News

Easyjet loyalty programme trial 'ongoing'

12 Apr 2015 by GrahamSmith

Easyjet's ongoing frequent flyer loyalty programme is "working very well", although the airline has no plans to roll it out at present.

CEO Carolyn McCall told Business Traveller that it is still too early to say when the programme will be extended.

The carrier has been running the trial since August. It involves more than 15,000 passengers in the UK, France and Switzerland (see news, November 2014).

Easyjet reported that 91 per cent of participants said the loyalty programme, which has benefits including increased flexibility on bookings and a price guarantee, appealed to them.

Speaking at the launch of the carrier's Amsterdam base last week (see news, March 31), McCall said: "We set up a trial last August for about 15,000 very high frequent customers. We have people who fly with us over 50 times a year, so we targeted that segment.

"For those passengers, we looked at what they value most — and the answer to that is they value flexibility and speed. If they want to change something, they want to change it quickly.

"For those passengers, we've tested a loyalty scheme where they get a card with a number on it so they can phone up and make some name changes and some date changes for free — not infinite, a capped number. And that seems to be working very well for our most frequent passengers."

McCall said the airline wanted to make sure that the trial was fully complete before announcing any expansion.

"Whenever you do something like that you get unintended consequences," she said. "And we're looking at those and then absolutely we'd look to roll it out further.

"We've trialled it in Switzerland, France and the UK, three very different areas, and it's worked well in all of them and we're quite happy with that."

McCall also said that she regarded the carrier's Easyjet Plus card as a reward programme.

She said: "Easyjet Plus is a reward and we need to be much more assertive when selling Easyjet Plus.

"If you are a frequent traveller you are 'quids in' very quickly. You get your upfront seat, you get speedy boarding, you get speedy bag drop, you now get fast-track security and you get your second bag onboard.

"So, it's good value and it's a loyalty reward. It's part of our loyalty programme."

easyjet.com

Tom Otley

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