Delta Air Lines is rolling out a new onboard digital experience which aims to curate personalized content and offers based on the customer’s individual journey, as well as their relationship with Delta, which will be recorded through their SkyMiles frequent flyer account.
The platform is known as Delta Sync Exclusives which, in a nutshell, is the front page that passengers will see when they access inflight WiFi via their own device like a mobile phone, tablet or laptop.
First unveiled at CES 2023 in Las Vegas back in January, Delta is hoping to drive loyalty and brand sentiment by delivering personalized content recommendations and offers with premium brand partners like American Express, Paramount+ and the New York Times.
The platform is still currently being tested, albeit with real customers on select aircraft, although Delta hopes to have the experience rolled out across its network throughout the summer.
“Delta Sync Exclusives is an entirely new platform for entertainment and discovery designed to elevate the experience for every customer,” explains Ranjan Goswami, Delta’s senior vice president of customer experience design.
“Customers deserve a journey that feels seamlessly fit for them, and that means delivering meaningful, personalized and relevant touch points in compelling new ways.”
How Delta plans to do this by delivering an inflight website experience with two main options. The first delivers entertainment choices and offers from select brand partners, while the second provides personalized trip information, including the option to make restaurant reservations through Resy and destination videos provided by Atlas Obscura.
At launch, Delta’s managed to get Paramount+ onboard to offer a free trial and the ability to immediately steam the channel’s entire collection. There’s also content from New York Times Games and offers from T-Mobile and American Express.
Goswami promises additional content and offers as the rollout progresses, although the airline hasn’t yet provided any clues as to who it might partner with next.
“As we refine and enhance Delta Sync Exclusives in the months ahead, our goal is to build a platform that is familiar, evermore personalized and helpful that customers can come back to across their journey,” Goswami explained.
“We make a habit of listening, learning and innovating based on what we hear from customers about the experiences that make travel on Delta unique and rewarding.”
The launch of Delta Sync Exclusives was, perhaps, overshadowed by the airline’s announcement that it would start offering free high-speed WiFi access to passengers signed up to Delta SkyMiles across its entire domestic mainline fleet.
The new platform relies on Delta’s ability to serve free and fast WiFi as promised, although Goswami reassures that the new experience will be available on 540 aircraft flying domestically by July.
And if everything goes to plan, by the end of the year, more than 700 domestic mainline aircraft will offer free WiFi and Delta Sync Exclusives. It will take until the end of 2024, however, until Delta manages to equip its long-haul fleet with free WiFi.
If the wifi is reliable, we don’t need curated content. Most of us know how to access the content we want on the internet.