Icelandair Saga Club Case Study
By Gudrun Osp Thorgnysdottir, IT Manager Icelandair Saga Club
Icelandair Saga Club was launched in September 1992 and operates
today as a Profit Center. Today 75 % of the Icelandic population that are
eligible to join the club are active members and the utilization of points for
flight and hotel award is very high.
In the beginning the members where handpicked by sales agents and no
actual IT system was in place. In 1994 an in-house FFP IT system was
developed that served its purpose very well the first years.After 2000 the
programme development was beginning to suffer because of outdated IT
infrastructure and a full functional Frequent Flyer Management System was needed.In December
2003 Crane FFP from Hitit was installed and the new IT system completely changed the programme
development. Next years the focus was on simplifying and automate processes with special
emphasize on self service on our website.
Among the most successful projects was to fully automate the Award booking process.The back end
process of issuing the Award ticked used to take minimum 15 minutes of manual work and with the
automation of that process to few seconds it was for the first time possible to launch Award Tickets
campaigns on our website.
Other big success is how we do segmentation. We tailor e-mails and offers to target groups such as
Award Offers and Gift Certificates that can be used as a partial payment for Icelandair flight tickets
and in the Package bookings process.
In June 2007 Icelandair introduced new pricing structure based on 5 Fare Families; Special Offer, Best
Price, Economy, Economy Flex and Saga Class. Members accrue points based on Fare Base where
Saga Class gives 4 times the points for Economy Class.
Icelandair Saga Club runs sub-loyalty program for the National Bank of Iceland among other Icelandic
companies. We tailor e-mails and Award offers for them regularly and offer them tailor made IT service for
their customers like look-up members, redeem and accrue points. Examples are Home Banks and Kiosks.
Icelandair Saga Club signed an agreement with Points.com in June 2007. This agreement makes it
possible for our members to swap points to and from other Loyalty Programs to Saga Club or redeem
their Award Points for hundreds of different gift certificates or magazines. With this agreement it is also
possible for Saga Club members to Buy extra points and Give and Share points between accounts.
Icelandair Saga Club is the only FFP program that offers members to Share points without a points-
fee (same fee for sharing 100 points and 10.000 points) and the Share program is very successful.
The Saga Club and Points.com are now working on further developments, some of which will be
launched in year 2008.
After introducing a new top tier level now in January 2008 the Saga Club has 4 tiers: Saga Bonus, Saga
Silver, Saga Gold and the top tier is Saga Crown. Saga Crown and Saga Gold have spouse cards free
of charge. Silver members can buy Spouse Card for a reasonable fee. Today the age limit to become a
member is 18 years but we plan to change the age limit to allow children to become members.
Icelandair Saga Club is very well recognized in Iceland, as 75 % of the Icelandic population that are
eligible to join the club are active members. The majority of the active foreign members are from USA
and northern Europe.
Our members are very active and demanding and thanks
to good IT system, award winning website and fruitful
selection of 3rd party accrual and redemption choices we
keep them satisfied. Although we must always try to
exceed our members expectations, and therefore we are
lining up new services on our website in co-operation with
our partners. Our members and partners welcome new
products and the development is a never ending task.
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