Etihad is known for elegance in the air — but its digital experience wasn’t quite flying at the same altitude. From booking to boarding, luxury travelers expected a journey that was seamless, personalised, and premium.

Our task: Make every digital interaction feel as effortless and elevated as the in-flight service.

What we did

We started with the people who matter most: high-value travellers. Hard to reach and harder to impress, we needed a research approach that respected their time and status.

• Handcrafted invites
• Private, in-person sessions in premium settings
• Senior researchers, bespoke sessions, and a concierge-like experience

These conversations gave us insight into what truly defines digital luxury — not excess, but ease.

Approach

We brought CX and UX together to ensure no detail was too small.

• CX mapped the full journey, capturing emotions and expectations from awareness to arrival.

• UX shaped each interaction to feel intuitive, responsive, and rewarding.
  Together, they helped us design not just what the product does — but how it feels.

What we built

• ✈️ Journey mapping led to a suite of personalised digital products
• 🎯 Content, recommendations, and offers tailored to each traveller's preferences
• 📲 Add-ons like private transfers and bespoke dining, surfaced dynamically at booking
• 🔁 Personalised flight suggestions for frequent flyers based on past travel
• 📊 Data-led insights embedded throughout the design and back-end systems

We didn’t stop at the surface. To make this vision real, we collaborated across strategy, operations, tech, and brand. We redefined service protocols and created new operating models to support the customer experience from within.

Results

• 💫 A seamless digital journey that matched the brand’s luxury promise
• 📈 25% YoY incremental revenue growth
• 🛍️ 50-point increase in booking engine conversion
• 💸 $400M in business impact over 5 years

Behind the scenes

I helped bridge the gap between vision and execution — leading research and design strategy, while aligning operating models and system integration behind the scenes. This was about more than good UX. It was about designing a luxury system, not just a luxury surface.