How Airlines Can Capitalize “Revenge Travel” With A Group Booking Solution

How Airlines Can Capitalize “Revenge Travel” With A Group Booking Solution

After the Covid-19 pandemic-induced travel restrictions ended, millions took to the skies, determined to make up for the time they lost without a vacation.

This phenomenon, “revenge travel” can be utilized to recover airlines’ losses due to the persistent lockdowns around the world.

People are increasingly traveling in groups to their dream destinations and are more than willing to pay premium rates for a great travel experience.

However, this spike in demand isn’t something airlines are prepared to deal with due to their reliance on legacy group booking software. Manual means of processing group requests can’t keep up with the massive number of requests that are currently flooding help desks. Aside from that, airlines have no way of personalizing offers with dynamic prices and ancillaries, which means a lot of potential revenue is lost.

How an automated group booking solution can help airlines maximize revenue from revenge travelers

1. Instant Quote for All Group Bookings

Airlines usually take 1 to 2 weeks to process, calculate and quote group bookings. The pricing isn’t available instantly and the fare quoted is not fool-proof from revenue leakages or losses. The quote then has to be negotiated manually before finalizing the amount.

When you have a group booking system, the users can get instant quotes via a web portal. The Intelligent AI-based algorithm can generate a quote considering various parameters instantly. The group travelers don’t have to wait for emails, calls, and messages, as every step from making the group request to receiving an optimal quote is automated.

2. Optimal Pricing for Group Bookings

Even if airlines manage to seize all their group booking opportunities, there will always be a question about the pricing strategies airlines use. “Does it maximize revenue?”, “Was the group pricing we quoted profitable?”, “Was the pricing too high/low?”.

The current airline group revenue management system isn’t fully capable of optimizing the pricing strategies for high materialization rates and profitability. But with a solution like GroupRM, which comes with real-time dynamic pricing based on factors, like load factor, competitor fare, etc., airline revenue managers can rest assured that the price they are offering is the best possible one that will lead to a booking.

3. Personalizing Ancillaries for Group Travelers

After Covid-19, airlines understood that they needed to extend their services by offering personalized ancillaries to the relevant groups. In the current group booking system, ancillaries are manual and the travelers have to request seat upgrades, meals and baggage, and insurance details separately in emails or chats or by reaching out to the help desk or sales team. This could be a big inconvenience for group travelers and airlines may not be able to give a smooth booking experience.

To solve this, airlines can use an automated system for recommending ancillaries and allow passengers to add on whatever special purchase they want to make. Because of the impact of the pandemic, many people may be concerned about their health, so you can offer up ancillaries, such as travel insurance, telemedicine, etc., to bolster revenue. Providing such a personalized experience will also go a long way in helping the airline retain customers.

4. Self-Reliant, Fast, and Secure Web Portal

Group travelers will be best served using a secure and easy-to-use web portal for all their requests, booking, ticketing, and post-booking modifications, such as changing itineraries, adding ancillaries, etc. This will save them a lot of time and effort because the usual way of booking group tickets is quite tedious. You can expand your customer base by having a web portal with multiple language/ payment options.

5. Making The Post-Booking Process Effortless

The booking part alone isn’t the final step; airlines need to continue providing all the required support to the group travelers till their departure.

It is quite common to see the groups changing their dates, number of people, and destinations. Many steps are handled manually when it comes to upsizing, downsizing, dividing, and changing itineraries. Airlines doing all this manually will end up causing delays for the passengers and consequently bringing down the productivity of the help desk team.

Airlines can introduce automation into the process by using a solution like GroupRM. It can send out alerts, reminders for payment, name updating, etc., that will help group travelers planning trips post-COVID. Meanwhile, airlines can delight their passengers by letting them make their changes to the itinerary straight from a web portal rather than making them contact the help desk via email or phone.

Conclusion

Airlines have been missing out on the potential 28% rise in group booking revenue. With an automation solution like GroupRM, airlines can replace the inefficient process which results in revenue leakages. You can also personalize the flying experience of travelers looking to shake off the boredom from COVID lockdowns and make them lifelong patrons of the airline.

Offer And Order Management Challenges Holding Back Airlines’ Group Booking Revenue

Offer And Order Management Challenges Holding Back Airlines’ Group Booking Revenue

Given how the airline industry must contend with heavy regulation, wildly fluctuating fuel prices, and many more challenges that threaten it daily, they have strived to become masters at revenue maximization.

