Last weekend I spent most of time in Bangalore. Met up and spent quality time with a couple of old friends. In a course of various discussions last Sunday, flying frequency came up asone of the topics. Pandu, a friend of mine said he is on the verge of moving up from Gold Club to Platinum in one of the leading carriers in India. A thought struck when Pandu said this.

If Pandu were to travel abroad for a few months, it’s quite likely he might be pushed back to Gold from Plantinum as a result of reduced flights during the interimperiod - This kind of toggling may not go well with some customers as experience such as lounge access and others of a Platinum membership is surely bound to be of better quality than of gold club.

Most of the carriers determine the membership basis the number of flightsin a week/month/year time parameters, the frequency of flight has been playing a significant contributor to identify the right club membership for the frequent passenger. Going forward, a variable alone determining the membership will have to change.

If a customer happen to be a regular flyer and move out of country for a few months,say on an onsite assignment,the local flight frequency would come down (just an example)which will lead to the member moving back from Platinum to Gold Club.Though the logic is right, to the customer this means inaccessible benefits that were enjoyed as a Platinum Club member in the past.

Imagine, if the airlines were able to manage the frequent flyer programme basis some analytical intelligence and decide to turn on-off toggle button basis some analtyical intelligence instead of letting no. of flights alone determine this. Makes sense? Welcome to the of analytics in Customer Management.

So, whatanalytical canbring to the table? Well, a potential high-value customer will continue to stay in the club where he belongs despite of temporary dip in usage, keeping the Privileges provided intact. This could possible play a substantial role in increasingthe customer’sloyalty towards the airlines thus (possibly) increased or worse-case sustained business from him.