Inspiring customers to fly premium through experimentation

To recover from the loss of Business class sales in a post-pandemic world, my product team and I were tasked with inspiring customers to fly premium to boost revenue.

This case study walks through the process of continuous discovery and experimentation with data-driven and user-centric design solutions to increase upsell revenue.

Project outcomes

+5% increase in upsell to premium cabins

+7% increase of Business class sales

+8% increase in mobile (web) bookings

Increase in interaction and engagement of the cabin card component

Problem

British Airways have identified a 20% drop (late 2023) in Business class cabin sales.


Opportunity

HMW inspire more customers to fly premium with British Airways?

Discovery phase

Gathering assumptions - what would encourage customers to fly premium with BA?

In collaboration with the UX researcher, we kicked off the project by gathering assumptions from a cross-functional team on pain points, needs and motivations behind flying premium.

We looked at this across the entire e2e journey, from browsing for flights to managing their booking as there are various touch-points in which a customer can choose to fly premium, or upgrade their flight.

In the same workshop we worked as a team to translate the assumptions into research questions, to inform the discovery interviews which our UX researcher led.

Discovery phase

Key research themes

Our UX researcher advised on the top discovery themes according to frequency of pain point.

💰 Affordability is the key motivator behind a cabin upgrade

⏰ Time spent onboard the plane influences upgrade decision

🎟️ BA loyalty programmes are a motivator for upgrades

⏰ Time spent onboard the plane influences upgrade decision

💎 Perceive value for money is a secondary motivator to affordability

✈️ Customers are most likely to upgrade during the booking process

Definition phase

Opportunity mapping