wonderful to hear that you’re taking some insights from Aeroplan.
And so let’s get into, I suppose, first of all, JetBlue. I think I said to you off air that, you know, for me, it was one of those airline brands that I knew I liked, but I really just didn’t know, I suppose, the background and the overall even airline product. So given that we have a global audience, Ed, would you start us off and just tell us a bit about the airline that you work for?
Edward: Yeah, absolutely. So JetBlue is primarily a Northeast focused airline in the United States, very big out of Boston and New York. We have some very fanatical customers. And the primary direction of our network is to a lot of leisure markets, whether it’s Florida and the Southern US or to the Caribbean. We’re now at about 100 destinations, about 1,000 daily flights, nearly $10 billion in annual revenue.
And we’ve gone through this growth stage over the past 20 years. We’ve now been around for about 24 years in the US, really launched in the early 2000s as a key disrupter in the US market. And have led a lot of the innovations for the US industry, whether it’s having the first all entertainment in every seat back on the plane, having free on-board Wi-Fi, the most legroom and coach.
So we’re really pride ourselves on bringing something of value to every single customer, not just the highest paying ones, but making sure that everyone feels like they’re getting the best value for their money.
Paula: Amazing. You know what, that really resonates, Ed. And absolutely, I think we all remember the days where you might have to fly long haul and there might be one tiny screen in the middle of the aircraft and everybody would be either bored or uncomfortable trying to watch.
So for JetBlue to have that kind of belief in taking care of customers and really actually what came through from anytime I’ve seen you speaking is this idea that you guys seem to really believe in being loyal to the customers and that important nuance that you talked about there exactly about it being every single customer, not necessarily an elite tier. So I’m sure we get into talking a lot more about that, but that’s certainly a lovely ethos to work for.
Edward: No, absolutely. And I tell you, it makes traveling with children a lot easier.
Paula: Okay. Well, I do not have children, but I can totally get that. Absolutely amazing. So incredible statistics. And I guess fairly young in airline terms.
First of all, you know, you’ve said nearly 24, so lots of the airlines predate you, I suppose the longer haul ones. So lovely to hear it’s a disruptor brand. And I know there’s, I suppose, more of a premium leisure focus as well, because you guys don’t seem to do that much focused on business travelers. So it is leisure and it is premium leisure, if I understand you correctly.
Edward: That’s exactly right. So I mean, the product has always been high quality, and we’ve really done a lot more in the last few years to kind of lean into this premium leisure category as we’ve seen this kind of rebound after the pandemic.
We’ve been naturally suited for this for many, many years, right? And this is something that we do well, and we again, are just now trying to reinforce with our loyalty program, with product innovation, product enhancements. And so, I mean, we’re excited about what the future holds for us, quite frankly. And being an airline based in Boston and New York, which are two of the most affluent cities in the US, it’s not a bad place to be, that’s for sure.
Paula: Oh, totally, totally. I’m actually already dying to fly with you guys. So that was definitely what happened today when I was doing all of my prep. And I do want to get into obviously the program, Ed, now in a minute. But even before that, you have a wonderful background, a total airline guy, from what I can see on your LinkedIn and what we chatted about. So would you just mind maybe introduce yourself, your career? Because I love the kind of breadth of what you’ve done even before getting into the loyalty space.
Edward: Well, thank you. You’re two kinds. So I started actually in finance, funnily enough. So it’s interesting to find myself in loyalty at this point in my career. But I’ve done primarily airline commercial roles over the span of my career, revenue management, network, alliances.
And I’ve done that on a global scale, whether it was here in the US, doing those in various roles in Europe and as well with other partner airlines across the world. So I only recently moved into the loyalty space about two years ago in 2022. And so I guess you could say I’m a little bit of a maybe the fox in the hen house, so to speak, in that I’m coming from a commercial background into loyalty.
I think people might have looked at it a bit askew at first, but I think what I find is that, one, I know exactly what matters to a lot of these other commercial groups, and how we can make that compelling case for why the initiatives on the loyalty side are so valuable to them. But also, I know all the excuses that those groups have to not want to pursue those.
