Why airlines must focus on post-booking power

Airline revenue management (RM) maximises fare-based revenue across broad networks. The systems allocate seats based on the highest expected revenue, taking into account demand forecasts by flight, origin-destination, and fare level. They use highly granular forecasts and are updated nightly.

With new features like checked bags, priority boarding, seat assignments, and so on, a new opportunity for revenue maximisation presents itself in the ‘post-booking’ phase. But after the traveller has booked his flight, what is the optimal way to engage with customers?