Everything from a bottle of water to a few extra inches of legroom on a flight has become subject to careful consideration when it comes to pricing. Airlines have even managed to compartmentalize the entire flight, splitting passengers into categories based on purchasing power to charge optimal rates for each person. 

Further, airlines have automated nearly everything that happens after a person makes a booking, such as payment reminders, ticket generation, requests to update the passenger’s name, etc. 

Despite all these advancements in automation and predictive technology, airlines have struggled to bring to group bookings the same convenience, personalization, and dynamic pricing that individuals get when they book a flight. As a result, airlines are losing their opportunity to increase group revenue by up to 28%. 

Why legacy offer and order creation methods aren’t doing airlines any favors

Every aspect of a group booking, including offer creation, order creation, and post-sales support, is riddled with inefficiencies that cause revenue leakage, poor help desk productivity, and a subpar customer experience. 

When a customer wants a group quote, most airlines have them send an email with their requirements. The airline cannot know how valuable the group is, so the email goes to the bottom of the pile. By the time the revenue management team, sales, or the help desk gets to it, the customer has most likely requested quotes from multiple airlines.

3 out of 4 times, the customer accepts the group quote from the airline that responds first. 

The email-driven process also means that the airline has no way of knowing the customers’ buying history, level of urgency, purchasing power, ancillary requirements, etc., which leads to a generic offer. 

Meanwhile, for the order to be created, the customer must go through the airline’s reservation system, which isn’t typically designed to handle the nuances of group bookings. The airline cannot quickly create PNRs with multiple group terms and conditions. Aside from that, the customer faces issues, such as difficulties in payment due to the size and complexity of the booking and the tiresome manual ticketing process.

Post-ticketing, the call centers that handle the customers’ calls have difficulty providing proper ancillaries or the ability to quickly modify or partially cancel the bookings, leading to poor customer experience.  

What should airlines prioritize to maximize group booking revenue?

The next decade belongs to the airlines that can reimagine the group booking process. 

Given that premium corporate customers make many group bookings, airlines that prioritize modernizing the entire process to make it more personalized and convenient can expect a huge upside. 

One of the best investments an airline can make in this regard is implementing an AI-powered group booking solution, like GroupRM, that can provide customers easy to use online interface to make their group requests with all the customizations they need. 

The platform further equips you with the ability to provide customers with special group fares, direct confirmation of bookings, purchase specialized ancillaries, and, most importantly, make, modify, or cancel bookings via self-service. 

Besides, the prices provided by the solution would be real-time fares that the customers can negotiate or accept via the same platform in a few clicks. 

An airline in Southeast Asia saw revenue from retail groups increase from zero to $1.5M in 3 months with the implementation of an online interface for their passengers to make group bookings easily.

Further, payments can be made through multiple means, such as credit card, BSP, wire transfer, cash, etc., and an EMD can be generated against the payment. Additionally, the customers can update their group passengers’ names simultaneously without the airline having to follow up to get each one. 

Due to the increased visibility and ease of booking provided by the group booking software, an Indian carrier saw its daily group requests increase from 800 to 4000 within three months.  

As this unfolds, the airline’s revenue manager can track and manage all group bookings through a unified platform. 

Through this automation of the order, offer, and post-booking management process, airlines can ensure optimal revenue, increased customer satisfaction, high efficiency by eliminating manual chores and being on top of all the relevant group booking metrics as well. 

Conclusion 

Over 20 airlines, both full-service and budget carriers, have employed GroupRM to reimagine their group booking process and consequently enjoyed stellar results. The solution paid for itself in a matter of weeks by providing a delightful booking experience to retail customers, corporates, and travel agency partners. Notably, airlines reported being able to tackle all the limitations that they had been facing with their previous group booking systems. 

If, as a revenue manager, you are interested in providing your group passengers with transparent pricing, personalized ancillaries, customizable group requests & policies based on segment, and a hassle-free experience from requesting to the time of ticket generation, reach us for a demo.

Maximizing Revenue With AI Forecasting Group Passengers’ Willingness To Pay

Maximizing Revenue With AI: Forecasting Group Passengers’ Willingness To Pay

At the end of 2022, long after the pandemic had been declared over in most of the world, airline revenue still hadn’t touched pre-covid levels. 