So I think it’s a nice mix, and quite honestly, as we see, especially in the US, the growing importance of the loyalty space, especially with the economics of the co-brand credit cards in the US. It’s just been an amazing experience for me to be able to shift over into this space.
Paula: Yeah. I always wish I had that finance brain, Ed. And I just don’t, you know, I can just about manage my personal finances, but I love talking to loyalty people who’ve got that kind of, I suppose, discipline and language. And it’s something we do often talk about on this show, because at the end of the day, like one of the reasons I started the podcast was being constantly challenged about proving the ROI on the loyalty investment.
And I could never quite articulate what I wanted to, to the best, you know, of what was needed by the business. Totally different sector, obviously, as you said, with co-brands, everything has extra revenue lines that I’ve never managed. So it really is exciting for you, I guess, huh?
Edward: Absolutely, absolutely.
Paula: Incredible. So two years in, I know the program is called TrueBlue. So we’re going to get into all of the details, but I’m guessing there was a loyalty program in place for quite some time. So would you mind maybe just backtrack as well, Ed, in terms of what’s the journey with loyalty being for JetBlue?
Edward: Yeah, I mean, as they say, you know, we stand on the shoulders of giants. And so for me coming into the TrueBlue program, it’s really benefited from a lot of what the predecessors have done. So the program was actually launched in 2009 by, I would say, an industry legend, Dave Canty, who’s now over at Builds.
Paula: Of course. Yeah.
Edward: And he set this program up in such a way that, you know, it just makes our lives so much easier today, right? We’re a revenue-based program, which makes it very clean and easy for us and for the customer. And we just have a lot of, you know, built-in mechanisms that fit with the ethos of the company, right? With how we deliver benefits, the fact that we have what we call points pooling, which allows different customers to join together their points balances to be able to share together and travel together.
And then, you know, over the past, call it, you know, 15 years, we’ve slowly developed, but as the airline has been, you know, more primarily focused on that leisure customer, we haven’t really expanded it to what we call a broad and diverse set of customers from those high income, high travel customers to the lower travel or more leisure based customers.
So in 2021, actually, we renegotiated our cobrand credit card deal that was done by my predecessor in the role, Chris Buckner. And so, you know, if you take those two things, right, this program that is set up so nicely, along with this amazing source of revenue from the cobrand credit card, and now it just allows us to do really whatever we want in terms of growth and adding additional benefits.
So, you know, we have now most recently added different tiers to our loyalty program, right? Allowing us to attract more and bring more benefits to those higher travel customers, higher spend customers, as well as what we’ve done is we’ve integrated more parts of the business within the loyalty program itself. So, we now reward people for not only travel on the airline, but for the amount of spend that they put onto their cobrand credit card, as well as the amount of spend they put onto our JetBlue vacations arm. So, we work all of these things together because what we find is that, the best customers are those customers that engage across all of those brands.
And so, what we’re trying to do is then reinforce that cycle and make sure that we’re getting someone who’s not only there for the airline, but also is interested in having the credit card, interested in taking us for our vacation packages. So, it’s been a great kind of development over the past 15 years.
Paula: Yeah, and it strikes me as a very mature thinking, Ed. So, thank you for the shout out to Dave Canty. He’s due back on the show again quite soon and a fellow Irish man. So, of course, close to my heart. So, we’re all friends. So, yeah, clearly, Dave did some incredible stuff all the way through that JetBlue history. And I love that you’ve taken that to a whole other level. We will get into talking about KPIs, I guess, in a second. But even before that, actually, I wanted to just kind of, you know, comment on a few things that I really liked when I was looking.
And first of all, I suppose, on the co-brand side, and I know there’s plenty of people listening to us in Europe who don’t have just these rich propositions that you can do, as you said. But what I really like, and it seems to happen, I think only in the US market, from what I’m noticing, is even an opportunity to build the status side of the loyalty program using the co-brand.
