Passtination CEO: Do airlines know the person behind the passenger?
Most airlines know how their loyalty members fly but have little visibility into what they value on the ground, according to Safir Jamal, CEO of Passtination. As a result, personalized offers are often built on the wrong signals.
In a recent episode of The Indian AvGeek podcast, Jamal argued this data blind spot leaves airline loyalty teams trying to infer a person’s interests from passenger data that is mostly confined to the flight itself.
“The airline has a lot of data, but the data lets them understand the individual as a passenger and not as a person,” said Jamal. “What are my interests? Where am I going after the flight? You know that I’m Safir and I sat in Seat 14C. But you don’t actually know me as an individual.”
Speaking to host Vishal Mehra, Jamal recounted getting car rental offers despite not having rented a car for around a decade, as well as golf and luxury shopping deals without any evidence that those experiences reflect his habits while traveling.
“So, these are complete misses, right? And if you knew your customers as people, not as passengers, you wouldn’t send campaigns like that. You would send much more targeted offers.”
He argued that the problem is rooted in a view of airline loyalty that still treats arriving to a destination as the end point of the carrier’s relationship with the customer.
“When we think back to all the trips that have shaped our memories of travel, we’re not only thinking about the flight. We’re thinking about where we stayed, what we did on the ground, where we ate, and what we saw. And all that collectively shapes our experience as travelers. Yet, for too long, airline loyalty teams have seen themselves as being purely confined to that in-air portion of the experience.”
As Jamal explained, Passtination addresses this gap with an airline-branded mobile wallet pass that gives loyalty members access to instant, merchant-funded discounts at local businesses. Members who take up the pass complete a short survey at the airline’s request, providing consented information about their interests and preferences before adding it to their wallet.
When a member redeems an offer, they scan a QR code at the merchant. This adds an on-the-ground behavioral signal to the airline’s existing member profile. The airline can use those signals in its own CRM activity or work with Passtination to deliver automated push notifications through the wallet pass.
“You would know that based on my past behavior, I tend to go to a lot of coffee shops. I like specialty coffee,” Jamal explained. “So then when I go to Abu Dhabi, and you know that I’ve booked a flight to Abu Dhabi, you are proactively sending me a list of amazing specialty coffee shops in Abu Dhabi where I can use my pass and get an exclusive discount.”
Speaking of the data behind Passtination, Jamal pointed out that airlines can see their members’ redemption activity in cities for which they have no booking in their own records, meaning their loyalty member may have taken a competitor’s flight to get there. This can create an opportunity for a relevant win-back offer.
“The member can get an instant push notification through their wallet pass saying ‘Hey, hope you’re having an amazing time in Singapore. As a member of our loyalty program, we’d love for you to fly with us again. Here’s a link to save 10% off your next flight with us.’ This is a very targeted and cost-effective way of winning back the customer.”
Passtination CEO: Do airlines know the person behind the passenger? Aviation
