Leaders across various different flight shopping platforms are embracing UPA content. OTAs and Metas such as Expedia, KAYAK, Trip.com and Webjet are showcasing UPA content to their customers, along with Corporate Booking Tools such as Concur, Spotnana, and Navan (formally TripActions.) Global Distribution Systems Amadeus, Sabre, and TravelSky are live with world-class merchandising integrations that give flight shoppers a clear and visually compelling booking experience that rivals Amazon and other large retailers. Airlines are also integrating this visual and engaging content onto their direct channels, such as Emirates, Gulf Air and Air France KLM are all prioritizing their merchandising strategies to give consumers a better shopping experience.
It’s long been thought that consumers need a more visual booking experience, and ATPCO’s own commissioned research has proven it. More than two-thirds of survey respondents say they would book a 33% more expensive flight if it was paired with visual content, as opposed to a cheaper flight with no visual content. These preferences showcase a real revenue benefit to channels and airlines who provide visual content in the shopping path.
The value of UPAs is in the combination of targeted messaging and visual content that is relevant for shoppers deep in the purchase path. UPAs bring unique airline fares, products, and services to life with images, infographics, messaging, videos, and cabin tours. UPA content can be precisely targeted by aircraft, cabin, route, time of day, fare brand, and more, showing flight shoppers time-sensitive and relevant content as they shop, with the content now available in 28 languages. Alt-text was also recently added to this content to support visually impaired shoppers.
While Routehappy content has been available for years, it is now at a critical mass and hundreds of millions of flight shoppers can see it while they make the right booking decisions for them. Many of the channels are integrating UPAs at various stages of the booking process, from search results to seat maps to post booking communications highlighting the versatility of the content.
“We are at an exciting inflection point,” said Vice President of Global Sales, Chris Phillips. “Our Amenities and UTA (Universal Ticket Attributes) exceptional growth with more than 90 percent of the global flight schedules covered and our more visual UPA content is nearing 50 percent coverage. Channels are now seeing the financial and customer satisfaction benefits of delivering this content to consumers, and we are on track for another exceptional year of UPA integrations growth. If you are a regular flight shopper, whether on corporate booking tools or OTAs, you will start to see more visual content with each flight search, regardless of where you are searching.”
Connie Chung, Senior Director of Product Management for Air at Expedia Group said, “In Q4 2023, Expedia Group launched Routehappy premium UPA content on our Expedia branded mobile app seat maps. This use case is innovative, new, and demonstrated an excellent use of Routehappy content to merchandise airline offers. By providing premium UPA content on our platform we can provide better experiences for our travelers and stronger outcomes for our partners.”
Jeff Lobl, Managing Director of Global Distribution Strategy at Delta Air Lines, agreed. “Having partners like Expedia and other indirect channels showcase our content, knowing it is on brand, accurate and timely, enables us to build better relationships with our distribution partners and cuts down on any frustrations our customers may have had in the past where incorrect or outdated content was shown. Having channels pull Routehappy content from one source of truth at ATPCO has been widely helpful in building our distribution strategy at Delta.
Tags: Jeff Lobl, Delta Air Lines, Connie Chung, Expedia Group, Chris Phillips, ATPCO, Routehappy UPA