It wasn’t even close; airlines had made at least $100 million more in revenue in 2019.  

Largely, this shortfall has been attributed to airlines’ revenue optimization systems getting out of whack. The industry had no reliable historical data to make pricing decisions, given how everything was shut down for nearly two years. 

Making “educated guesses” has unfortunately become the norm when it comes to pricing decisions, and it shows, especially with group bookings. 

Airlines have witnessed record numbers of customers making inquiries for group bookings and backing out, saying the prices were too high. In other cases, revenue managers have been forced to make steep cuts to group booking fares to ensure the flight was filled. 

How AI can cause a turnaround in airline fortunes

Something is broken when it comes to airlines’ pricing methods for group bookings.

Group fares are notoriously hard to optimize; a ton of factors must be considered before arriving at a quote, and often, this takes an airline at least a week.

Within that period, 3 out of 4 customers lose interest in the airline. When the quote is finally ready, it ends up disappointing either the airline or group passenger because the fares are outdated by then. 

Consequently, the need of the hour is an AI-powered system that can forecast customer willingness to pay, taking into consideration all the relevant factors, such as:

  • Booking data: By analyzing data including the size of the group, the destination, flight load factor, customer buying history, and the time of year, AI algorithms can predict how much a group is willing to pay for their travel. 
  • External factors: Armed with tons of data, AI systems can even take into consideration external factors, like economic conditions, competition, and market trends.

Using such factors, an AI system can constantly test and optimize pricing strategies to maximize revenue, repricing seats in real-time based on passenger willingness to pay. The goal is to find optimal prices for each passenger while ensuring the aircraft is filled. 

Notably, dynamic pricing by forecasting customer willingness to pay with AI can improve group fares by at least 8 to 10 % over time and provide airlines with the following benefits. 

Reduce conflict between sales and revenue management teams

The sales and revenue management team may often be at crossroads because they have seemingly different goals. The former may look to increase the load factor at any cost, while the latter may be looking to onboard passengers for the maximum possible fares, leading to conflict between the sales and revenue management teams.

However, with intelligent pricing, both teams can rest assured that the group passengers are paying the best possible fares without the risk of them abandoning the booking. Consequently, the flight will be booked ahead of time, and the airline is assured of the fact that the maximum possible revenue has been generated from each group passenger.

Excellent customer experience

Typically, group quotes take up to a week to create, with the sales and revenue management teams engaged in a back-and-forth regarding the best fares. However, with real-time dynamic pricing that considers customers’ willingness to pay at that moment, the quote is ready in a matter of seconds, leading to a much higher chance of the customer accepting the offer from the airline. The customer is delighted with the quick turnaround time and seamless booking experience. 

Enforce airline policy effectively 

With an AI-based system in place to generate the prices for the group passengers, there is heightened transparency. No individual revenue manager can bypass airline policy with regard to discounts or other aspects of the booking, leading to a high degree of impartiality when it comes to making offers to potential customers.

Effectively target different market segments

Not all group passengers have the same level of urgency, budget, etc., to make a booking. If you have a system in place that can differentiate between customer segments and offer personalized quotes, you have the recipe for optimizing revenue across each of your customer segments.  

For instance, the system can recognize that a flight carrying mostly business travelers is in high demand during a particular season or time of day and alter prices accordingly to optimize revenue. 

Improve process efficiency

When seats are in high demand, airlines can leverage predictive technology to offer up the seats to groups who are most likely to pay the highest fare. Such predictions are made by the AI, considering the customers buying history, origin, destination, departure date, travel agency, type of travel, etc. This move leads to a reduction in the spoilage of seats, an increase in materialization rates, and a boost in revenue per passenger as well.

Conclusion 

GroupRM is a valuable tool for airlines looking to forecast group passengers’ willingness to pay and increase revenue. By analyzing customer data and utilizing predictive analytics, GroupRM allows airlines to make informed pricing decisions and create customized group travel quotes that appeal to their target audience.

Additionally, the platform’s ability to optimize capacity utilization and streamline the group booking process can lead to higher materialization rates and overall revenue growth for the airline. Overall, implementing GroupRM can be a strategic move for airlines looking to improve their group sales performance and drive business success. To see the solution in action, reach the GroupRM team for a demo. 

