Asia Miles was established as a loyalty program under Cathay Pacific 20 years ago. Though it is still owned by Cathay, Asia Miles now partners with a great number of airlines as well as through an ecosystem of partners to add value to frequent travelers with different ideas of what a great loyalty program should yield.
Michael Yung is the Head of Digital Product and Technology at Asia Miles, and over the past five years, he has helped grow the company, and to help it continue its evolution to become a digital leader in the loyalty space. He explains the evolution of the company from largely a call center-based business to one that services customers across a wide array of digital formats. He describes the different types of customers Asia Miles serves. Yung also talks about the diverse team he has built. Lastly, he details his team’s creative use of blockchain for marketing campaigns using smart contracts. I caught up with Yung recently at Adobe Summit in Las Vegas, and covered all of these topics and more.
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Peter High: Please provide a brief overview of Asia Miles’ business.
Michael Yung: Asia Miles is the loyalty rewards program of the Hong Kong-based airline Cathay Pacific Airways. Similar to any loyalty rewards program, our members can earn miles by flying, traveling, shopping, dining, or even by having a mortgage with our banking partners.Our members can redeem points for many rewards such as hotel stays or laptops. We set up our program in 1999, so we are celebrating our 20th anniversary this year. Over the 20 years, we have accumulated over 11 million members, we have about 700 partners around the world to serve those members, and we are the leading loyalty program in Asia.
