Ai Events | Airline Information

Counting on AI to boost loyalty, how to go about it? Is my personal data, along with transaction history and past interactions, being used in a proficient manner? Why can’t my preferred airline understand me better and offer a connected experience? We, all as travellers, at some point ponder about the same. It is worth evaluating how #artificialintelligence (AI) is impacting #loyalty as a discipline. In one of its recent studies, Collinson has explored the same. Few important recommendations: ·        To start off, to capitalize on the prowess of AI with a company’s existing marketing technology in place, say a loyalty and other platforms, it is vital to connect data sources with the relevant AI model (evaluate how to analyse CRM and loyalty data), along with configuration of defined inputs and outputs from the model. ·        Data quality: Also, it rightly asserted that the consistency and accuracy of the data against a unified customer or member profile will drive better AI predictive recommendations or generative actions. ·        Increase engagement and collect more data: The team at Collinson also recommends that more data means more opportunities for AI #algorithms to learn and excel. So incentivise travel shoppers or members via completion of member profile, feedback on offers and products etc. for more data. Eventually, the focus should be on richer data profiles, counting on feedback, anticipating needs and augmenting retention, segmentation, and targeting. Loyalty marketers also need to comprehend that AI Predictive, Generative and Autonomous models “work best when applied to a data store that is grounded on CRM data”, and “If your CRM data is not grounded then a loyalty programme is a good way of starting this development”, according to the study. By Ritesh Gupta, Ai Events Christopher Staab Nik Laming Charles Ehredt Limor Markman Lia Grimberg, MBA #FFP #martech #travelmarketing #airlines #CDP

Airline status - maximising both CX and revenue generation What can make customer insights actionable is a vital topic for travel marketers. In this context, the role of zero-party data, which a consumer provides intentionally and shares with a brand, can’t be undermined. The question is – what in a #loyalty initiative can result in such a valuable piece of information, for instance, what is the intent of a member, what do they like that the brand offers and so on. There are ways in which airlines and other travel brands can garner zero-party data. If served right, members of a #loyaltyprogram can proactively provide information about themselves. One way is to count on the prowess of airline status. The team at Loyalty Status Co emphasises that status is an airline’s most powerful tool. As airlines target high-value consumers, it is up to them to capitalise on what they already have for their members. Be it for creating value in their members’ everyday lives or enhancing the travel experience, whenever an airline hears back from a member, it needs to act. Anyway when members entrust you with their data, a merchant must act for the benefit of members. So how to gear up for status-related initiatives in order to maximise both CX and revenue generation? Join Mark Ross-Smith and Phil Gunter to learn how to better leverage your status program to drive profitable revenue and member engagement. https://lnkd.in/g38MJJmE September 12, 9:30am ET/ 3:30pm CET By Ritesh Gupta, Ai Events Christopher Staab Erin Murray #loyaltymarketing #airlines #FFP #miles #points #paxex

"Asia Pacific (APAC) business travel takes off" As #businesstravel rebounds, several key themes are emerging: emphasis on #digitalization, importance of #sustainabletravel, expense management tools, and partnerships with travel management companies. As highlighted by Discover Global Network's update, 2024 Business Travel Trends in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) Region, business travel levels across APAC reported higher than other regions, especially with corporates. Highlights: ·         50% of businesses envision increasing the use of digital #payment methods in business travel expenses (rising to 64% in India). Also, 49% of businesses are interested in loading corporate cards into #digitalwallets during business travel (rising to 67% in India). ·         With rising consumer interest in travelling sustainably and heightened sustainable business travel legislation, businesses in APAC are heavily emphasizing sustainability as a core priority. Sustainability is the #1 initiative businesses in APAC (69%) are prioritizing as part of their corporate social responsibility (#CSR) and/or environmental social governance (ESG) strategies. ·         Business travel payments, as well as #expensemanagement, are top of mind for corporations. 57% of businesses currently offer/ use travel expense management software; an additional 23% are in the proof of concept phase or planning to invest in the next 12-24 months. https://lnkd.in/giiKPU9A Christopher Staab Ritesh Gupta #travelpayments #airlines #hotels

