Fareportal is the first channel to integrate the new content, with ATPCO already launching the enhanced data for more than a dozen airlines
Have you ever wanted to know what that airline seat you’re hoping to purchase actually looks like? Sure, we may know how many inches of space the seat pitch is, or even that a seat comes with extra legroom, but not all seats are created equal, and consumers haven’t been able to easily decipher this in the flight shopping process—until now.
ATPCO has introduced an enhancement to its Routehappy UPAs (Universal Product Attributes), enabling airlines and sales channels to amplify their seat maps with highly targeted visuals matching the seats flight shoppers are selecting.
ATPCO’s Seat Characteristic Targeting for UPAs allows airlines and sales channels to visually highlight and display the different seat types within a cabin offered during and after the booking process, including extra legroom seats, exit row and bulkhead seats, preferred seats toward the front of the cabin, and even different types of business class seats. These visuals and associated text align with specific seat types using IATA seat characteristics codes.
Many airlines have mastered the art of showing these types of images on their direct channels, however, some third-party sales channels have understandably struggled to showcase multiple airlines' seats across different cabins and aircraft without having the proper targeting tools to handle the volume of airlines and seat options in a clear way for consumers to easily see their options. This is the exact reason ATPCO created Seat Characteristic Targeting for UPAs.
Fareportal, the travel technology company behind online travel agencies (OTAs) CheapOair and OneTravel is the first channel to integrate the highly targeted content on both of its OTA properties and is already seeing positive results and increased satisfaction from their shoppers. “We knew our customers wanted to better understand the types of seats they could purchase. When discussing the new content with ATPCO, we couldn’t wait to integrate this seat-level data onto our seat map. In only a few weeks, we have seen an uptick in ancillary seat purchases,” said Glenn Cusano, President at Fareportal.
Airlines utilizing the content are also seeing benefits. “We are happy to be able to offer the enhanced, visual seat information and content for our customers on even more sales partner touchpoints with this new solution,” said Dr. Björn Becker, Head of Future Intercontinental Experience at Lufthansa Group. “Customers always appreciate when they can better understand the offers, and we can already see this in significantly improved ASR [Advanced Seat Reservations] in sales channels we offer this enhanced content in.”
“This enhancement to UPAs equips passengers with the information necessary to select the seat that best suits their needs. Oftentimes when flight shopping, consumers are typically shown one image (if any) for an entire cabin, which doesn’t truly represent the differences between each seat type. With so many airlines investing in differentiating their fare brands and seat options, we knew there needed to be a way for shoppers to seamlessly and consistently view these images and associated data across platforms and seat maps, regardless of where they’re shopping. That is why we, as the industry’s neutral partner, invested in creating Seat Characteristic Targeting,” said Darie Dreptate, Routehappy Product Director at ATPCO. “Not only is this content what consumers want to see because it provides more accurate and compelling retailing content, but it is key to driving upsell, conversion, and increased customer satisfaction,” Dreptate continued.
Flight shoppers have made it clear that seat selection is one of the most important things to them, indicated by 83 percent of respondents in ATPCO’s 2024 Flight Shopper Survey who confirmed they have paid to select a seat when booking a flight. Another 80 percent of respondents reported that they prefer to see a visual of the seat when they are paying for seat selection.
UPAs featuring Seat Characteristic Targeting have launched on Air Canada, Cathay Pacific, Delta Air Lines, Gulf Air, Hawaiian Airlines, Iberia, ITA Airways, Lufthansa Group airlines (Lufthansa, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, Discover Airlines, SWISS), Solomon Airlines, TAP Air Portugal, and WestJet, with many more airlines in various stages of content creation.
ATPCO encourages all airlines and sales channels who want to learn more about Seat Characteristics UPAs, and UPAs in general, to get in touch for more information.
