Q&A: Unlocking Airline Loyalty Through Cross-Sector Collaboration

This sponsored content was created in collaboration with a Skift partner.

Paradoxically, consumer appetite for travel has grown even stronger during a volatile year. For airlines, there’s a massive opportunity in this moment to gain market share by capturing customer loyalty when peace of mind is at a premium.

As research for a new report from Skift and Allianz Partners, SkiftX spoke with Anna Kofoed, chief officer, travel protection, and member of the board of management at Allianz Partners, to explore the state of play for loyalty in the aviation industry. Airlines that can leverage the increasingly sophisticated and connected network of global aviation alliances and service partnerships will have a critical opportunity to scale their loyalty benefits and provide more consistent, quality customer experiences for the future.

SkiftX: What are some ways individual airlines can make customers more aware of the benefits they offer to customers? Why is this communication important?

Anna Kofoed: Airlines are increasingly focusing on the end-to-end travel experience, and as a result, they have a plethora of partnerships and ancillary services outside of the core in-flight experience. Airlines can increase customer awareness of these benefits by integrating marketing efforts throughout the customer journey.

Pre-purchase strategies like engaging landing pages and videos help highlight unique offerings, while clear messaging during the checkout process emphasizes add-ons and enhancements. Pre-trip communications, such as personalized emails or app notifications, remind customers of perks and benefits shortly before the trip. This communication fosters confidence and satisfaction, encouraging repeat business and building brand loyalty.

What are some key opportunities for airline partners to scale customer loyalty across their industry alliances?

Consumers are looking for seamless experiences across airline alliances, and this includes products like travel insurance. Providing a common user experience ensures that customers see the same great quality experience regardless of carrier, strengthening the loyalty and overall value proposition. Furthermore, having individual carriers who are familiar with the same ancillary providers and shared processes can result in a better overall customer experience.

For instance, we work closely with several members of different airline alliances and have recently started co-planning across groups of members, allowing us to share strategies openly and create shared customer experiences.

What part does travel protection play in loyalty through the airline channel?

At Allianz Partners, our services help travelers before, during, and after their trips, and as a result, we serve as an extension of our partners’ brands. We take this obligation very seriously. We know that customers are making a conscious choice to fly with our partner airlines, and it’s our duty to provide an excellent customer experience in complementary areas, especially during travel mishaps.

Our customer experience scores show that customers see the value of our products, and it keeps them coming back. In Q1 2025, 84% of customers who filed a claim were likely to repurchase — indicating that they had a good experience both with the airline and our company, driving loyalty for both.

What are some examples of the value travel insurance provides beyond financial protection?

We live in unpredictable times, and consumers are concerned about a wide range of geopolitical, economic, and environmental issues that could impact their trips. Travel insurance obviously can’t prevent those types of things from happening, but knowing that they’re protected for covered travel delays or interruptions, medical emergencies, and assistance services can give customers the extra boost of confidence they need to book their trips.

In addition to the initial booking, Allianz Partners also provides peace of mind while customers are traveling. When mishaps and emergencies happen abroad, we’re right by your side with the Allyz app, which now features a tool that allows you to search for doctors by location and specialty and schedule an in-person or virtual visit, so you can easily find care when and where you need it.

How does this connected customer experience influence loyalty?

In my view, this is a pretty simple equation; the better the experience, the more likely that customers are willing to come back. We see this trend in our data at Allianz Partners and know that our airline partners do too.

In addition, “business as usual” is important, but in most cases, customers remember how your company responds to moments of need. To that end, customers who use our medical evacuation services, assistance services, and the telehealth and doctor appointment scheduling in our Allyz app, which I mentioned earlier, typically have higher customer satisfaction scores because we made a big impact in a time of great need.

Similarly, loyalty can also be forged by exceeding customer expectations. For instance, with some of our partners, we offer plans with a proactive benefit that can provide customers with an automatic payout if their flight is delayed for more than two hours. It’s a “surprise and delight” feature in eligible travel insurance plans that has drawn rave reviews from our customers and keeps them coming back.

How can airlines better message this value to their customers?

Conveying the full value of a detailed product like travel insurance to customers while they’re booking their trips can be a challenge.

Over the years, we’ve continued to perfect the Allianz Fusion platform, our industry-leading testing platform that allows us to personalize travel insurance offers for customers within our partners’ booking paths — ensuring that different audiences see insurance offers that are relevant to them and their trips.

When it comes to messaging, we believe in positive messaging and in encouraging customers to take their trips with added peace of mind — showing them what they can gain by adding our product.

Some travel services are complicated, but travel insurance shouldn’t be one of them. We work closely with our partners to ensure that our marketing messaging takes insurance and makes it real through examples of covered reasons and real-life customer testimonials of how we’ve helped them in times of need.

For more data, information, and insights around opportunities to grow loyalty in today’s airline business, download the new report from Skift and Allianz Partners.

This content was created collaboratively by Allianz Partners and Skift’s branded content studio, SkiftX.