A main reason for the omnipresence of Netflix is the technology’s ability to personalize recommendations to viewers.
By recognizing user habits, the platform is able to influence resulting (often addicting) behavior – a tactic airlines could employ to entice travelers to book more and fill empty seats, so argues a new whitepaper from marketing technology company Yieldr.
With commercial airlines carrying more than 4.1 billion passengers in 2017, massive amounts of data – including date of birth, payment method, flight history and trip extras – is collected, but it’s not fully utilized.
To improve personalization, airlines need to understand more about travelers, particularly distinguishing between those who book the flight they originally searched and those that are flexible to change their initial search at the right price.
According to Yieldr, 45% of travelers will book a flight different to their original search. For departures, 38% are open to flying on another day. Of that percentage, about 1/3 will limit their new flight to within four days of the original date.
Travelers are less flexible – 18% - about changing destinations.
Money matters
When it comes to price, travelers are more flexible about changing flights if tickets are more expensive. Some 43% of travelers who book tickets under €50 originally look for a different flights. For tickets between €50 and €600, travelers are slightly less flexible – with around 40% likely to have booked an alternative flight.
From there, when tickets reach €850 to €900, there’s a 50% chance that travelers will book an alternative flight. Beyond that price point, about 57% of travelers will have booked a different flight.
For families, however, the inverse is true. Families who book cheaper flights are much more likely to have changed their original search – likely because they’re shopping for a deal.
Groups of adult travelers are less flexible regardless of ticket price, due to factors like people coordinating to take time off work.
Knowing these statistics, airlines can use a recommendation algorithm - similar to Netflix - to encourage flexible travelers to book some of their less popular flights, Yieldr argues.
Like the streaming service, airlines can leverage the data at their fingertips and machine learning platforms to automate demand, which combined with insights into traveler behavior, can help fill seats and increase revenue.