Orbitz Rewards, which is sure to take the travel industry by storm, launched today. In an industry full of rewards programs, it’s often difficult to differentiate – but not for Orbitz. By listening to its customers, Orbitz has done what many thought was impossible.
“Orbitz is not a travel company with a rewards program, but a customer rewards program with travel benefits,” states Orbitz Worldwide President Chris Orton.
After months of listening to customers, the Orbitz team learned that its customers were frustrated with current travel loyalty programs. They want something new. They are tired of having to wait so long to be able to redeem their points/miles. They’re also frustrated with having to work to understand how to get the best value for their points/miles.
Orbitz translated these customer sentiments into the ability to better understand the value of their earnings and the ability to redeem right away, at any time – instant gratification.
Here’s how the Orbitz Rewards program works:
Transparency: The Orbitz Rewards program allows customers to earn a percentage of Orbucks for every booking -- $1 equals 1 Orbuck. If a customer earns 3% on a $500 booking, the customer earns $15 in Orbucks.
Instant Gratification: If this same customer comes back tomorrow and books a hotel stay, he or she can use their $15 Orbucks for $15 in savings.
As if this wasn’t exciting enough, Orbitz has built in even more benefits to their program.
“All promotions offered by Orbitz Rewards are ‘stackable’”, says Lillian Murphy, VP, Customer Retention, e-CRM & Loyalty at Orbitz Worldwide. This means if Frontier Airlines offers 2% Orbucks on flights booked and traveled in October, the customer earns the 1% core airline earnings, PLUS the 2% promotional rate for a total of 3% Orbucks on this booking.
Refer-A-Friend: Customers can earn $25 towards future travel for referring friends.
VIP: "Star" status comes by booking and staying for only 4 hotel nights and it’s only 12 hotel nights to reach “Super Star” status. With this status, customers enjoy benefits such as a special VIP line to handle travel needs, concierge service, and help booking events and entertainment while traveling.
Plus, Orbitz has made it impossible not to participate, earn, and use Orbucks.
Orbitz has fully integrated Orbitz Rewards into its online and mobile experiences. During every step of a customer’s research and booking experience, he or she will know what they have available in rewards. Orbitz can show customers how much they can earn for each option – and what special promotions are also available.
If booking via a mobile device, customers will be able to see the Orbucks in their accounts. They can apply their Orbucks immediately, reducing the room cost automatically. Orbitz Rewards will also be fully integrated into the Google Wallet app for both Android and iOS which allows users to browse loyalty programs and join them right from the Google Wallet app as well as manage all their existing loyalty programs from a single app.
The tagline for Orbitz is Instant Vacation Gratification. Unlike any other travel loyalty program, with Orbitz Rewards consumers can earn and then redeem instantly. For example, a customer could book a flight and have Orbucks in their account within 3 milliseconds for instant use on the purchase of a hotel.
Orbitz Rewards was built for what consumers need NOW – a simple, fast, and flexible loyalty program that rewards consumers instantly – faster than any other travel site in the industry.