In the airline business, ancillary services are often called “complementary services,” but in practice, they are much more than simply “adding extra costs to the seat.” They represent a way to add differentiated value, charged according to clear rules and provided promptly, to the passenger’s satisfaction, ensuring they leave with the feeling of having chosen the right airline.
In this article, be bolder presents ancillary services for what they truly are: “a strategic sales and operational element” whose success lies in fully delivering on promises, even in the event of changes, refunds, or itineraries with multiple carriers. This guarantees the sustainability of the service and future passenger preference by providing what they genuinely expect.
What do we mean when we talk about ancillaries
According to IATA, “ancillaries” are discrete services and packaged benefits linked to travel that are not included in the base ticket but can be selected and, if so, included in the total value the passenger pays. Therefore, the important thing is not the “list of services” as such, but the promise of providing value to the customer, since each element must be able to be issued, delivered, and fulfilled without problems, with conditions visible from the time of purchase.
Now, for IdeaWorks, when offering ancillary services, it is important to eliminate ambiguities. It is necessary to clearly define what is included and what is not to avoid surprises and to differentiate them from other charges, eliminating any possibility of changes or refunds. When an ancillary service is treated as a concrete product with established rules, it ceases to be a loose offering but rather becomes a verifiable promise, thereby enabling a viable low-cost airline business model.
Types of ancillaries and how they are offered
A simple way to categorize ancillary benefits is to group them into three categories: à la carte purchases, benefits packaged in bundles or fare families, and travel-related add-ons that streamline the process:
- À la carte: Optional services sold individually, such as baggage, seat selection, and priority, charged separately from the fare, with eligibility and compliance rules. A la carte options maximize choice and comparability, but can fragment the checkout process and multiply rules.
- Bundles/Families: Ancillary benefits included in a fare or service package simplify the selection process, with clear conditions for changes and refunds. These streamline the process and increase perceived value, but require clearly defined conditions for exchanges and refunds.
- Travel-related add-ons: Optional products or services linked to the trip, sometimes provided by third parties, that complement the passenger’s options, such as insurance, accommodation, and transport, making life easier by allowing them to purchase them directly in the airline flow.
This classification is not intended to be exhaustive, but rather to differentiate between various sales approaches and passenger promises.
Ancillaries as a lever for retail and revenue
The turning point is understanding that the competitive unit is no longer the seat, but the offer. In this logic, ancillaries cease to be accessories and become part of the product that defines the perception of value: flexibility, comfort, priority, peace of mind. Those who master the architecture of the offer don’t “offer extras”; they sell complete packages with benefits and clear rules.
Here, pricing comes into play with a nuance that many overlook: “the value for a customer is not just the base fare”; it’s also what they might need to buy later. When this “expected value” is incorporated sensibly, the offer is designed more intelligently: not to squeeze money out of customers, but to align the price, rules, and benefits with customer segments with specific needs and travel conditions.
Personalization consists, then, of offering what is truly relevant to the passenger, with clear and consistent criteria, while respecting the airline’s operational limitations. However, if the correct ancillary cannot be met or served, personalization fails to fulfill its purpose. Therefore, mature personalization requires rules, catalogs, eligibility policies, and an offer design that aligns with its real-world application.
How technology enables ancillaries
For years, the “bundle” wasn’t a business decision, but rather a consequence of a technological limitation. Traditional distribution was designed to sell a seat, without showing exactly what it included, and with limited flexibility to transact optional products with all their conditions. As ancillary services grew, this technological limitation became critical because if the system couldn’t properly manage the product, it affected the sales promise.
The real change occurs when the airline can decide what to offer, to whom, and when, providing complete, real-time, and structured information about ancillary services through APIs. In practice, this is implemented with an intermediary layer between the Passenger Service Server (PSS) and the channels: a distribution hub that builds offers, applies product and pricing rules, and generates a unique and lasting record of what the passenger purchased.
The benefit isn’t being able to “sell more options,” but rather being able to manage them. An offer and order management architecture eliminates differences between channels by centralizing the catalog, rules, and calculations, preventing each channel from interpreting the ancillary data independently. Furthermore, it paves the way for scaling operations: when volume increases, the system controls the flow of offers, stabilizing orders.
Leveraging AI for dynamic ancillary management
The true evolution of ancillary revenue lies in moving beyond static catalogs toward dynamic, AI-powered offer management. At be bolder, we help airlines use the same sophisticated logic behind seat pricing across ancillary services, so what customers see at checkout aligns with what can be delivered consistently.
By integrating our customized Ancillary Services Agent solutions, carriers can move away from manual, labor-intensive configurations that often lead to team fatigue or costly setup errors. Instead, the system uses predefined rules to automatically structure offers based on routes, destinations, booking deadlines, and real-time capacity, so what customers see at purchase is delivered with reliable operational precision.
This intelligent agent doesn’t just execute; it learns. As it processes more data, it becomes a strategic partner for Revenue Management (RM) and ancillary teams, suggesting proactive adjustments to offers and tariffs based on emerging market trends. These AI-driven recommendations can be accepted, rejected, or refined as needed, keeping people in control of high-level strategy while the system handles complex execution.
To round this out, be bolder also provides a real-time monitoring dashboard that tracks how these automated actions affect total sales. This helps decision-makers pivot quickly, using near-real-time data to validate the effectiveness of personalization strategies. By centralizing the catalog and automating the rules, airlines can stay agile and scalable and, most importantly, deliver the experience today’s travelers look for.
Take your ancillary sales strategy to the next level
Defining the right catalog, centralizing the rules, personalizing the offer, and automating decisions to keep experiences consistent across all channels and journeys involves both business and technology, because the sales strategy for complementary services depends on the systems that enable it.
Closing the gap between what your ancillary strategy demands and what your technology can deliver is be bolder’s specialty. Every airline operates under different conditions, so we take the time to understand your business and build technology solutions with you that bring your boldest vision to life.
Contact us to learn more about our customized solutions for managing ancillaries!
Commercial Team
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* Image by Mina Başer on pexels.com
