Planies launches airBaltic Club into the world of NFT loyalty

Subscription products are a booming segment of the airline industry. Sprinkle in a dash of Web3 and airBaltic Plan The NFT collection comes to life.

The program, which was first teased earlier this year, is now live. And with that, the smart contracts and passive earnings that CEO Martin Gauss is keen to see change the carrier’s loyalty program.

By offering additional benefits such as bonus points or certain coupons, we provide added value to collectors. It is the first step towards preparing our loyalty program for crypto-tokenization in the future.

– Martin Gauss, CEO of airBaltic

The Planie collection consists of 10,000 NFTs minted on the Ethereum blockchain. Members of the airBaltic Club loyalty program can get them for $100 each.

Once linked to an account, holding Planie will earn a member 20 points per day. In addition, passengers have the opportunity to earn a business class upgrade voucher after taking ten flights while holding a Planie.

Read more: A blockchain loyalty revolution, led by airBaltic

In an interview during the summer, Gauss was clear that the Planie program should provide a reasonable return to consumers. “If you do nothing, you’ll get at least three tickets over three years,” Gauss explained. “It is a real value. If you invest in that NFT, you should at least get your money back.”

The math on that return is a bit fuzzy, but seems to work for the most part. The AirBaltic Club rewards program offers fixed prices starting at 4,000 points (200 days of holding a Planie) up to 16,000 points for the longest trips in economy class. For those who only want to withdraw the direct $100 value (ie via gift cards for fares) it will take 833 days to reach the goal. The flexible redemption options, including for additional products, also increase the value. For those who fly the airline regularly, the upgrade voucher may be a more compelling factor.

A big first step

Getting the loyalty integration launched is a big step for airBaltic, which handles the development entirely internally. But that is also only the first step. Gauss sees this as part of a much larger turning point for the program.

The potential tokenomics of frequent flyer points gives you a whole new way of looking at what you can do with points, allowing them to be exchanged not only for Ether, but any other currency where a swap is possible.

If I give you when you fly or otherwise interact with us something of real value, not just a limited value to redeem with the airline, I think we’re entering new territory for the frequent flyer program.

Not only could the points be exchanged for other currencies, but Gauss envisions a scenario where entire accounts are traded on the open market. “You cannot transfer your frequent flyer card to someone else today. You can in the future do that if it is an NFT. This is not something we do yet, but why not? You have a card. You have earned all of this. It has value. Why not? It’s provocative.”

Read more: airBaltic ups the NFT loyalty game

Of course, the airline will only allow such transactions if it also benefits from it. Gauss sees alternatives there as well. Most notably, he expects to configure the loyalty account’s NFTs to pay out royalties on every transaction. Yes, you can eventually sell your elite status to another customer. But airBaltic will take a cut, as will OpenSea to process the transaction.

But why blockchain?

Very little of what is being proposed requires a blockchain to work. Subscription-based earning certainly doesn’t. It also does not transfer the account to a new owner or charge customers for the various activities. And blockchain-based transactions are generally quite expensive today.

Gauss expects that costs will eventually fall sufficiently to make this pivot affordable. And that countless other back-office transactions will eventually be collected into the blockchain world. Ultimately, he sees a lower cost of running the entire airline thanks to this shift. However, the details are still quite unclear about it.