Counting on virtual cards to capitalise on digitization #ATPSB2B2024 Virtual cards are counted upon as a payment mechanism to bring security and efficiencies of digitization to operations of a travel company. These cards, which are typically used for a particular transaction or for a specific duration, are playing a vital role in B2B payments. The technology behind these cards offers benefits related to reconciliation (remove manual reconciliation), automation, security (limited-time use virtual cards can provide temporary card details for each transaction and can't be used again), foreign exchange (can be paired with the currency of suppliers) and cashflow (for instance, guaranteed payment timing, rebates are a source of immediate income etc.). Virtual cards also meet the requirements of agencies and suppliers. For instance, suppliers can work out their payments terms for different markets, products and sales volumes. Travel intermediaries and suppliers can trace and reconcile payments, while leveraging other virtual card benefits such as flexible pricing, financing options etc. The industry is going deeper and looking at ways to save on payment processing costs. A key aspect is to rely on virtual cards over ACH or traditional checks as a form of payment for cashbacks or discounts exclusively for virtual card payments. Accounts payable teams can garner rebates on transactions featuring suppliers who accept virtual cards. The likes of OTAs are shifting to systems that are automated, and cost-reducing, and virtual cards support the same. Going forward, a travel company can evaluate following points for B2B payments: ·        How to continue to digitize payment and data flows throughout the value chain? ·        What is the negative impact of opting out of virtual cards as B2B payment method? ·        How to leverage cost-related benefits of using virtual cards? ·        Which virtual card technology is most beneficial for a travel company? ·        What are the new trends in this arena? Keen on this topic? Ai Events is scheduled to conduct the Airline & Travel Payments Summit (ATPS) B2B in London (24-25 September): https://lnkd.in/giFi4_GV By Ritesh Gupta, Ai Events Cristina Ortega Garcia Christopher Staab Wendy Ward Daniel YAO Spencer Hanlon Grace Fang Agustín Botta Jeremy Dyball Livia Vité Mastercard Visa Discover Global Network UATP WEX Nium TreviPay Worldline Worldpay Nuvei Sabre Corporation Outpayce from Amadeus Paysafe FIS Adyen Checkout.com Pax2pay #travelpayments

Making the most of payments data to be in sync with latest trends Travel companies acknowledge that payments data isn’t a passive reporting tool, rather if all the dots are connected to see the whole picture then there is plenty to gain. As a merchant, #airlines, in conjunction with #payment specialists they work, must find ways to reap benefits on several counts. Some of the areas are: ·        Understanding the travel shopper: Transaction data provides an insight into how travel shoppers wish to pay, and how that choice varies from product to product and country to country. ·        Operational improvements and efficiencies: One major benefit is cutting down on the number of manual referrals when payments are processed. In the area of #paymentprocessing optimisation, airlines can focus on optimised routing. ·        Conversion rate: Conversion-related aspects like how long does it take to sign up to a payment method, how to optimize the experience for all the payment methods, as well as what is resulting in payment to fail etc. can have a huge impact on the financial performance. ·        Cash flow and liquidity: It is worth evaluating how merchants don’t end up getting impacted by liquidity issues i.e. acquirers holding sizable chunk of cash reserves from merchants until the service is delivered. As for working with acquirers, Elavon, Inc. urges the airlines to focus on missing data (departure date), downgrade report, pricing data and breakdown, and reconsider routing of transactions. ·        Dealing with chargebacks: It is always important for travel merchants to evaluate the nature of disputes, how the process works, and how to prevent them from happening. Looking at the data, merchants can conclude whether cardholders are winning disputes. Merchants need to ensure they rely on data and automation to better manage #chargebacks at scale. ·        Fraud prevention: Data can help in separating good and bad customers more efficiently. #Artificialintelligence is already paving the way for efficient transaction screening, reducing the need for manual intervention. How to make the most of payments data? By Ritesh Gupta, Ai Events Christopher Staab Laurie Gablehouse Damien Cramer Thomas Helldorff Discover Financial Services Visa Mastercard Worldline Worldpay J.P. Morgan Adyen LexisNexis Risk Solutions Stripe Paysafe Sift Cybersource Outpayce from Amadeus #travelpayments #ATPS2024

