Mileage Plan HotelS - AB testing
Testing copy, ad, and CTA location variants to drive traffic to Mileage Plan Hotels. Goal to increase earn/burn mileage usage cycle for Mileage Plan members.
User FLows
Designing interactions for AB testing:
Best experience: When a user clicks the Mileage Plan Hotel test CTA, they will step out to the Mileage Plan Hotels webpage. The user has already selected dates and location preferences on the Alaska Airlines booking widget, and may expect to have the same search automatically carried over to the Mileage Plan Hotels page on step-out.
Current functionality has the user step out to a new page, but does not carry-over the search parameters, so the user has to search the same thing two times.
Mileage Plan Hotels Links - AB test
Business case: We would like to see a lift in traffic to Mileage Plan Hotels by adding a link to the mega menu that directs users to “use miles for hotels”.
Hypothesis: If we add “use miles for hotels” in the homepage mega menu, we will see an increase in hotels being booked using Alaska Airlines miles.
Test Description:
Add CTA to bottom of Earn and use miles column in the mega menu. Remove all TMs in link
Pro – might be easy to see in this location; reduce the excess eye clutter by removing the TMs
Con – odd length of column, could be eye clutter/info overload (based on previous years of user testing, a 5 link by 3 columns was best max for info consumption)
Direct Mileage Plan Hotels to land on www.alaskaair.com/rocketmiles/sso/start
Success metrics: Significant lift in traffic to MileagePlanHotels.com
Iteration and next steps: If test is successful at improving success metric we will take note and begin next test in sequence.
Mileage Plan Hotels ad placement tests
The three tests below involved coordinating three separate value streams with multiple product owners and stakeholders. Each design concept was vetted individually by value stream, and modified based on feedback.
Test 1/3 - Mileage Plan account - Right rail ad
Business case: We would like to see a lift in traffic to Mileage Plan Hotels by adding in an ad or value proposition to the right rail of a user’s mileage plan activity when they are logged in to Mileage Plan.
Hypothesis: If we add an ad or value proposition to the right of the Mileage Plan dashboard, we will see an increase in hotels being booked using Alaska Airlines miles.
Ad description:
Heading: “Mileage Plan Hotels”
Body: “Choose from over 400,000 properties worldwide. You can pay for your entire stay with miles, or use a combination of miles and cash.”
CTA/Button: “Search Hotels”
Link destination: www.alaskaair.com/rocketmiles/sso/start
Success metrics: Significant lift in traffic to MileagePlanHotels.com
Test 2/3 - Book award page - Banner Ad
Business case: We would like to see a lift in traffic to Mileage Plan Hotels by adding a banner ad below the search widget for “Use Miles to Book a Hotel”
Hypothesis: If we add a banner ad saying “Use Miles to Book a Hotel” below the search widget on the AS.com homepage we will see an increase in hotels being booked using Alaska Airlines miles.
Ad description:
Add a banner ad below search widget for “Use Miles to Book a Hotel”
MILEAGE PLAN -> MY ACCOUNT -> BOOK AWARD:
Original page link: https://www.alaskaair.com/planbook?awards=yes&lid=nav:mileage-bookAward&int=AS_NAV_MP_BookAward_-prodID:ShoppingBooking
Success metrics: Significant lift in traffic to MileagePlanHotels.com
Test 3/3 - Booking confirmation page - banner ad
Business case: We would like to see a lift in traffic to Mileage Plan Hotels by placing a “Book Hotels” redemption CTA on a traveler’s booking confirmation page.
Hypothesis: If we add a “Book Hotels ad, banner, or call to action to a traveler’s booked travel confirmation page we will see an increase in hotels being booked using Alaska Airlines miles.
Ad description: Add in a banner ad to the travel booking confirmation page. Banner ad placement will resemble banner ads on alaskaairlines.com homepage and will be placed in the ancillary offers section of the page.
Success metrics: Significant lift in traffic to MileagePlanHotels.com
Iterations and next steps: If tests is successful at improving success metric we will take note and present findings to stakeholders and commit winners to code.
Adding Mileage Plan Hotels to the Booking Widget
The teams involved (C&M, Ancillaries, Shopping & Checkout, Loyalty) are currently vetting the testing in their spaces, and we are making modifications based on feedback.
Business case: We would like to see a lift in traffic to Mileage Plan Hotels by placing link, and radio button variants on the Hotels section of the Alaska Airlines booking widget.
Hypothesis: If we add a the option to book hotels using miles will see an increase in hotels being booked using Alaska Airlines miles.
Success metrics: Significant lift in traffic to MileagePlanHotels.com
Iterations and next steps:
If tests are successful at improving success metric we will take note and present findings to stakeholders and commit winners to code.