Airlines' Loyalty Programme

The Challenge

Etihad Guest operated as a standalone loyalty site, disconnected from Etihad.com. Members needed to juggle two platforms to earn miles, check tiers, or redeem benefits — leading to high friction, low engagement, and missed revenue.

This wasn’t just a UX issue — it was a strategic gap in Etihad’s digital vision.

My role

I was brought in to lead the UX transformation — to create a seamless, engaging, and revenue-driving experience that integrated loyalty deep into the core travel journey.

This wasn’t just a design challenge — it was a strategic shift in how the business treated loyalty. And my goal was to bring that shift to life through thoughtful UX, stakeholder alignment, and measurable impact.

My Role

Lead Product Designer

UX domains

Strategy & Execution

Facilitation

Loyalty Engagement

Duration

1 Year

Macro business goal

Increase loyalty member engagement and retention to drive lifetime value and repeat revenue.

Micro goals I defined

Micro Goal 1 Drive new sign-ups with less friction

Micro Goal 2 Boost reward redemptions and upsells

Micro Goal 3 Increase awareness of tier progress

Micro Goal 4 Encourage repeat bookings through loyalty

Micro Goal 5 Deliver a simplified, value-focused experience

A preview of the existing website

- Navigation is overloaded with two rows, causing scanning fatigue.
- Too many equal options lead to choice paralysis and drop-offs.

Journey diagnosis - Finding the leaks

To begin, I led a comprehensive touchpoint analysis across Etihad Guest and Etihad.com. Charted key journeys across platforms to identify UX disconnects.

See in detail

Process

Deep dive

Behavioral Analytics Review

Partnered with the Analytics team to extract insights from Google Analytics and Hotjar. Reviewed bounce rates, exit paths, and drop-off points.

User Research via Etihad Panel & Maze

Conducted interviews and task-based Maze studies with frequent flyers and new members from Etihad’s loyalty panel - Captured key pain points, usability blockers, scroll depths, and mental model mismatches

Benchmarked competitors

like Emirates Skywards and Qatar Airways to identify strategic UX and engagement gaps

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Top pain points identified

Issue

Loyalty flows hidden or disconnected

Redemption process redirected to external site

No real-time tier feedback

Redundant content

Mobile layout issues

Impact

Users didn’t engage — they dropped off

Frustration = abandoned actions

Members unaware of progress or perks

Confusion, search fatigue, SEO impact

Drop-offs on small-screen journeys

This wasn’t just a UX problem — it was a revenue drain. People couldn’t find value in the loyalty program, and Etihad couldn’t capture potential growth.

Strategy Framework — Mapping Goals to Impact

I created a Goals-to-Impact Map to align user needs with business outcomes.

For each goal, I mapped:

The user behaviors we wanted to influence
Pain points preventing those behaviors
Design or content opportunities to address them

This strategic map became our north star. It changed conversations from “What should we build?” to “What should we solve?”

See the map

Aligning teams around the right problem

I brought 18+ stakeholders across product, loyalty, content, dev, SEO, and analytics into a 2-day workshop.

We watched real users struggle on screen.
We mapped every micro goal to actual user moments.
Then we ran How Might We framing to move from pain → opportunity.

“I finally see how loyalty can show up naturally — not as another platform, but right in the booking journey.” - Key stakeholder

See in detail

Information architecture and Ideation

Before jumping into design, I redesigned the information architecture (IA) to eliminate redundancy, enhance discoverability, and create a cohesive flow between Etihad.com and the loyalty program.

Content Audit

Reviewed 40+ loyalty pages using Screaming Frog and GA4 to map traffic, duplication, and abandonment rates.

Card sorting

Conducted remote open card sort (using Maze) with 15 real members across tiers (Bronze to Gold) to understand how users mentally grouped benefits, earning methods, and redemptions.

Sitemap redesign

Reorganized pages into a simplified, user-centered structure:From: Fragmented silos (earn, spend, tiers scattered)To: Centralized themes (Join, Earn, Spend, Progress, FAQs)

Labelling and navigation

Rewrote menu labels for clarity and actionability (e.g., “Compare Tiers” instead of “Membership Table”).Added deep links in high-traffic transactional flows (e.g., check-in → “Use miles for seat upgrade”).

See IA iterations

Design execution

I led the full wireframing, prototyping, and testing process while managing 2 other designers.

What I Designed

Loyalty dashboard: miles, tier, benefits
In-booking loyalty perks & miles prompts
Embedded redemption tiles with filters
Gamified tier tracker
Loyalty-infused booking & check-in flows
Integrated mobile-first layouts

I created responsive wireframes in Figma for both mobile and desktop and conducted weekly usability reviews with internal teams and loyalty members.

Wireframes

See all wireframes

Visual explorations

See all explorations

See the prototype

Design execution

What I Designed

Loyalty dashboard: miles, tier, benefits
In-booking loyalty perks & miles prompts
Embedded redemption tiles with filters
Gamified tier tracker
Loyalty-infused booking & check-in flows
Integrated mobile-first layouts

See handoff designs

Formative evaluations

To avoid costly late-stage pivots, I applied formative evaluation throughout the design phase — testing ideas early, often, and in context.

Wireframe Reviews

Weekly 1:1 sessions with 5 frequent flyers (Etihad’s internal research panel) to review clickable low-fidelity wireframes in Maze.

Usability testing

Ran 3 rounds of remote moderated tests via Maze for:

Loyalty dashboard comprehension
Redemption flow ease
Tier tracker motivation clarity

Design System Intergration

I didn’t reinvent the wheel — instead, I created modular components (cards, tiles, tabs, trackers) that plugged seamlessly into Etihad’s existing design system.

This ensured: