In Frequent Flyer Programs, special privileges and benefits have always been associated with an elite tier membership, which to be obtained usually requires loyalty program members to fulfill more and more higher conditions, like number of flights flown and distance covered during a qualification period. For many members getting those privileges and benefits are the key reason why they participate in the program, even more important than potential rewards to achieve, it is worth considering making those available for them in the easier way. Taking also into consideration the rising number of non-frequent travelers that fly only a few times a year and the increasing importance of the travel experience, especially for millennials. It becomes clear that giving members a chance for free improvement with their travel conditions by allowing them to choose some of the privileges like extra baggage or fast track would be a significant improvement to the program proposition.

This opportunity has been spotted by the Norwegian Rewards team who has introduced in their program a unique offer to their members, where after each sixth flights they can choose from a pool of available benefits that suites them best.

Inspired by their client, Comarch has implemented in the Loyalty Management platform the Selectable Benefits functionality which supports both models – benefits related with elite tiers and the possibility to reward members with benefits without or outside elite tiers scheme. The following features are included in the Comarch system:

• Benefit auto-activation - when a member reaches a defined elite tier. It allows to set a rule for example all Silver members can take an extra free bag.
• Benefit preselection - members can automatically preselect a benefit before he/she is eligible to obtain benefits like Silver member preselects benefits dedicated for Gold members, so those become automatically active when the member is upgraded to Gold.
• Multi vs Single Use benefits - some of the benefits can be chosen multiple times (like cabin class upgrade vouchers) while other can be chosen only once in a defined period.
• Changeable benefits - members can change a benefit for another one after some period from its activation.

The idea supported by its implementation was noticed on the Loyalty Awards 2017 conference organized by Global Flight where Norwegian Reward loyalty program won the Award for Excellence in Management for the introduction of threshold benefits after each six flights within a year.