Travel & Hospitality Intelligence · 2025-04-03 · 7 min
This episode explores how travel and hospitality brands are increasingly partnering to create seamless loyalty and rewards experiences for customers - citing examples like Uber-Delta Sky Miles integration and Delta-Starbucks collaborations that capitalize on touchpoints already embedded in passenger journeys. Azari Jones, who leads JD Power's Passenger View product, explains why these partnerships resonate: they consolidate fragmented reward programs into unified experiences that passengers actually want.
The bulk of the conversation focuses on Passenger View's product roadmap, particularly the addition of social media review integration using machine learning to synthesize customer sentiment from Google Reviews and other platforms. This enhancement enables airport operators and hospitality brands to capture feedback in real time - not just from on-site surveys but from passengers reflecting on their experience days later on social channels. Jones emphasizes the shift from reactive problem-solving to proactive experience design: airports can now track satisfaction signals as they happen and optimize non-aeronautical revenue opportunities (retail, dining, amenities) by understanding what drives passenger comfort and spending. A webinar is planned to showcase Passenger View capabilities through case studies.
Social media review integration using machine learning to automatically pull and synthesize Google Reviews and other social media feedback, allowing airports to see both immediate survey data and retrospective passenger commentary from days after their visit.
Partnership programs consolidate multiple reward streams into a single experience, meeting passenger demand to earn loyalty points across their entire travel journey rather than managing fragmented programs with individual companies.
Real-time feedback allows airports to quickly identify which amenities, services, and comfort factors drive passenger satisfaction and spending, enabling faster adjustments to retail, dining, and infrastructure offerings rather than waiting for retrospective data.
JD Power is hosting a webinar featuring product demos and case studies from both Passenger View and syndicated clients to show how the platform drives customer experience improvements and answer questions from prospective partners.
Computed from the transcript - who did the talking, and the words that came up most.
Azari Jones shares some of the exciting new enhancements to J.D. Power Passenger View, including the integration of social media listening tools!
Transcribed and scored by The B2B Podcast Index.
Speaker A: Welcome to the JD Power Travel and Hospitality Podcast. I'm Sarah Baggett with the marketing department, joined today with our subject matter expert, Azari Jones. Azari, welcome to the pod.
Speaker B: Hey Sarah, how are you doing today?
Speaker A: Doing great. Well, we have a lot of cool topics to dive into that I'm excited to get started with. Um, lately we've seen some announcements from companies like Uber and Delta that there are some partnerships where folks can get rewards, you know, maybe through Uber, maybe through Delta with Sky Miles, that sort of a thing. And I just wanted to pick your brain a little bit, Azari. Do you feel like that is a trend that we're going to be seeing in the travel industry moving forward?
Speaker B: Yeah, I think that more companies are going to team up together and offer, uh, to enhance the customer experience. I think that we're no longer just looking at transportation or hotels, everything being isolated, but, but more so about things being more, uh, so an experience. So when I think about, uh, so many other options like Hilton and Lyft or like Delta, uh, does a great job. It looks like with just with Starbucks and other things that, you know, you're already in the airport getting Starbucks, you're already getting Starbucks on your daily routine. Why not go ahead and help them earn Sky Miles and make sure, you know, more loyal to a, uh, brand once you see brand partnerships together. So I think it also helps to personalize the experience. Experience as well. And I know that's, you know, what people look for when they travel. They just don't want to, um, have so many reward, uh, you know, here and there. They want to combine them together. So, yeah, it's definitely going to be something we're going to continue to see as we become more innovative in the industry.
Speaker A: It sounds like it's exciting for customers. You know, it's something they can really enjoy. Like you say they're already in the airport getting that Starbucks or catching that Uber home from their flight. So it seems like a natural partnership. So.
Speaker B: Right, right. And m. It makes the most sense. And then like I said, it seems like it's created with the passenger or customer in mind. And that's always a great experience. Especially in the travel industry. We're very, very people focused. So in hospitality industry, very people focused. So, um, this is a great way for, um, uh, not only companies, but for passengers too.
