With Korean Air’s digital transformation, online bookings take flight

September 6, 2021

Last updated: November 2, 2021

3 Min read

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Yootae Jung

Principal General Manager, Distribution, Korean Air

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Korean Air is one of the world’s top 20 airlines in terms of passengers carried, and we like to think that travelers come to us because customer satisfaction is at the heart of everything we do.

Korean Air is one of the world’stop 20 airlines in terms of passengers carried, and we like to think that travelers come to us because customer satisfaction is at the heart of everything we do.

In the digital age, customer satisfaction doesn’t start in the airport or in the air, it starts online. That’s why in 2019, we marked our 50-year anniversary by partnering with Amadeus to start a digital transformation that would characterize the online experience with Korean Air, so we could better answer travelers’ needs and differentiate our airline from our competitors’. Our goal was to evolve our digital retailing to give travelers a unique inspiration and booking experience faster and more smoothly than ever before.

Over the course of several hackathons organized by/with Amadeus, we were able to test the capabilities of the Amadeus Digital Experience suite. It was just what we needed: flexible, scalable, and easy to use by developers. WithAmadeus Digital Commerce and Digital Developer Toolkit, experts across our business and technical teams were able to build, maintain and control the end-to-end traveler experience across all touchpoints and devices. What we appreciated as well is the agile development methodologies that would allow all of our stakeholders to work towards a common project more quickly and iteratively.

The result? In just one year, we completely revamped our website and mobile platform for booking and check-in across all digital channels and across all markets. Most notably, we created a “shopping cart-centered” online experience that allows logged-in users to save their cart, including flights and ancillaries, for weeks at a time, with automated pricing updates. That means travelers can restart their booking flow at any time, without starting from scratch, using any devices to complete their booking, or do modifications.

A further innovation with the shopping experience was the addition of the “Share Shopping Cart” feature. This allows people to share their travel plans with friends and followers using the KaKao Talk messaging feature.

Of course, optimized customer experience can’t come at the expense of speed. Travelers expect instant results, and we knew that faster response times improve conversion rates. WithAmadeus Instant Search , Korean Air could deliver accurate and dynamic prices and fare information during the inspirational stage of travel on our website. That means we can now create dynamic and unique landing pages, banners, and histograms for travelers with live and accurate fare information.

So how have all these changes transformed Korean Air’s digital experience for travelers? The proof is in the pudding. Our game-changing “Share Shopping Cart” feature significantly increased our social media presence and helped us better connect with millennials and Gen Z, who often get travel inspiration from their social feeds. Our booking funnel conversion rate increased by 5.5% and the average order value raised by 10%, while our response time has dropped.

Download our case study to learn more about how Korean Air transformed our digital experience for travelers and how it has improved our bottom line.

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