No coffee machines, no suitcases – but active and satisfied customers

By Katrin Flöther, Manager, Customer Loyalty, Germanwings

Eight flights, one reward – it is as simple as that with Germanwings’ frequent flyer program called "Boomerang Club". And it has to be that simple in order to preserve the low cost structure. What might have seemed to be a contradiction, investing in a customer loyalty program being a low cost airline, has been worth every effort and every spending. The Boomerang Club is constantly growing since its start on 18 January, 2006. The membership growth is far ahead of the business plan. More than 120,000 Boomerang Club members in Europe already collect Boomerangs. The share of business customers is well above Germanwings’ average and the number of flights per member has exceeded all expectations.

Optimization and pre-qualified loyalty profiles

What makes the program successful and profitable? A simple structure of earning and spending Boomerangs, the abandonment of any offline communication, attractive partners, efficient loyalty management and last but not least the one-time membership fee of 5 Euros are the key to success.

The fixed amount of 1,500 Boomerangs per segment, no matter on what route the passenger is travelling, guarantees simple processes in the background and the least complexity to understand for the customer. 93% of all members judge the program as easy to understand. Only the FlexFare tariff shows an exception as this tariff is eligible for a double Boomerang credit. Promotions are sometimes done in order to introduce new routes or to push certain destinations but are always held easy to communicate and at the same time limited to a certain booking period in order to avoid unnecessary give-aways for flights that would have been booked anyway or had already been booked ahead of a promotion.

The credit of Boomerangs generally depends not only on the flight date but also on the date of booking. Only flights booked after enrolment in the Boomerang Club are eligible which reduces the amount of give-aways for flights booked in any event independent from the membership.

The award flight being the only award is another example for the low cost principle of avoiding cash-out and keeping the program structure as simple as possible. Award flights are available on any route within the Germanwings network and are always available for the same amount of Boomerangs. The only limitations are a few general black-out dates and the booking lead-time of 7 days. 72% of all members assess the program as fair.

All Boomerang Club communication is deployed completely online. Program registration is possible exclusively on germanwings.com via the MyGermanwings login. Members access their account statement online and are informed about the account balance as well as current promotions and news via a regular email newsletter. More than 90% of all members consider our registration process to be " very easy" and accessing their Boomerang Club accounts to be a simple and intuitive. Membership cards are printed out by members themselves and is accessible in the membership section at any time. In addition to the online services a dedicated Boomerang Club Team in the Germanwings Call Center helps the member with retro-credits or any other service request. The hotline number is a chargeable 0 900 number in Germany.

Many Boomerang Club partners help to make to the program even more attractive by offering more opportunities to collect additional Boomerangs and to reach the award flight even faster. Most of the partners offer online-booking in order to keep the online focus of the program.

The small barrier of the membership fee ensures an extremely high activity rate of 70% within the program. No nominal members are willing to pay 5 Euro. At the same time the amount is not too high for private travellers. By charging the member fee the Boomerang Club has a solid financial basis and all investment costs have been compensated shortly after the program start.

Altogether the Boomerang Club has been established as a smart and successful program in the low-cost sector. The program will continuously be advanced by adding new program features, services and new partners while keeping it smart and simple.

Customer loyalty and low cost are not a contradiction. As long as the frequent flyer program is designed with simple structures, good customer service at justifiable prices and the least cash-out, it will be a profitable invest and the best method to win and retain customers and to differentiate from competitors. Although such a program does not offer status levels, different awards or additional services for the frequent flyer, it is a decisive factor in the booking decision when the different offers are comparable.

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