Speaker A: Absolutely. Well, you know, speaking of being people focused, uh, we do have a product here at J.D. power, J.D. power passenger view, which we've talked about a little bit on the podcast. Um, but I know that there's been some exciting, some additions, uh, some things to look forward to. Could you keep us in the loop and tell us a little bit about that?
Speaker B: Yeah. So Passenger View, um, is one of the products that I lead here at J.D. power and I really really love Passenger View because one of the most exciting things about it is the real time data, the real time information you get. We're in this era where people, you know, executives want to know right away what's wrong, what can we do in the short term to improve um, passenger experiences? Because it's not, it's no longer just about showing up at the airport. Um, it's about okay, what can we do to um, want them to spend more time there, get their arrive early and spend um, like a little destination. So we're adding a couple of new things. Uh, one of the big additions this year will be social media. Uh, and what that means is pretty much Google reviews, social uh, media reviews. We're going to be able to pull those in to the platform so we can use um, m Machine learning, uh, to decipher new things. You uh, may see something similar like when you're on Amazon and you see a um, review that's kind of been uh, combined with everyone's reviews. Like most customers say this fits really well. Some say it's a little long but overall great things, yada yada yada. Same thing with Passenger View. We're really excited about adding that aspect um, so that our customers now can see the why picture. Not just who was in your airport that day, but also somebody that was there to two weeks ago that may not have taken the WI FI survey and what they thought about their experience and things that we can catch along the way. Um, because people do rush to social media to tell a great experience or a bad experience and we want to capture that information.
Speaker A: It's really exciting that social media is being integrated into that platform. That's going to be a game changer.
Speaker B: Yeah, for sure. I don't think 10 years ago we would have ever thought we would be here because I remember when um, certain platforms used to have to text to get on them. Now there's an app for everything and now you can do every so many things in a real time. And it's about time that in the travel industry when it comes to measuring the customer experience that we make sure that we're uh, up there with them. Right. We don't want to fix something when you already left. We want to be able to kind of track things in real time. And continue to make the travel experience better. So yes, it's a great, uh, great opportunity.
Speaker A: That real time data really is so important. It's capturing folks exactly when they're on the airport. They um, can give that, that data in real time um, and drive those non aeronautical revenues. Right. Uh, you mentioned uh, getting there early, spending money, being comfortable. And that's a big part of the process for airports.
Speaker B: Yeah. Because people travel like you know, you already have to get through security which you know can be for some people can just be a lot. So when you get there you want to relax. Some people are just nervous about getting on a plane. So, so the idea, the airports want to make it easy for you to find your way, find your seating, be able to charge your electronics, be able to take your empty water bottle through security and then fill it up at the water station that you know, a lot of airports are implementing sustainability. So there's just so many things about the customer journey. It's not simply just you know, somebody getting somebody dropped off and going to the airport. It really is truly experience and the better people feel, the more they want to fly and, and then of course the more they'll spend well and that
Speaker A: is good news for an airport. So that Passenger V product really helping uh, connect airports with solutions on what's going to have the biggest impact on the customer experience. Um, if anyone wanted to learn more about this, are we going to be hosting any webinars or conferences or anything like that about some of these new pieces, uh, of the product?
Speaker B: Yeah, I think we're working with the team. Um, Jim, he's on our team. We're working to do a webinar to not only demo, but talk about different case studies where we have worked with airports who are not only uh, Passenger View clients, but syndicated clients and just talk about their experience with Passenger View while also just sharing um, how good of a tool this is and answer any questions people may have. We may have a lot of partners out there who are interested, but they don't know where to start or they don't know exactly what the platform can do. And we want to showcase that um, to make sure that we're capturing um, a broader audience and then telling more about the product.
Speaker A: Well that sounds great. We'll look for that ah, later this quarter and look forward to it. We'll certainly keep everyone who's listening apprised of the date as soon as that's set. Azari, um, thank you so much for sharing that information with us today. Appreciate it.
Speaker B: You're welcome. Thank you, Sarah.
Speaker A: All right. And thank you to our listeners for joining us this month. This has been the JD Power Travel and Hospitality podcast, and we look forward to seeing you next month.
