0:00 - Introduction • 0:39 - on key trends post-COVID • 3:17 - on approach to non-airline partnerships • 6:45 - on Miles & Smiles integration into Turkish Airlines app • 7:41 - on opportunities in the next 18 to 24 months • 9:41 - on Emerging Markets • 10:50 - Magic Wand • 12:03 - Advice to younger self
(Image Source)
GLO
0:00 – Introduction
0:39 – on key trends post-COVID
3:17 – on approach to non-airline partnerships
6:45 – on Miles & Smiles integration into Turkish Airlines app
7:41 – on opportunities in the next 18 to 24 months
9:41 – on Emerging Markets
10:50 – Magic Wand
12:03 – Advice to younger self
Read the full transcript below.
0:00
GLO: Nuran, it’s a pleasure to meet you here at the World Aviation Festival. The Miles & Smiles programme was one of the first members of Global Loyalty Organisation. So it’s a special pleasure to interview you.
Nuran Erdag Haberdar, Marketing and Partnerships Manager, Miles & Smiles (Turkish Airlines): I’m Nuran, Miles & Smiles Marketing and Partnerships Manager and I have been working for Turkish Airlines for about 10 years, all of them at Miles & Smiles. And I’m so happy to be a loyalty person and a loyal person to her brands.
GLO 0:39
Looking at 2023 what are the trends you are seeing within the loyalty industry? What are the major themes at Miles & Smiles this year?
Nuran Erdag Haberdar, Marketing and Partnerships Manager, Miles & Smiles (Turkish Airlines): In the past, we viewed loyalty as only accrual and redemption. But when you see the power of Turkish Airlines today—Turkish Airlines is a super-connector for all of the world—our responsibility changed and is no longer accrual and redemption only. We are trying to touch our members’ hearts and be part of their daily lives. For example, last year, we sponsored the Bosphorus Cup, and currently, we are sponsoring Contemporary Istanbul. We focus our support on the hobbies of our members because we care about their experiences. I see other loyalty programmes that are doing the same.
GLO 1:50
Lifestyle focus has been very much at the forefront, especially since COVID. If you look forward to next year, what kind of initiatives are you planning?
Nuran Erdag Haberdar, Marketing and Partnerships Manager, Miles & Smiles (Turkish Airlines): As you said, after COVID, our predictions changed. Before COVID, we were just reporting our travelers’ flights, like business and leisure. As you remember, during COVID people said that aviation was just finished. But now we are seeing that people are travelling much more than before COVID. Next year, we will not only focus on their travel decisions (flights) but on their entire travel experiences. So just imagine that during your journey, you first leave your home, so you need a transfer. In an airport, you need Fasttrack and you need a much more comfortable experience. When you arrive, you need a concierge, a rental car and accommodation. We focus on the complete travel experience and remind our members of their privileges.
GLO 3:17
You are responsible for Miles & Smiles non-airline partnerships. What is your approach to partnerships?
Nuran Erdag Haberdar, Marketing and Partnerships Manager, Miles & Smiles (Turkish Airlines): As you said earlier, we want to be part of our members’ daily lives, such as by offering co-brand cards. Our focus is not only on airline partnerships; we have lots of non-airline partnerships. Today, Miles & Smiles works with more than 200 different brands, including banks, hotels, rental cars, petrol stations, and supermarkets. A normal passenger, if they are not flying for business, flies two or three times a year but they’re using their cards in their daily life to visit supermarkets, shops, etc. We are working to grow the non-airline partnerships for Miles & Smiles. As you know, we have our Shop & Miles e-commerce website. On the redemption side, we are also trying to give more options to our members. Today, we are present in 11 different countries. In Turkey, our partnerships range from Amazon to Airbnb and Starbucks—lots of popular brands with which our members interact daily. Our aim is to be part of our members lives 24/7.
GLO 5:08
This is good to hear, and this is what we’re hearing from our other members and airline partners as well: daily spending, earn-and burn capabilities, the rise of partnerships, and the growth of the ecosystem. Turkish Airlines’ Miles & Smiles program is very well-established and well-known in Turkey. It’s the largest loyalty programme. What is your approach to partnerships outside of Turkey? You just mentioned you’re already present in 11 countries.
