Collinson International, a privately-owned provider of global travel and customer loyalty programs, doesn’t offer your run-of-the-mill airport experience. Instead of being squeezed in plastic seating, knee to knee with fellow travelers in the main concourse, the company provides a premium airport lounge experience with a range of amenities.
Loyalty360 spoke with Jeremy Dalkoff VP of Partnerships and Travel Experiences at Collinson International, the operator of the popular Priority Pass, on how the company delivers a high-end, seamless, stress-free experience for travelers at more than 1,800 airport lounges worldwide.
How does the company create spaces that the busy traveler will want to gravitate to and spend reward points or pay a premium for? “It’s finding things that are meaningful to customers, figuring out how you can bring it to market, how you can commercialize it, and how you can add value to everyone in the overall ecosystem,” Dalkoff said. “It’s understanding how you can deliver [what customers want] and create some stickiness in that experience.”
For the past 30 years since the launch of the Priority Pass, Dalkoff says the company plays “middleman” by reviewing key business metrics, including lounge engagement trends, consistent use, and how the consumer perceives the value of the rewards and benefits they receive from banks and credit card companies.
“We’re there to deliver an experience and make it meaningful for the customer. We look at usage and trends,” Dalkoff said. “We look at where people are going and where people are using their benefits. We review the variety of things that we offer and what people are engaging with, and how long they are engaged.”
Changes in the Travel Landscape
In recent days, as air travel has become more hectic, passengers are spending more time in airport lines, which directly reflects an increase in lounge use.
“In February and March of 2021, [right after Covid] there was nobody around,” Dalkoff said. “You had an empty seat next to you and so much room wherever you went. But fast-forward to now and there are lines, congestion, full planes, [which means] the lounges are getting more and more customers. We’ve seen a huge increase— over 30% in the last 12 months in lounge visits, and the numbers continue to go up.”
Despite increasing air travel, behavior still depends on personality and schedules. “There are some customers [who arrive] and spend a shorter time in the lounge and go, but others who get to the airport four or five hours ahead of time,” Dalkoff said. “These customers expect delays and instead of spending an hour in the lounge, they are there for three or four hours. Travelers today are really a mixed bag.”
Being Treated Like VIP
If there are customers with time to spare before a flight, what is the purpose of going to a lounge versus just staying in the terminal? “People want to feel like VIP,” Dalkoff said. “They don’t want to sit out there with everybody. They want an elevated experience and the sense of feeling special.”
To ensure they get that special experience, customers can now reserve a spot in a lounge. “There's no uncertainty anymore, there's variability,” Dalkoff said. “People are getting more information to figure out if they’re on a fast-track TSA line, or regular security. They are removing the uncertainty, so we’ve added pre-booking to reserve a spot for them in the lounge.”
By creating value-added incentives such as the prebooking option, the company is creating an even more seamless experience for customers. “Adding these tools is what will help people in their travel journey,” Dalkoff said. “This is what you’ll see us rolling out [in the future].”
Technology and the Customer Experience
Technology has played a big role in the industry in the past few years. Concepts such as biometrics or QR scanning are becoming more of the norm, rather than the exception for customers. “Our [data] shows if it enhanced their travel experience, customers were more than willing by a significant percentage to provide personal data.”
This is almost counterintuitive to the discussions around sharing personal information in almost any other context. “I think if people realize they can get value and added benefit [from giving personal data] they’re willing to do it, Dalkoff said.”
Age also seems to influence the data sharing decision. “As travelers, the younger generation is more willing to share things than the older generation,” Dalkoff said. “They think, ‘If I don't have to take out my phone and get the QR code and wait another 10 seconds for them to confirm me in their system, it will go a lot faster.’ Trust also plays a part. If people abuse [using the personal] data, the whole thing will fall apart.”
When it comes to technology, age isn’t the only factor. “Yes, younger people use technology, but it comes down to who travels more. A lot of people aspire to save money for the one big trip a year so there’s a mix of infrequent users with the heavier users [of technology],” Dalkoff said.
No Replacement for Human Interaction
Leveraging technology is important, but what matters more is not losing the human element in the customer experience.
“Definitely the human interaction is key,” Dalkoff said. “Just being able to look at someone and to smile is something technology can't replicate.”
Although there are lounges that are doing robotic bars or baristas, according to Dalkoff, that doesn’t replace human interaction.
“Being able to walk up to a bar and have a little dialogue with someone is special,” Dalkoff said. “People want to feel special, and you can’t make an environment that’s stale and all electronic. You need people who care. People who can deal with issues if someone is having a problem.”
Collinson and Chase: A Perfect Partnership
When Chase launched its premium credit card a few years ago, the company added Priority Pass but didn’t offer branded opportunities for what Dalkoff called a ‘subset of customers.” Realizing the lounges needed revamping, Chase partnered with Collinson International to take its Chase Sapphire Reserve Lounge to a high premium experience. The company worked with the airport team on building out and operating the lounge which now has a Priority Pass component. “These premium lounges in LaGuardia airport and [other] airports around the U.S. are really growing for [Chase] and it’s been a great partnership for us.”
Giving lounge access to Priority Pass customers can differentiate from partner to partner, but Dalkoff said the company has learned to navigate these differences successfully. “With the hundreds of banks that we work with…there's lots of ways of providing [Priority Pass]. As we roll out different things and grow the customer offerings, you'll see more variation in different categories.”
In the case of Chase, it’s about offering not just a global program, but a global experience. “The Chase app offers the lounge listings built into the app,” Dalkoff said. “They have a branded QR code and Priority Pass Access that can be used in their lounges around the world, which is not what everyone has. It’s a unique thing.”
How do other companies today get that same uniqueness? Should banks and credit card companies be considering newer ways to offer more personalized experience for customers?
“I think personalization is no longer optional; it’s required and expected,” Dalkoff said. “But it is a journey, and you have to tie in different ecosystems and technology. You want to give a unique and special experience, but that’s getting more difficult to play out and do to scale, but that’s our guiding star—to know whether using biometrics or whatever, [to learn] who a customer is, where they like to sit and escort them to a certain table—— that’s where we want to get to.”