June 20, 2023

Leaders from Rocket Travel by Agoda and American Airlines Present at Loyalty Summit 2023

Rocket Travel by Agoda

Loyalty leaders from around the world came together to discuss technology solutions, issues, and opportunities facing loyalty programs at the Loyalty Summit 2023. This year, VP of Global Partnerships at Rocket Travel by Agoda, Staci Markwood and Sr. Manager, AAdvantage Mile & Partnerships at American Airlines, Brant Veasy, participated in a fireside chat on building a seamless, modern travel solution for American Airlines long-standing loyalty program.

Fireside chat: Deep dive into a highly successful white-label loyalty solution

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Beautiful Rust - Noel F.
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Sukhothai - Tham W.

A Glimpse into the Past with Grandma - Fernanda R.

Sunrise Moment in Bagan - Justyna S.

The Sound of Vinyl - Bruna R.

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Punch it, Chewy - Wesley T.

Old World (in the new) - Yvonne P.

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Nostalgia gives us perspective and, maybe, objectivity- Valentina O.

Love lights life- Diana F.

The American Airlines AAdvantage^® program is the longest running travel loyalty program in the world and currently has more than 20 million active members. Rocket Travel by Agoda began its partnership with American Airlines nearly 10 years ago through the B2C platform, Rocketmiles.com, which gave AAdvantage^® members the ability to earn thousands of miles each night on hotel stays.

Staci and Brant explained that quickly after the partnership began, Rocket Travel by Agoda and American Airlines saw customers developing a strong affinity to the AAdvantage^® program and an appetite for earning miles for hotels. As a result, just 4 years later, the earn platform, BookAAhotels.com was launched to offer a more rewarding loyalty experience for AAdvantage^® members. And in September 2021, the redemption platform, UseAAhotels.com was launched to allow AAdvantage^® members the ability to redeem their miles for hotels and rental cars.

Staci discussed how both travel booking platforms, powered by Rocket Travel by Agoda technology, offer unique benefits to customers such as dynamic rewards, tiered benefits, split tender transactions, instant accruals on non-refundable bookings as well as boost capability. Our teams are constantly collaborating to amplify the travel booking platforms through strategic marketing placements and messaging as well as email communication.

During the fireside chat, Staci and Brant describe the importance of delivering advanced technology and strategic marketing touchpoints, but also the importance of listening to the customer and working together to deliver what they truly value. With so many shared initiatives, our teams are mutually invested in managing the customer experience, improving customer satisfaction, fueling customer loyalty and proactively improving our products and services. Each team is actively listening to customer feedback, finding pain points and proactively making changes, driven by data. American Airlines recently relaunched their AAdvantage^® program based on customer feedback, to simplify its tracking metric for loyalty points with a focus on program value and choice rewards.

In-depth consumer journeys drive engagement throughout every phase of the customer lifecycle. A robust suite of transactional emails ensure customers have all the information needed at their fingertips from booking, to check-in, and post-trip. Dynamic cross-sell strategies allow us to drive high attach rates with other travel products offered by our partners, generating incremental bookings and boosting the value of each trip, and abandoned search and welcome series ensures customers understand the value of our partners’ travel platforms and stay loyal to our partners’ brands.

Personalized content leveraged throughout our emails, delivering a unique experience for the consumer. Our personalized email communications ensure each customer has all the information they need throughout their travels, easy ways to contact our customer loyalty team for assistance, and suggest travel destinations based on their personal travel preferences. This adds a level of convenience to the consumer experience and drives engagement with our partners’ brands.

Utilizing AI is quickly becoming a cornerstone of email marketing. Using artificial intelligence allows our marketing teams to quickly drive innovation through A/B experimentation. In testing, we have found it to be very effective at driving results and are developing new ways to leverage this emerging technology as email marketing services continue to expand.

Segmenting audiences based on previous engagement data to deliver new messages to the customer and drive continued engagement with our white label platforms.

Robust reporting enables us to continually optimize the performance of our campaigns, and keep partners informed of success and areas of opportunity at every phase of a partnership.

Brant explained how the American Airlines AAdvantage^® program relaunch in March 2022 was a result of wanting members to choose the rewards that mattered to them so they could design their perfect experience. Now, AAdvantage^® members earn miles by flying on American, oneworld carriers and other participating airlines, as well as through more than 1,000 non-airline partners including co-branded credit cards, hotels and car rental companies. Through Rocket Travel by Agoda’s travel technology solutions, AAdvantage^® members are able to earn rewards on hotel stays, benefiting from earning base miles and Loyalty Points toward status for every booking. Members can also redeem their miles to book hotels and rental cars.

Over the years, the partnership between Rocket Travel by Agoda and the AAdvantage^® program has continued to grow and evolve to meet the needs of travelers wherever they are in their travel planning journey. Rocket Travel by Agoda and American Airlines understand the importance of incentivizing and rewarding our most loyal members. Together, we are taking loyalty, innovation, and customized rewards to new heights with more exciting offerings on the horizon.

About the author

Rocket Travel by Agoda, part of Booking Holdings (NASDAQ: BKNG), is a leader in the travel industry offering technology and marketing solutions for some of the largest consumer brands in the world.