Obviously not with the same earning rate as you would for flying with JetBlue, but there is still an opportunity because I am a status chaser. I will confess. So that’s really cool. Is that something that’s been around for a while? I don’t know if it predates you or if it was already there when you joined, but I think it’s a really nice part of your proposition.
Edward: Yeah, we did have it, but it was not woven into the status as cleanly as it is today, right? So the goal for us, and we just relaunched actually mid last year, this new program, which really brought co-brand more front and center to how people are able to earn status. So it was part of this kind of multi-tier kind of revamp of the program, which not only added status for higher tier customers, but gave them different ways to earn that status.
And at the same time, as we talked about it earlier, is we’re very much of the ethos that flying should be an experience that everyone enjoys, right? Whether that’s the person who’s only flying once a year, maybe to see their grandmother, to the person who’s flying 50 times a year. And so, how do you make people feel like they’re not a second class citizen? And how do you make them feel like they have the ability to earn that status and are treated as nicely as we would our best customers?
And of course, we do that in different ways, but the beauty of the co-brand, I believe, is giving those people who are only flying once a year a chance to engage with JetBlue outside of that airline time and spend on their credit card, be able to earn a benefit so that when they do fly, they can have the ability to have priority security or early boarding or the ability to have a drink on board. And so these are the things that we look at this for, how do you create that personalized or more beneficial experience for not only your best, but also your most frequent customers?
Paula: Yeah. And I think what you really did, Ed, sorry, I hope I didn’t cut you off there, what I really picked up from you again, just to go back to the event with Comarch in Krakow, was this idea that in order to have that maximum loyalty to every single passenger, as best you can, of course, we can’t all be special, but the idea that you’ve built in the perks you pick, I think is the term that you were using, where essentially the individual has a choice of benefits that they can redeem.
And I think it’s a principle that, for me, is probably underappreciated in our community, because I always felt that that was something that I certainly dabbled with in some of the programs I ran back in Ireland. And it was always, I mean, I laugh about it, but we used to give away a lot of chocolate and coffee, because we worked in telecom, so it was kind of hard. We didn’t have the wonderful travel benefits that you had. But this idea that somebody gets to really say, no, actually this reward would make more sense to me or feel more valuable to me. That to me is a really big insight that I guess is extremely powerful for you.
Edward: Oh, absolutely. I mean, I think this is one of the benefits. You know, if you think about an airline, we have very, very, I’d say, limited set of benefits that we can offer on our own experience.
And so we did a lot of research in trying to understand for these customers who are not flying as frequently, what are the things that really appeal to them, right? And so, you know, we really got down to, how do you make that experience and that journey better for everyone? And not doing it in a specific way, but giving people then that ability to have a little bit of free will for what matters most of them with that journey, right? And so we’ve laid out those, as you said correctly, you know, perks you pick for customers. And we do that, you know, for those first time, you know, once a year travelers.
But we also do that at the top end as well for our best travelers. So I think this is where JetBlue gets very unique in how they approach the world and that, you know, there’s things that we probably see a little bit cleaner here as a younger airline. I won’t say more hip, but let’s say, you know, an airline that’s just not as ingrained with the historical issues that the legacy carriers in the US have been.
And so, you know, some of the most intriguing things that I see on, especially on the high-end side, are things like, you know, when you get to pick your perks as what we call our mosaic level for elite status members. You know, we have like Jet with a Pet, right? Which allows you to then have free pet on board for any of your travels. And if you think about the network that we have, right? We have a lot of people flying from New York to their second home in Florida. They want to bring those pets, right? That’s part of their family.
So I think, you know, it’s been very unique in how we’ve approached this and creative ways to give benefits that aren’t the standard, you know, you get an upgrade, you get the lounge access, et cetera. And how do we then play within the infrastructure that we have to really make that experience special?