Nuran Erdag Haberdar, Marketing and Partnerships Manager, Miles & Smiles (Turkish Airlines): We have more than 17 million members in the world. We have co-brand partnerships in Azerbaijan, Israel and Jordan. For this year and next year, we will increase the number of our co-brand partnerships with banks. Already, we have 21 different bank agreements in the world for mileage conversion models. We will continue to roll out Shop & Miles to more countries. For now, Turkey, the USA, the UK, Germany and other European countries are our priorities. Then we will move to hopefully 128 different countries that Turkish Airlines flies to. We have members in each of these countries, and we will try to offer some non-air privileges to our members in every country.
GLO 6:45
Miles & Smiles has recently updated their app and relaunched it. Can you tell us about your journey and the improvements you made? What is the digital experience like for your members now?
Nuran Erdag Haberdar, Marketing and Partnerships Manager, Miles & Smiles (Turkish Airlines): We just moved all Miles & Smiles activities into our Turkish Airlines app, because we know that our members and our passengers are using our Turkish Airlines application. And now, similar to Instagram, you can see Miles & Smiles. In these stories, you will get the news from our non-air partners, the campaigns and the offers. We are very happy with the initial feedback and will increase these kinds of offers via our application.
GLO 7:41
We’ve been hearing here at the World Aviation Festival that loyalty programmes were a very important and integral part of airlines’ interactions with their members, especially throughout the pandemic, as it helped them to stay in touch with their members and to stay at the forefront of their thoughts. If you look into 2024, what other opportunities do you see for the Miles & Smiles programme?
Nuran Erdag Haberdar, Marketing and Partnerships Manager, Miles & Smiles (Turkish Airlines): We see the effect of it internally and externally. Specifically for Turkish Airlines, as you know, it’s the flag carrier, and Turkish Airlines is a huge company today, flying to 129 countries. For next year, we feel that Miles & Smiles will be at the forefront because we will engage the passengers again and again with the loyalty program. But as we explained, it will not be related only to accrual and redemption. We should do something much more specific and much, much more special for our members. As you know, each loyalty program has tiers, like we have Classic, Classic Plus, Elite and Elite Plus tiers. We know our members individually, and we are trying to introduce and offer some new experiences, hopefully priceless experiences, to our members to entice them to try our new Turkish Airlines flights. Because we won’t fill flights only through frequency and destination loyalty, Miles & Smiles will play an important role.
GLO 9:41
You have mentioned that you are focusing on growing partnerships outside of Turkey, focusing more on the large developed markets. What about emerging markets? Is there anywhere you’re looking at emerging markets?
Nuran Erdag Haberdar, Marketing and Partnerships Manager, Miles & Smiles (Turkish Airlines): Of course, they’re on our list, by the way. But it is different from Turkish Airlines actual path. Because loyalty paths are being shaped according to membership. If, for example, we choose a country where we don’t have enough Miles & Smiles members, the non-air and co-brand partnerships will not be effective when compared with Turkey, the US and the UK. For emerging countries, our aim is to increase our membership numbers, which is supported by our general managers and local managers. When we feel that we have reached critical membership levels, we go for non-air partnerships and activities.
GLO 10:50
Thank you so much for sharing your insights about the Miles & Smiles program. At the Global Loyalty Organisation, it has become a little bit of a tradition that we ask our interviewees two personal questions. The first question is: if you had a magic wand and could invent any loyalty feature you would like for your Miles & Smiles program without budget restrictions, what would you invent?
Nuran Erdag Haberdar, Marketing and Partnerships Manager, Miles & Smiles (Turkish Airlines): I would invent something related to families and friends because I’m getting lots of questions and requests: “Nuran, I have this right, these privileges, but can I use it for my friends? Can I use it for my sister, for my brother, etc.?” Of course, we have family membership, but still, there are some rules. Since you said that you don’t have any budget limits, I will just increase the number of these kinds of privileges to offer loyalty experiences to our members and to their loved ones.
GLO 12:03
Imagine talking to your younger self starting out in the airline industry. Knowing what you know now about marketing, partnerships, and loyalty, if you were able to give yourself one piece of advice, what would it be?
Nuran Erdag Haberdar, Marketing and Partnerships Manager, Miles & Smiles (Turkish Airlines): To keep questioning. Most of the time, markets and companies just work with benchmarks. If you want to invent something, you just look to other brands for inspiration, right? But sometimes it is not related to a benchmark. You can do something different. It doesn’t have to be related to a benchmark. So my advice would be to broaden my imagination and to question everything.