How Airlines Can Provide Exemplary Post-Booking Support For Group Customers

How Airlines Can Provide Exemplary Post-Booking Support For Group Customers

For a revenue manager, there’s probably no greater joy than taking a group quote to the booking stage. 

However, lacking post-booking support can and has often unraveled all the great work that the airline help desk, sales team, and revenue management professionals have put into making the passengers accept the booking and pay a competitive group fare. 

Complete chaos could ensue at the drop of a hat. An airline route may get disrupted due to bad weather. A passenger may change his plans and want to travel on a different date. Another may want to make changes to their itinerary.

Pretty much anything could happen, and airlines are woefully unprepared for the massive number of group passengers flooding their support systems in need of post-booking support.

But why is that the case even though airlines spend millions on their IT systems each year? 

Challenges in providing post-booking services to group passengers 

Even now, group passengers’ only option when it comes to accessing post-booking support is call centers. The passengers must reach out to the call centers via phone calls or emails to raise their requests manually, and most likely, they must depend on non-airline industry professionals to help them make changes to the itinerary, cancel their bookings, or add ancillaries.

Given the time-sensitivity of these requested modifications and the huge amount of cash involved, customers can be incredibly frustrated by slow or generic responses from the airline. 

Because post-booking support is still handled manually by the airline or partner call centers, they may have a hard time keeping up with support requests coming around the clock. 

Also, the fact that the airline employees in the revenue, sales, or help desk team are occupied with mundane tasks, such as itinerary changes, name updating, etc., brings into question how productive they are. Additionally, airlines’ failure to quickly address cancellation or ticket modification requests can lead to poor customer experience, which will drastically affect the carriers’ ability to bring in repeat business. 

However, the worst issue is the revenue leakage from airlines not being able to provide personalized ancillaries to individual group passengers once the booking has been made. Having to reach out manually for each customization of the booking may leave passengers dissatisfied and lead to the airline losing revenue by not being able to upsell special meals, pre-paid baggage, in-flight Wi-Fi, etc.

The simple fix to airlines’ post-booking woes 

Providing self-service options to your customers and automating whatever is possible is the way to go for making your post-boking process a delight for customers and a revenue winner for the airline.

With the right technology partner for providing post-booking support, airlines can allow customers to make modifications on their own. If a solution like GroupRM is put in place to help with group passengers’ post-booking requests, they will be able to effortlessly change date/ flight time, upsize, downsize, split the PNR, and cancel their group bookings, requesting a refund without the hassle of going through a call center. 

Besides, they will be able to use an online interface to access personalized airlines ancillary inventory, including: 

  • Travel Insurance
  • Tour packages 
  • Baggage services, such as baggage claim tags, baggage insurance, etc. 
  • Pre-boarding, wheelchair assistance for passengers with disabilities
  • Loyalty program memberships
  • Lounge access 
  • Priority boarding 
  • Meals 

In addition, airlines using automated technology for providing post-booking support have a major advantage when it comes to servicing group passengers during flight disruptions. They can send out automatic alerts regarding changes in flight timings or outright cancellations due to factors, such as bad weather. The group customers can easily rebook/ cancel their flights with a few clicks using channels, such as chatbots or the airline website. 

Undoubtedly, this ability of passengers to access self-service throughout the year at any time of the day can lead to the airline saving substantially on support staff or call center bills. 

Another area where airlines can up their post-booking game is the tedious name-updating process. Airlines can empower their travel agent or corporate customers with the ability to update all the group customers’ names on their own by bulk uploading the same without having to depend on time-consuming emails or calls. Notably, the names of the group passengers can also be modified after the booking has been made, if the airline has the right technology in place. 

Conclusion

Automating and allowing for self-service when it comes to post-booking requests can bring numerous benefits to airlines. It will lead to heightened efficiency, accuracy, customer satisfaction, and cost savings, which will help airlines stay competitive in a crowded market. One solution that can help airlines to automate this process is GroupRM, a platform designed specifically for the post-ticketing needs of airlines catering to large numbers of group passengers. With GroupRM, airlines can streamline the post-ticketing process, reducing reliance on manual labor and improving the overall customer experience.

By implementing GroupRM, airlines can take a major step towards improving their post-ticketing process and better serving their customers. Reach us for a demo to learn more.