Paula: Yeah. And I’m kind of struggling to find the right word, Ed. And you’re right, hip doesn’t feel like quite the right word, but it is, it’s a fun airline. But at the same time, like it does have quite a special quality. But as I said, I haven’t quite found the word for it. The way I was kind of experiencing it was like the copy on your website.
And maybe that, I don’t know if that surprises people who listen, but I do love words. And you know, and I love people who can speak beautifully, articulately or write clever copy. And again, I saw that on the JetBlue website, you know, that there was obviously swag. But then to your point, there’s pets that jet. There’s, you know, wag-worthy as well as swag. And I just loved it, you know.
Edward: Well, I think we like to call ourselves cheeky. So that might be a word that resonates with you.
Paula: Cheeky. Yes, it does. I like that. Absolutely. Because at the end of the day, honestly, most of us are busy and exhausted, especially when we get to an airport. So, you know, if you do have that.
Edward: We pride ourselves on being fun. We pride ourselves on, you know, making the experience beneficial and enjoyable to the customer. Right. That’s that’s kind of, as I said, the ethos of the company where you have these things that and especially when we launched in the 2000s, these were things that were just not there for customers. People had, you know, we had turned travel into this really miserable experience. And, you know, so I think we pride ourselves on having kind of pulled ourselves out of the dark ages and, you know, really making this fun again for customers.
Paula: Yeah. Yeah. And I did see actually the original intention, actually, I was just on, obviously, your LinkedIn page today, Ed. So bringing humanity back to air travel. I love that in terms of its simplicity and, you know, the fact that that obviously has, you know, survived and been, I suppose, delivered throughout the journey, whether it’s the airline product, as you said, and you’ve given us some incredible examples there, but then also into the loyalty proposition.
Like, I think the thing that often, you know, maybe finance people, if I refer back to your former life, you know, sometimes what mightn’t appreciate is that it is the whole customer experience that creates that sense of loyalty. Like, you can’t give with one hand and take away with the other and still expect somebody to be excited about your brand, unless you’re really delivering on all fronts.
Edward: Absolutely, you know, and that’s, I think, the thing that I’ve learned through this journey over the past two years. It’s, you know, you don’t always see these insights in the cold hard numbers, right? And so how do you, how you kind of maybe expand your thinking about this to more of the customer journey or the customer life cycle, right?
To understand that, you know, if you’re giving something to some person one day, maybe there’s not an immediate return on that investment, but that will come back to you if you take a long enough time horizon. So I think that’s maybe trying to bringing those two pieces together, right?
From a loyalty perspective of we know if we reward our best customers, we’ll bring value to them to actually being able to then kind of map that out with our numbers that say, you know, over this time horizon, this is the value of it because we’re not, we’re not here for the short term, right? We’re here. You know, we’ve been here for almost 25 years. We want to be here for the next 100 years.
Paula: Yeah. Yeah. And you’ve mentioned hard numbers. So, so let’s talk about some hard numbers, Ed. What can you share in terms of what either senior management are, I suppose, valuing about TrueBlue as a loyalty proposition? And you briefly alluded to it earlier for our audience in terms of particularly the stickiest customers, which I thought was a brilliant insight. And again, something I didn’t kind of think of when I was running programs.
But genuinely, there’s always that like incredible, I suppose, flywheel effect when you do have a loyalty program and then multiple products that those same customers are buying. So I’d love you to share some of the things that you shared with me off air.
Edward: Yeah, perfect. So, you know, again, as you mentioned, you know, as a finance guy, I think my mind immediately goes to profitability as my key KPI. But, you know, really is what we have to dig into is like, what drives that profitability, right? What are the things that enable us to make money, right? And so we, of course, will spend a lot of time looking at the cash flow that we bring in from the program, as well as the margin of this program.
But we’ve found that those drivers are really from, you know, engaging those customers on a more day-to-day basis and finding ways to engage them across the different verticals that we have.
So again, if you go back to the way that we’ve structured the program, right, the TrueBlue program sits over the airline and the vacations business, right? It becomes that lifeblood, that currency that helps fund and fuel those two different verticals.
