Airline apps have a structural downside that the majority different shopper apps don’t: they’re constructed for a use case that occurs only some instances a 12 months. A passenger downloads the app to guide a flight, checks in 24 hours earlier than departure, glances at their gate quantity, after which… disappears. For months. In the meantime, the airline is sitting on some of the highly effective loyalty currencies in existence, miles, and barely utilizing it to drive something past the transaction it was initially designed for.
That hole between “high-value loyalty foreign money” and “low-frequency app utilization” is strictly the place offerwall monetization is available in, and it’s why we at AppSamurai have been working with airline and journey apps to convey offerwalls into their loyalty ecosystems.
The Airline App Engagement Drawback
Airline loyalty packages are, financially talking, among the strongest belongings within the business. Current business valuations put packages like Delta SkyMiles, American AAdvantage, and United MileagePlus within the tens of billions of {dollars}, typically value greater than the airline’s core flight operations. Loyalty divisions more and more outperform ticket gross sales as revenue facilities, largely on the again of co-branded bank cards and companion networks.
However there’s a catch: most of that worth is captured by way of monetary partnerships (bank cards, resort transfers, automotive leases) slightly than by way of the app itself. The app is a reserving and check-in device first, and an engagement platform a distant second. That’s a missed alternative, as a result of the mile is already a confirmed behavioral lever, folks will change what they purchase, the place they keep, and which bank card they carry, simply to earn extra of it.
What an Offerwall Really Does
An offerwall is a curated menu of third-party actions; putting in and making an attempt an app, finishing a survey, signing up for a free trial, watching a video, ending a degree in a sport, making a purchase order with a companion model, every of which pays out a reward when accomplished. It’s a confirmed monetization mannequin in cellular gaming and rewards apps, but it surely has barely been touched in aviation.
Plugged into an airline app, the mechanic is easy:
- The person opens a “Earn Extra Miles” or “Rewards Hub” part of the app.
- They browse a feed of obtainable provides, sourced and vetted by way of an offerwall community like AppSamurai’s.
- Finishing a suggestion triggers a reward, credited immediately as airline miles, factors, or app-specific foreign money, as an alternative of money or present playing cards.
The mechanism itself isn’t new. What’s new is utilizing an airline’s personal loyalty foreign money because the reward, which modifications the economics for everybody concerned.
Why This Mannequin Suits Airways Particularly Nicely
- The reward already has huge perceived worth, at low actual price. Airways can concern miles at a value per mile that’s usually far beneath what members understand the mile to be value (loyalty analysts generally worth airline miles someplace round one to 2 cents apiece). That unfold is what makes miles such an environment friendly reward foreign money, the airline isn’t handing out money, it’s handing out inventory-backed worth that’s cheaper to create than to purchase again.
- It converts a seasonal app right into a every day behavior. As a substitute of opening the app twice a 12 months, customers have a cause to verify in weekly, and even every day, to see what new provides can be found. Each a type of visits is an opportunity to floor a flight deal, a companion promotion, or a status-tier nudge that the airline would in any other case by no means get in entrance of the member.
- It opens a brand new, high-margin income line. Offerwall demand is funded by advertisers and companion manufacturers who pay to accumulate customers by way of accomplished actions. That income flows to the airline with basically no marginal price of service, on high of no matter ticket, ancillary, or credit-card income the loyalty program already generates.
- It generates first-party engagement and desire information. Each accomplished supply is a sign, what classes a member responds to, what reward sizes inspire motion, what instances of day they’re most lively. That information feeds immediately again into personalization for flight provides, improve nudges, and companion promotions.
What Airways Achieve, In Follow
- Greater DAU/MAU and session frequency: Turning a transactional app right into a routine one
- Incremental, ad-funded income: That doesn’t contact ticket pricing or cannibalize current loyalty economics
- Elevated mile issuance effectivity: Miles earned by way of low-cost engagement actions slightly than solely by way of flying or card spend
- Stronger model engagement: Members interacting with the airline’s app and identification much more typically than the reserving cycle would in any other case permit
- A brand new channel for companion and advertiser relationships: Extending the loyalty program’s worth past journey and hospitality companions into on a regular basis shopper manufacturers
- Richer behavioral information to sharpen personalization throughout the loyalty program
The Greater Image
Loyalty packages are already essentially the most precious a part of many airways’ enterprise. Offerwall monetization doesn’t change that, it extends it, by giving members extra on a regular basis causes to open the app, earn the foreign money they already worth, and spend extra time contained in the model’s ecosystem. For airways in search of incremental income that doesn’t contact fares, and for engagement that doesn’t depend upon somebody really reserving a flight, the offerwall is among the extra underused levers accessible right now.
In the event you’re exploring how an offerwall might work inside your airline or journey app’s loyalty program, that’s precisely the sort of integration we construct at AppSamurai, attain out and we’ll stroll you thru what it might appear to be to your app.