Taking cue from indifferent experiences while running FFPs Airlines encourage #frequentflyerprogram (FFP) members to undertake certain initiatives, for instance, a minimum number of flights to keep a particular membership status intact. On top of their respective FFPs, it is quite common for airlines to offer a #cobrand card that links the spending and #loyalty currency accrued. All this activity by a member conveys a lot about their profile. With more interactions, there is plenty of data and if rightly acted upon, the association only grows stronger. But what if the coupons offered or FFP’s loyalty currency accrued can’t be used the way a member wishes to. What is being done to take care of the relationship, when a loyal member isn’t able to take a desired action? Consider this example. As a traveller, I buy an airline's co-brand card for a fee and the same guarantees a certain status for a year. As much as one can enjoy perks like priority check-in, boarding, lounge access and so on, there is a scope for improvement when it comes to the usage of a complementary business class ticket, which has a limited validity. These tickets are offered whenever a traveller attains a spending milestone with the card. Despite trying to avail the same well in advance of the validity, and that too on a couple of occasions, it didn’t work and the tickets were unused. In such scenarios, airlines tend to explain the concept of “redemption seats and revenue bookings” being distinct categories! A free ticket is expected to be availed not to understand restrictions. Points to ponder: ·        How are airlines looking at #forecasting when it comes to rewards, coupons etc. and adjusting the same on an ongoing basis to calculate breakage vs. engagement today? ·        How can #airlines make better use of 1st party data to ensure a member’s expectations are met (for instance, availing a free ticket or upgrade on a family member’s birthday)? ·        Are the questionnaires that a loyal member fills up being acted upon for further one-to-one interaction in case of a suggestion or an indifferent experience? ·        If redemptions are secret sauce to running an airline loyalty initiative, what is the benchmark for the redemption rate for air travel and non-airline products? ·        How does an indifferent experience like unable to burn miles or use a coupon impact CLV?    By Ritesh Gupta, Ai Events Nik Laming CLMP Binay Warrier Andy Choi Jonathan Silver Charles Ehredt Kenneth Purcell Stuart Melim #loyaltymarketing #airlines #paxex #travelmarketing #MegaEvent2024

Cross-border transactions and interoperability – what’s next? #ATPSB2B2024 Airlines have been looking at various facets of #B2Bpayments. One of them is to focus on a cross-border infrastructure and interoperability for streamlined payments. It is about paying any entity, any time, any account, irrespective of the payment system used. The goal of interoperability is to enable different systems to work together to facilitate the transfer of funds between businesses located in different countries. Cross-border B2B payments involve multiple disconnected systems and stakeholders. An interoperable setup for payments helps entities receive their funds quickly. Plus, it can also help in making the most of real-time transaction tracking and automated B2B payment processing. It is also important to assess to what extent interoperability can result in cost reduction, including associated currency conversion costs. The challenge is to deal with a gamut of networks and payment methods. Each solution has its own, siloed ecosystem. Banks, FIs, merchants, technology providers/ enablers, and issuers need to collaborate and support cross-system compatibility and interoperability. The role of back-end networks is important as newer players have enabled interoperability between payment methods. ·        How is interoperability shaping up? ·        Can one expect consolidation in the B2B cross-border payments space? ·        How is an API-driven architecture playing its part? Keen on this topic? Ai Events is scheduled to conduct the Airline & Travel Payments Summit (ATPS) B2B in London (24-25 September): https://lnkd.in/giFi4_GV By Ritesh Gupta, Ai Events Christopher Staab Wendy Ward UATP Cristina Ortega Garcia Mastercard Andrea Caulfield-Smith - MCBT The Advantage Travel Partnership Andreea Pap Sajiv Harjani Kirpalani Outpayce from Amadeus Nium FIS Visa TreviPay WEX Checkout.com ACI Worldwide ConnexPay Pax2pay Edgar, Dunn & Company Sabre Corporation

The ever-evolving payments ecosystem is fuelled by three external factors - initiatives by the regulatory bodies (the focus in on ensuring that completing a transaction is secure, inexpensive and accessible), digitisation (leads to diversity of payment options) and globalisation (managing #payments as a global business, catering to diversity in payments as well as the regulatory needs). Chee (SheueChee) Beh and Nakul Kothari discussed the same during the #ATPSAPAC in Phuket, Thailand last week. Ritesh Gupta Christopher Staab Angella Esposito Paul Spooner #travelpayments #paymentprocessing #airlines #paymentorchestration https://lnkd.in/gcxRYyqY

Thank you to all our participants, speakers, sponsors and exhibitors for making yet another edition of #ATPSAPAC a memorable one! Christopher Staab Angella Esposito Paul Spooner #airlines #travellatments https://lnkd.in/g937xM7Z

Payment and fraud-related workshops, presentations, discussions, networking opportunities...there is no dearth of action at the #ATPSAPAC in Phuket, Thailand. What a fab start to the event! Christopher Staab Maarten Rooijers Sandeep Mander Grace Fang Sophia Melas Nakul Kothari Luke Dynan Toreson Lloyd David Newington Prerana Mimani Mastercard Worldpay APEXX Global Accertify, Inc. Discover Financial Services Outpayce from Amadeus #travelpayments #fraudprevention #airlines