FFP Online Interview: A Sensible Loyalty Progam with Less

than a Million Members

FFP Online's Ravindra Bhagwanani caught up with a multi-tasking Irene Ramírez, the driving force behind Binter Canarias' ambitious BinterMás frequent flyer program. Among other exciting developments Irene discusses the program's future and flattery from her local competition.

Over the past three years, you’ve launched and managed the BinterMás Program basically as a one-woman show. What were your biggest challenges?

IR: Obviously the launch itself was my biggest challenge. Being in charge of the program, its launch involved a steep personal learning curve, not only regarding what an FFP means, but also regarding the rest of the required processes, including: The selection of the most appropriate suppliers from the initial consulting to the IT system and technology environment; The selection of a PR agency; The personalisation of membership cards with magnetic stripes; Defining BinterMás customer service processes; Realisation of exclusive services for elite members, and; Building and managing the relationships with partners. There was a huge range of requirements to be defined and then to be controlled afterwards.

And of which single achievement are you particularly proud?

IR: I am most proud of the immediate and overwhelming success of the program. On the very first day of the program launch, on 01 February 2005, we had BinterMás customers at all levels using their cards on our flights and with partner companies. This was possible thanks to a pre-enrolment done for our call centre customers through which we assigned the membership level they would afterwards qualify for. This allowed us to validate the processes before the official launch date. This was worth so much, since we had a massive influx of customers in the first months. The typical conversation on those days among our passengers was “Do you already have the BinterMás card? I’ve got the Oro [Gold] one!”

…but I guess the biggest compliment came from your local competitor Islas Airways, since it recently launched a program, which appears to be a simplified copy of BinterMás?

IR: Yes indeed, our main competitor launched its FFP last May and it is very similar to BinterMás. To give you an idea, BinterMás is a point-based program, which is pretty simple to understand. For every flight, you accumulate 100 points and 1,500 points are required for an award flight. This means, a free flight is earned after every 15 flights. Islas Airways has the same ratio with the same figures 1,500/100 = 15. Is this a coincidence? I hardly think so…

Many people in the industry think that size is all that matters with FFPs and that programs with less than one million members simply don’t make sense. What is your experience?

IR: You can’t generalise. In my opinion, a loyalty program needs a reason for existence rather than being a pure database. The case of Binter Canarias is pretty individual since we operate mainly within the archipelago of the seven islands forming the Canary Islands. Air transportation is critical here. Our routes are very short, between 69 and 252 miles with an average flight time of 25 minutes. This means that our customer type is very particular, flying mainly for business or family reasons and taking the plane as others would take a bus. We have clients flying with us virtually every day.
We had 3 million passengers last year, but only an estimated 500,000 customers, which is an indication of high frequency. The objective of BinterMás is to have 100,000 active members generating 70% of our revenue.

Can you give me an example of what you can do with your program that a bigger program might not be able to do?

IR: We can adapt to what the customer really desires and values by allocating both financial and human resources to meet his needs without this becoming too expensive. With millions of members, this is much more difficult to achieve.

What can we expect next?

IR: Regarding the branding of the program, we are going to modify the graphical elements in order to adapt them to the new corporate branding, which will be put in place at the end of this year. We also continue to expand the partner network, which will reach 20 partner companies this month. And most importantly, we will develop specific redemption offers, enabling our most frequent customers to use their points without having to take the plane.

Irene, thank you very much for these interesting insights into your airline and good luck continuing your personal success story called BinterMás!

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