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Lufthansa Group, the second largest airline fleet in Europe, simply introduced its NFT-infused loyalty program. It should permit passengers to scan their boarding cross within the Uptrip cellular app and change it for NFT buying and selling playing cards to unlock airline miles, enterprise vouchers, and different journey rewards.
Powered by Polygon’s proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchain protocol, the brand new program is the brainchild of Lufthansa’s digital innovation unit, Lufthansa Innovation Hub, and its frequent flyer program, Miles & Extra.
Since its smooth launch in spring 2023, Uptrip has skilled 20,000+ registered customers with over 200,000 NFT buying and selling playing cards issued.
In keeping with the August 31 announcement, Uptrip is now getting ready to maneuver into its second part – the launch of a market, which is predicted to be launched later this 12 months. The app is at the moment accessible to obtain from Apple’s App Retailer and the Google Play Retailer.
Is that this a sustainable mechanism?
Kristian Weymar, who heads up new enterprise at Lufthansa Innovation Hub, believes that Uptrip “hits a nerve” relating to these new Web3-infused applied sciences.
“[Its] in an early stage of improvement,” he stated, noting that whereas “curiosity is excessive,” the European airline big is also dealing with questions and hesitations concerning the expertise.
“We make it attainable for folks to entry this new expertise,” he added.
Christopher Siegloch, Head of Program Improvement at Miles & Extra, stated that Uptrip’s gamification parts introduce passengers to those applied sciences – particularly NFTs, in a “enjoyable manner.” He teased that they’re at the moment testing a brand new function within the Miles & Extra ecosystem.
However does this mechanism even have long-term viability?
The most important problem we proceed to see throughout these “new and modern” purposes of NFT applied sciences is knowing the “why” behind these integrations. With the first goal of onboarding as many shoppers into this subsequent wave of interactive on-line experiences, many main manufacturers have missed the mark in enhancing an already established ecosystem by asking shoppers/customers to “do one thing new” that requires extra work and understanding as to what these applied sciences are.
Briefly, shoppers proper now don’t want to fret concerning the underlying expertise that’s powering their experiences – all they care about is familiarity and whether or not or not the services or products does what they want it to do. Typically, they don’t care about the way it works.
This 12 months proved to be a tough 12 months for Europe’s main airways. Nevertheless, the German-based airline group ranks second below Ryanair, which carried essentially the most vacationers in Europe in 2021 at 72.4 million compared to Lufthansa at 46.9 million.
Etihad Airways and “Horizon Membership”
Earlier this month, United Arab Emirates’ flagship airline provider, Etihad Airways, additionally introduced its growth of its loyalty and rewards applications by teasing a brand new 300-edition growth to its Polygon-based EY-ZERO1 NFT assortment. This enables vacationers the power to “stake” or lock their digital property in change for airline miles.
Dubbed “Horizon Membership,” the brand new loyalty program will debut in September, introducing its “staking-for-miles” function that can permit vacationers to “lock” their NFTs and earn Etihad Visitor Miles in return, which may subsequently be redeemed for flights, seat upgrades, and different unique advantages.
NFL Rivals
One other good instance we’ve seen so far was this month’s launch of “NFL Rivals,” the first-ever licensed recreation from the NFL, the NFL Gamers Affiliation (NFLPA), and Legendary Video games. Whereas the sport does incorporate Web3 expertise, it’s not noticeable to gamers and doesn’t burden them with having to know or interact with the complexities of blockchain expertise.
Editor’s be aware: This text was written by an nft now employees member in collaboration with OpenAI’s GPT-4.
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