Etihad Guests Woos India With 5 India-First Partners

In yet another example of the power of the Indian consumer, Etihad Airways, headquartered in Abu Dhabi, has strengthened its loyalty programme, Etihad Guest, with five India-first partners. While these partnerships mirror a similar portfolio of partners in Abu Dhabi, the aim is to offer a proposition for everybody—should people choose to go down that luxury path, it is available to them. Etihad Guest and BOBCARD will launch a new co-branded credit card that offers travel and lifestyle benefits for Indian travellers.

Etihad Guest members staying at any Postcard property will earn miles. Flipkart users can exchange their Supercoins for Etihad Guest Miles to redeem on a flight and vice versa. Etihad Guest members will immediately benefit from six months complimentary Swiggy One membership. They can opt in to enjoy a one-year complimentary Platinum status in the Shoppers Stop First Citizen loyalty programme. In the coming months, they will also be able to turn their shopping into flights by earning Etihad Guest Miles on spending with Shoppers Stop India.

Each of these partnerships aims to strengthen India as the 20-year-old Etihad Guest’s fastest-growing international market, which now boasts more than 13 million members worldwide. Potter Mark Potter, MD, Etihad Guest, shares, “We saw 24% growth in the programme numbers last year in India alone. I would think that India is probably going to become our biggest base once we've got through the next 12 months.” He shares more insight into their plans.

Etihad Guest is completing 20 years this year. What has the journey been like? 

Completing 20 years is a great achievement and we're very proud of that. Later this year, we will celebrate our 20th anniversary. Etihad Guest has grown significantly, particularly in the last three or four years. We're adding about 250,000 new members to the programme every month, which is six new members every minute. It obviously shows that the proposition we're putting in the market is exciting. India is the fastest-growing country in the programme. So, that's why we're equally excited about our announcement.

What is your elevator pitch to enrol in the Etihad Guest program? 

If you think about it, the program has a fantastic host, Etihad flies to 11 destinations here in India with 185 flights a week and great connectivity to US and Europe.  The second part is that we're fully aware that we've got this great base of members who have been loyal to us for a while. When we did the benchmarking against some of our other competing programs, we certainly saw that there were opportunities for us to take a leading approach in terms of offering more to them. We’ve rolled out the first set of associations, we'll have a brick-and-mortar retail proposition, and we'll have an extension of our hotel portfolio in the future. That means that any time you're transacting in your everyday life, Etihad Guest can reward you.

What is the strategy behind partnering with brands like Swiggy, Flipkart and Shopper Stop for Etihad Guest? 

The relationships we're building and the propositions we're putting into the market are either best in class or first in the market. We’re proud of the fact that we can move with agility and also be innovative. When we looked at the partners that we wanted to onboard, obviously, there are the core elements that make loyalty programs very successful—credit cards and everyday earned partners are a tried-and-tested solution. In India, we went after homegrown relationships. We were able to bring relevant partners, and at the same time, these partnerships will bring the Etihad Guest programmes into everyday Indian members' lives.

What are the benefits Indian fliers are going to get from these Etihad Guest partnerships?

These new loyalty partners aren't just your traditional generic earn miles on spend. So, the credit card portfolio will have a fast track to certain tiers and will have spend thresholds and bonuses that will be integrated. We firmly believe that we need to have a differentiation. On the products like Swiggy and Shopper Stop, we're going to give all our Etihad Guest members a Swiggy One membership or the Platinum membership of Shopper Stop. Instead of the cookie-cutter solution of earn miles on spends, we took a different tact where we're giving people that kind of experience that we want them to experience.