How business-class newbie IndiGo is recasting its mobile and website features

In July 2006, days before its first flight, IndiGo announced that it would become the first Indian airline to offer mobile booking and payment from GPRS-capable phones. The GPRS speeds typically ranged around 120kbps and it was a giant step for an airline yet to take its first flight. The airline's then President and CEO, Bruce Ashby, has said that IndiGo is all about designing a travel experience that is simple and straightforward.

Eighteen years later, in July 2024, the airline said it is revamping its website with a new UI/UX design offering modernised and seamless architecture for the next era of growth. This major revamp coincides with its foray into the business class segment, which will see many new features launched over time.

Also Read: Explainer: IndiGo adjusts flight path. Tailewinds or headwinds?

The airline has never sold business class seats, and a new seating class will be the first. While there are damp-leased dual-class planes in its fleet, the business class has hitherto not been sold by IndiGo and only by partner airlines.

Destination Recommendations

The airline will add a destination recommendation to its website. It will potentially allow the passenger to just enter the departure city and the date and see the list of destinations the passenger can travel to with last-minute fares. Indian booking patterns are vastly different from global booking patterns, and so are the Indian pricing patterns. While it is an acceptable norm worldwide for fares to start increasing as one goes closer to the day of departure, with very cheap fares available in advance, Indian airlines' pricing sees a slump after initial high fares more often than not, only to firm up closer to departure.

Also Read: IndiGo will always remain a low-cost airline: Rahul Bhatia

The low fares can be pushed last minute helping more travellers and firming up load factors for flights which would have otherwise not been very full. This is very similar to what Google Flights has launched and has been in operation for a while.

Flight Recommendations

The airline has started suggesting flights to the passengers on the listing page. While this may be helpful for the passenger, it is equally helpful for the airline to shore up loads. If the recommended flight works well for the passenger, it means fewer clicks and lesser time spent on the listing page for the passenger.

Loyalty Points and Redemption

The launch of IndiGo BluChip - the loyalty programme - would mean multiple new features for the website. This includes listing of loyalty points which a particular fare class and flight would accrue. Currently, with the credit card tie-ups, IndiGo already shows the rewards points, but not for the loyalty programme.

A digital loyalty programme also means that it needs a separate section to have loyalty details, redemptions, freebies and more, which are easy to access. The redemptions will also be online, which would require the generation of barcodes/QR codes and easy access for scanning.

Seat Layout

The airline intends to show a virtual seat location while selecting the seat. Part of this is already live on its website. However, it currently shows the same image for any seat that is selected. This is set to change in future when seat maps are digitised in 3D to show how exactly the view would be from the seat and the looks of the seat itself. This is a feature which is common with Emirates and is being replicated by many carriers worldwide in the next steps towards passenger convenience. This helps upsell better, as the expensively priced seats have higher chances of being taken if the passenger can see what to expect while booking.

The airline has also started showing ‘Free’ seats and a slider which helps move through sections of the aircraft rather than arrows, as part of its new-age design.

Tail note

A native mobile application has been a challenge for most airlines in India in the past, with many pages directed towards a web page. IndiGo’s investment in a mobile application is much needed. However, passengers will still be unable to know if their baggage is loaded, the most important question they have and are anxious about.

Also Read: Come November, fly business class aboard IndiGo

IndiGo will also not have the track-your-plane feature yet, which has been implemented by Air India and has been in use by United Airlines for long where the passenger knows which aircraft to expect and where it is coming from, helping get a better grasp of timings.

The focus now shifts to responsiveness at the airport. The staff is as new to the changes as the passengers and how IndiGo manages to tide over the teething troubles of Loyalty and Business class - hitherto not part of their DNA, will be closely watched.