Private aviation supplier and platform Wheels Up has refined its options to offer more “granularity in the pricing model” as well as more transparency around tracking savings and loyalty progress, the company announced Tuesday.Wheels Up can offer more a range of point-to-point pricing options that considers alternate airports, landing fees, fuel costs and potential aircraft repositioning, executives told BTN.”The company can look airport by airport and help a customer understand what is the best value for the route they want to take,” Wheels Up chief marketing officer Kristen Lauria said. “Now we can be more surgical and offer up price points per [origin and destination], essentially, so that’s going to provide more value to the customer,” Wheels Up chief commercial officer Dave Harvey said. “Envision a calendar view where you put your origination in and your destination and you can see the price point by day. That’s now much more specific.”Lauria gave an example of a customer who wants to fly from White Plains, N.Y., to Nantucket, Mass., but the system now can show that there might be a better fare option flying from nearby Teterboro, N.J. The company also plans to advance its dynamic pricing model, “much like the commercial aviation industry,” Wheels Up CEO George Mattson said. “If you’re flexible, you have the ability to pay a meaningfully different amount depending on when you’re willing and able to travel.”Mattson added that the private aviation industry has evolved slowly from fixed hourly rates. “At the same time, we ultimately want to run a more efficient operation,” he said. “Customers who need to fly at a certain time, it may be a more expensive time, but for those who have flexibility, they’ll be able to access our offering less expensive[ly].”Customers can access this added dynamic pricing through the website or app by selecting the “flexible plans” option, or when booking via phone. In addition, Wheels Up now shows to customers savings through the difference between their capped contractual flight rate and the market spot rate, Lauria said.”Now a member can go in and understand how many of their flights were price-protected and how many of their flights they [saved on] because they didn’t go above that cap,” Lauria said. For on-demand charters, customers also can see their progress with loyalty earnings, Lauria added. Customers that complete $50,000 worth of flights receive 2 percent savings back, and if they complete $125,000 worth of flights, they get Delta Air Lines Diamond Medallion status, “and they can track how much they’ve spent with us and how close they are to hitting those points.”Wheels Up in June also announced a streamlining of its product model, which took place July 17.