So what we have spent a lot of time in really looking at the indicators for, you know, how do we get people to engage, you know, not only with the program, but engage with the airline, engage with the vacations business, right?
And then what are the predictors that can tell us, you know, how and when we think someone is going to jump from one to the next and kind of bundle up? Because at the end of the day, you know, being in a geography like New York and Boston, they’re highly, highly competitive, right? We’ve got, you know, competitors like Delta Airlines, United Airlines, both huge global networks. And so we need to do as best a job as we can in making sure that we roll up as much of the spend of these customers as we can.
So we want to make sure that we’re there for that customer no matter what they want to do. If you think about the typical travel for a lot of those customers in the Northeast, it’s primarily leisure, and it’s primarily in the premium category, which again, we do very well in.
So, you know, for us, it’s tracking these KPIs, understanding how often people will engage. If they’re not flying, do we make sure that they’re using the credit card on a daily basis? If they’re using the credit card on the daily basis, are they using that to buy into the vacations packages? So it’s really, for us, making sure that those customers, anytime they think about travel, they’re thinking about JetBlue.
Paula: And what does success look like?
Edward: Well, success for us is, of course, making sure that we have a customer who flies on the airline, a customer who has our co-branded credit card, and a customer who uses that co-branded credit card to buy a vacations package. So if we can get all of that, we can take ourselves from where we’re at today, which is, for a program our size, I think we’re quite proud of. We just generated a billion dollars in revenue last year, which is, I think, a very high mark for a carrier size. You know, taking that to the next level, right?
Paula: Yeah.
Edward: And continuing that growth. I can talk about it a little bit later, but you know, the airline itself is kind of seeing flattish growth, you know, we’ve had some issues with aircraft, as many airlines in the world have. And so how do we deliver and continue to deliver loyalty growth in spite of an airline that is that is kind of maintaining flight capacity growth?
Paula: That is incredible. And just to make sure I got it right, Ed, that’s a billion dollars on TrueBlue and the loyalty proposition, I guess, including cobrand, yeah?
Edward: That’s correct. A billion with a B.
Paula: Oh, that’s so wonderful. Congratulations. You must be incredibly proud.
Edward: We are, but we don’t rest on our laurels. We’re already being challenged for the next billion.
Paula: You know what? Nobody’s ever happy. And that’s those lovely finance people that we talk about. Yeah, no, it is interesting.
Actually, one of my favorite, I suppose, quotes or insights, I will call it, was Willy Walsh, who many people may know, started as a pilot in Aer Lingus and then became chief executive of Aer Lingus and then of British Airways. And he’s currently in IAG, and I don’t know his title, so forgive me. But I remember going to a conference in Dublin and I was a travel agent at the time at OTA. So not very popular.
But I remember Willie Walsh standing up on stage and saying, the airline industry is a hundred years old. And in that hundred years, we have made no money. As an industry, we’ve made a loss.
And it blew my mind, you know, and I was all indignant again because they were cutting commissions. I don’t know if you were kind of around at the time, but certainly there was obviously major shifts when e-commerce became a thing.
So when I hear about airlines doing well, especially because of the loyalty program, with that measurability, like I’m just full of admiration. So it sounds like you’re liking the loyalty side of working at the airline. Would that be fair to say?
Edward: I think that’s fair to say. I mean, it’s definitely as you think about the airline business, especially in the US today, I mean, loyalty has become such an integral part of the business. You know, it’s just something that, as you said, you know, in an industry that historically has generated losses, to have found kind of the secret that allows us to grow profitability, to grow the strength of the airline and to do it in a way that’s actually extremely beneficial to the customer, I mean, this is just, to me, it’s a no-brainer.
Paula: Yeah. Yeah. And likewise, Ed, when I started in loyalty, it was that kind of win-win-win that I really fell in love with, like the idea that a brand, you know, wanted to take care of its customers, you know, with genuine intention and integrity, and was investing in ways to do that in a way that was still profitable for the business. Like, to me, that was just an exceptional kind of mindset. And sounds like what you’re delivering there. So yeah, you just must be very proud of everything that’s going on.
