Flying Reimagined
by Etihad Airways
DISCIPLINES
Product Design · UX Research · Service Design
METHODOLOGY
Design Thinking · Design Studio · Lean UX
PROJECT TYPE
B2C · Travel · Scale
24M
increase in ancillary revenue through contextual service recommendations.
31%
increase in ancillary upsell across the passenger journey.
18%
reduction in cancellations through self-serve itinerary management.
● CONTEXT
Elevating Travel
Experiences
Etihad Airways identified ancillary services as an opportunity to both improve the passenger experience and create new revenue streams. Services such as extra legroom, inflight meals, priority boarding, and lounge access allow travellers to personalise their journey based on their needs.
The challenge was making these services easy to discover, understand, and purchase without adding unnecessary complexity to the travel experience. Features like fare lock, seat changes, and flight modification each touched a different moment in the journey.
.This project focused on designing a more seamless and personalised experience that helped passengers get more value from their journey while supporting Etihad's business goals.
PROBLEM
What was broken?
Ancillary services were hard to discover at the right moment. Passengers missed relevant offers both during booking and after purchase, and the checkout flow added friction instead
of removing it.
PERSONA
Who did we design for?
Passengers managing their journey across multiple touchpoints — from initial booking through to departure. Looking for relevant travel extras but easily overwhelmed by choices presented at the wrong moment.
HYPOTHESIS
What did we believe?
If ancillary services were contextually presented at the right moment in the journey, passengers would purchase more of them, increasing revenue while improving the travel experience.
Business goals
Revenue and profit growth
Metrics
Net profit margin
Sales revenue
Conversion rate
CHAPTER #1 - MEET THE TEAM
Workshop
Transform the flight booking process into a seamless daily routine that reduces stress by providing comprehensive information about flights and ancillary services at every stage of the journey. Facilitate an effortless and intuitive experience by integrating a user-friendly mechanism that allows easy addition of ancillaries to the itinerary at every step of the process.
CHAPTER #2 - PAYMENT MODEL
Shopping cart functionality
Make the flight booking process part of your daily routine and reduce anxiety by providing detailed information about the flight and ancillary options at every step of the process. Streamline the experience by implementing a simple and intuitive way to seamlessly add ancillaries to your itinerary as you progress through each stage of the booking flow.
CHAPTER #2 - PAYMENT MODEL
Shopping cart functionality
Make the flight booking process part of your daily routine and reduce anxiety by providing detailed information about the flight and ancillary options at every step of the process. Streamline the experience by implementing a simple and intuitive way to seamlessly add ancillaries to your itinerary as you progress through each stage of the booking flow.
Learnings & Challenges
The backend complexity hiding under the surface. Price freeze, post-purchase seat changes, full flight modification — each feature required coordinating separate systems that weren't designed to talk to each other.
The client's certainty. Etihad came in confident they understood their passengers. Getting space to let research challenge those assumptions required as much skill as the design work itself.
Treating commercial logic and UX as one problem. Understanding when to sell — not just what to sell — changed how every touchpoint was sequenced.
● LET'S WORK TOGETHER
Got a project?
Let's talk.
andpon - Andrzej Poniatowski
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