Disrupting AirAsia’s Loyalty Programme and the Future of Our Loyalty Points

By Spencer Lee, CEO at AirAsia BIG Loyalty

Alluring, exotic and life-changing… travel has always been seen as something aspirational. The idea of experiencing the world, viewing far-flung or exotic destinations, knowing that you are far from everything you know, can be wildly exciting, even life-changing.

For these reasons and many more, it often tops the list of Things I Want to Do, and AirAsia is poised to help with AirAsia BIG.

Once known as the AirAsia BIG Loyalty Programme, it’s been through a digital transformation that goes above and beyond the simple concept of frequent flyer points. For AirAsia, our BIG Points have always been popular among our Guests – who wouldn’t want to collect ‘miles’ that you can redeem against your next trip? 

With AirAsia BIG, members get to enjoy a multitude of perks on a single platform. This includes using BIG Points to redeem trips to over 150 AirAsia destinations and priority access to AirAsia’s BIG sale; members also get to redeem flights with fixed points based on the number of hours flown. 

However, we’re big believers in disruption and innovations so we started looking at ways to improve on it, and we decided to change things up by opening up more revenue to partners beyond just our own airline. 

Today, there are multiple channels for Guests to earn BIG Points – by using the services of our Travel Partners; by spending with our Lifestyle Partners; and through Point Conversion from banks and other conversion partners.

The latter, also known as BIG Xchange, allows the accumulation of points scattered across disparate brands and platforms under one consolidated AirAsia BIG account, effectively turning it into currency. 

This evolution of BIG Points into digital currency is a significant breakthrough as it’s common for today’s consumer to have bonus points parked with one or more credit card company, or with loyalty programmes under separate brands, with redemption options that may or may not be relevant for them with the result that these points remain unutilised. 

Not any more – with BIG Xchange, Guests can just convert them into BIG Points and spend them on airasia.com against future travels or with our wide range of lifestyle partners. 

The Future of BIG Points

The days of conventional loyalty programmes, with their basic, single-channel model of spend-and-get, are gone. In its place are multi-channel, interconnected platforms enabling seamless, frictionless digital transactions.  

BIG Points are as good as cash. You can use them to redeem not just flights but also pay for other bookings on airasia.com, such as tours, activities and even daily lifestyle deals like F&B and spa treatments, so you can enjoy more savings on top of low flight fares.

This self-perpetuating cycle is a win-win situation for AirAsia BIG, rewarding our Guests with more opportunities to travel and experience things, and our partners, who receive greater exposure and footfalls from over 22 million BIG members. 

Connected, flexible and convenient, BIG Points makes everything even more accessible now than ever before, acting as the digital currency that gives our Guests the freedom to experience every opportunity from travel to daily activities. 

All this is accomplished in one seamless platform, airasia.com, the ideal platform where Guests shop and plan. With this step in our ongoing digital journey, we move ever onwards to being #MoreThanJustAnAirline, as digital innovations like these bring us closer to our mission which is – as always – to create a value-added, more enriching experience for our Guests.