Edward: Extremely, extremely proud. But as we said, you know, there’s no rest. And so we’re already out of the neck.
Paula: Indeed. Yeah. Well, that’s the obvious next question then, Ed. You’ve talked about, as you said, so TrueBlue, you know, you’ve got this, you know, perks you pick. You’ve got a beautiful proposition, pretty egalitarian. You’ve added in and layered in your mosaic proposition, of course, to add in that kind of status, as you said, elite tiers. So there’s already those two propositions, I guess, in market. So what are you thinking about in terms of what’s next? And what are you looking or exploring at this stage?
Edward: Well, we’ve got a few things, you know, always a few irons in the fire. But I think the things that I’m probably most excited about is probably one personalization, right?
This is such an interesting space for us, because if you think about the loyalty customer, this is a person who has said, here’s my information, here’s data on me, provide me with the best possible experience you can.
And so for us, it’s, okay, how do we do that? How do we give them more? Not in a creepy way, right? Again, we have to be very careful that we don’t cross the line with that. But also doing it in a way that’s not only scalable, but meaningful, right?
And that’s the challenge that I take on every day is, how can we do this across our network, but do it in a way that matters, not just a simple generic email, but something that really is impactful to that customer. We’ve dabbled there in the past, things like knowing whose birthday it is and bringing them a cake on board, right? Those really personal touches that JetBlue is quite frankly known for. But how do we do that at a greater scale and greater efficiency is kind of where my finance line goes.
Paula: Yes, I didn’t know you did that, Ed. That’s a beautiful idea.
Edward: Yeah, we’re, I mean, again, this is a lot of, there’s just such a passion from the JetBlue crew member that just wants to give the absolute best to these customers. And then it’s OK, how do we harness this? How do we make this more of a day to day thing and more of a structure for our loyalty program?
Paula: And it is incredibly hard to do, Ed. I mean, the only, I suppose, comparable example that I’ve heard of in terms of at scale. And I know it is a journey. I’m sure it’s still something that you’re kind of operationalizing.
But the train business in Spain, Renfe, we did an interview with them and they also had a birthday proposition for loyalty members who were on a train on their birthday. And I was like, you know, my brain couldn’t get around quite how logistically that would be managed. But obviously, there’s ways if the intention is there. So personalization, obviously.
And actually, I’m kind of half smiling as well, Ed, because I put a little a little rant on LinkedIn today. And I got an email from a large hotel loyalty program that I love, but telling me about a wonderful holiday opportunity to go to Dubai, where I live. So I just went, oh, we’re not there yet. You know, I think the intention is there.
And I’d love actually any kind of even anecdotal comment, Ed. Like, where would you say you’re on that journey of personalization? Do you feel like you’re achieving anything significant in terms of the potential at this point, or is it still early days?
Edward: I think it’s still early days. We do it well in different in different areas, but it’s about bringing that together in a really fulsome way. For example, on board, we’ve actually just launched a product we call Blueprint, which allows our customers to share their IFE experience or their in-flight entertainment experience with others, watch movies at the same time, play games together. So these are the things that allow us to tap into these further personalization opportunities.
Quite frankly, we do it well on a one-to-one basis. Once we know about a customer, we can very easily tailor something to them. But as I said earlier, it’s just not at scale yet. So there’s some things that we’re going to be putting in place here.
And just again, the program is structured in a way that it delivers experience, personalized experiences with our perks you pick, with the different ways that you experience your journey. But now how do we make that more integrated into the tech journey for the customer? How do we make that more integrated into the app experience for the customer? How do we make that more of a day-to-day experience for that customer when we’re sending promotions or giving them the onboard experience? So still very early days for us, right? And we’re taking some cues from others in the industry and outside the industry for how we do this right. Because again, it’s ripe for success, but it’s also ripe for failure if you do it in a way that infringes on what we call our customer’s rights.
Paula: Well, absolutely. And if you have people like me who kind of go, this doesn’t live up to my expectations, with the best will in the world. I guess from my side, it’s almost like just to empathize with loyalty managers who are early in the journey, because there’s no shortage of, again, brilliant people, loyalty directors who really want to delight their customers and haven’t quite managed to deliver it at scale, as you said. So brilliant. So sounds like we’re going to have a lot to talk about in the months and years to come if all of this stuff starts coming through for you.
Edward: No, absolutely. And actually, I mean, it will be interesting here. I think we this will probably be public news after this this broadcast airs or before this broadcast airs. But our CEO, Joanna Geraghty, is actually speaking at the Skipped Conference here later this month. And she’s going to be announcing some pretty interesting things from an airline perspective and loyalty perspective that are really, I think, are going to launch us into this next phase of our growth. I can’t say too much, but I think it’s definitely going to make the airport experience for some of our customers in Boston and New York significantly better.
Paula: Incredible. Well, we’ll keep an eye out for that, Ed, and we’ll definitely link to the announcements as and when they’re available, because that definitely sounds like something. I know the Skift conferences are very well respected and tend to have incredible speakers. So delighted to hear your CEO also is a woman by the sounds of it, if I’m not mistaken, is it?
Edward: That’s correct. First woman CEO of an airline in the US. We’re really excited. She’s been doing an amazing job.
Paula: That’s incredible. So congrats to you guys for that. That’s wonderful to hear. So listen, I think that’s all I have, Ed, in terms of the kind of questions. I feel like it’s been a whirlwind tour, and I’m sure we could talk for two hours, never mind one.
But I really love what you’ve, as you said, you’ve built on the shoulder of giants. You’ve got customer integrity there in terms of demonstrating your loyalty to them. And that’s coming through in everything that you’ve presented. And again, we had a wonderful time in Krakow together. So I hope you got to do a little bit of, did you get to see a bit of Europe after our time together?
Edward: I did. I actually, I’ve spent probably 15 years of my life living in Europe. Just recently came back from Amsterdam to the US. So I have had my fill, but that’s never a shortage of time there when I’m there.
Paula: Indeed. And a shout out to the team in Comarch for connecting us, as you said, they really do an amazing conference every year. So I’m always thrilled to be there. So as I said, that’s all my questions for now. Ed, do you have anything else you want to mention for our audience before we wrap up?
Edward: Yeah, I mean, just, you know, again, thanks again for having me on the on the podcast today and really excited about what the future holds for JetBlue. Right. Not only from a loyalty perspective, but everything that we’re doing as an airline.
You know, we’ve had a I wouldn’t say a rough few years, but we’ve had some some big swings that we’ve taken as an airline and that hasn’t panned out, you know, with some of the government decisions that we’ve had. We’re excited about what the future holds for us, you know, really doubling down on this premium leisure category across the Northeast.
And so we’re extremely excited about what the future has to hold for us and what the loyalty program can bring to the airline. And, you know, again, get us back to this kind of leading space in the industry of an innovator and disruptor for for that US customer.
Paula: And indeed, it’s coming through than everything that you’ve said, Ed, and everything that I’ve seen. So listen, on that note, I want to say a huge thank you to Ed Pouthier, director of loyalty program and experience with JetBlue. Thank you so much from Let’s Talk Loyalty and Loyalty TV.
Edward: Thank you, Paula. Appreciate the time.
Paula: This show is sponsored by Wise Marketer Group, publisher of The Wise Marketer, the premier digital customer loyalty marketing resource for industry-relevant news, insights and research. Wise Marketer Group also offers loyalty education and training globally through its Loyalty Academy, which has certified nearly 900 marketers and executives in 49 countries as certified loyalty marketing professionals.
For global coverage of customer engagement and loyalty, check out thewisemarketer.com and become a wiser marketer or subscriber. Learn more about global loyalty education for individuals or corporate training programs at loyaltyacademy.org.
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