When Ryanair launched its new "Prime" loyalty program last month, it marked a significant shift for the notoriously no-frills carrier. For £79 annually, members get free seat reservations, travel insurance, and exclusive flight deals—potentially saving frequent flyers up to £420 per year. But here's what's truly interesting: The technology that powers sophisticated loyalty programs is no longer just for industry giants.
AI has completely transformed what's possible for travel businesses of all sizes.
The New Loyalty Landscape
Ryanair isn't alone in embracing subscription loyalty. Wizz Air introduced its "MultiPass" program last year, and many major hotel chains and OTAs have been operating similar schemes for years. The appeal is clear: predictable revenue streams, increased customer lifetime value, and valuable data collection.
What's changing dramatically is who can play this game.
In the past, creating a personalised, responsive loyalty program required massive IT investments and specialised teams. Today, AI-powered platforms have democratised these capabilities. Your travel business doesn't need Ryanair's resources to build something equally compelling for your customers.
How AI Levels the Playing Field
The heart of any effective loyalty program isn't just points and perks—it's personalisation and timing. AI excels at both.
Where traditional loyalty programs offered standardised benefits for broad tiers of customers, AI allows for hyper-personalisation. It can analyse thousands of customer interactions to identify patterns that human marketers would miss. More importantly, it can deliver those insights without requiring a team of data scientists on your payroll.
For a small tour operator specialising in adventure travel, this might mean automatically identifying which customers book seasonal trips and sending them personalised early-booking incentives at the right moment. For a boutique hotel group, it could mean recognising a guest's previous room preferences and proactively offering relevant upgrades.
This level of personalisation was once available only to the largest travel brands. Not anymore.
Building Your AI-Powered Loyalty Strategy
Creating an effective AI-driven loyalty program doesn't require massive upfront investment. Here's how you can approach it:
Start with smart data collection. Before implementing any AI solution, ensure you're gathering the right data. Beyond transaction history, consider capturing search patterns, abandoned carts, and customer service interactions. The richer your data, the more powerful your AI insights.
Focus on incremental implementation. You don't need to launch a comprehensive program overnight. Start with one aspect—perhaps personalised email offers based on past booking behavior—and expand as you demonstrate ROI.
Test continuously. The beauty of AI-powered loyalty is the ability to run constant small experiments. Try different incentives, timing, and messaging to see what resonates with your specific customer base.
The Human Element Remains Essential
While AI provides the technological backbone, the most successful loyalty programs still incorporate human understanding and creativity. The best approach combines AI's analytical power with your team's industry expertise and customer knowledge.
Your understanding of your customers—their motivations, pain points, and aspirations—should guide how you apply AI insights. The technology can tell you when and how to engage customers, but you determine what truly matters to them.
This human-AI partnership is where smaller travel businesses often have an advantage. Your closer customer relationships and specialist knowledge create loyalty opportunities that mass-market players like Ryanair can't easily replicate.
Beyond Points and Perks
The most innovative loyalty programs are moving beyond traditional accumulation models. AI enables experience-based loyalty that recognises and rewards customers in ways that feel genuinely personal rather than transactional.
Consider how your program could recognise customer preferences that aren't explicitly stated. If AI analysis shows certain customers always book window seats, could you automatically reserve those without being asked? If data reveals common booking patterns among friend groups, could you create shared loyalty benefits?
These thoughtful touches—enabled by AI but inspired by human understanding—create the emotional connections that drive true loyalty.
Your Move in the Loyalty Game
Ryanair's move into subscription loyalty signals a broader shift in how travel brands think about customer relationships. The good news is that you don't need their scale to create equally compelling programs.
With the right technology approach, your travel business can build loyalty experiences that rival or surpass those offered by industry giants. AI has democratised capabilities that were once exclusive to those with the deepest pockets.
The playing field has been leveled. The question now is how you'll use these new capabilities to create competitive advantage and deeper customer relationships in an increasingly contested travel marketplace.
The loyalty game is now open to everyone. How will you play?
