Imagine an airline that remembers you normally take a leisure trip every May, it knows you need a child-friendly hotel and that you like a cultural element thrown in.
This picture of airline merchandising seems far from the reality of airlines that spam customers with emails for irrelevant offers and assign middle seats at the back of the plane when they (should) know the preference is for an aisle seat around the middle of the plane.
This is the level of personalisation that many airlines and technology providers are trying to achieve.
But, perhaps there's light at the end of the tunnel.
Avianca, it seems, is trying to take a step closer to the merchandising dream by signing up to Amadeus Anytime Merchandising.
The Colombian airline is the launch partner for the technology and plans to test the system in the next couple of weeks with a view to launching later in the summer.
How far down the merchandising track the system could take Avianca is up to the airline, according to Philippe der Arslanian, vice president of merchandising and digital for the Amadeus IT Group.
He says the optimal scenario might be the example above coupled with a disruption thrown in on the return trip where the airline automatically rebooks the passengers with the same benefits of the original trip.
Then, when the passenger is back home, the airline can maybe get them thinking about the next trip with a relevant discount or another offer.
Der Arslanian says Avianca is aggressive on the airline merchandising front and wants to increase revenue through merchandising techniques. He adds that it has done a lot of preparation to be ready to take this next step.
As well as the merchandising technology, the airline also plans to use a customer profiling tool from Amadeus to help it store trip information about passengers, their demographic, know their preferences and be aware of their value to the carrier.
The merchandising technology is also NDC compliant which der Arslanian says was important for the airline in terms of multi-channel retailing going forward.
Avianca has also renewed its partnership with Amadeus for the Amadeus Altea reservation, inventory and departure control system.
Related:
Where next for airline merchandising as carriers reap volume and yield gains?
Amadeus slots a major piece into its merchandising jigsaw
NB: Image via Big Stock Photo