Etihad Live Auction

Etihad Airways was looking to gamify their current Bid Upgrade program to entice passengers to participate more and increase the overall value of bids while seamlessly integrating with their current program.

My Role
I was the Lead Designer for this project working with the Product Owners at both Plusgrade & Etihad. The themes of modularity, gamification & system-level thinking set the foundation for the future products at Plusgrade.

Live Auction was developed as an online platform for passengers in Economy to bid for seat upgrades to either Premium Economy or Business class.

Bidding could be done either in advance with notifications or in a more auction-style closer to the ending time.

Live Auction was designed to integrate within the existing Bid Upgrade timeline & flow. Flight segments can convert to a Live Auction state at a configurable time from departure.

Entry points include email/SMS invitations, but also outbid notices if a user has already submitted an offer via Bid Upgrade and the flight segment has converted to Live Auction.

Even though Etihad was the first airline to use this product, Live Auction is meant to be transferable to multiple airlines.

As such, components & modules were designed/built with this in mind. The modules are adaptable based on context, but there are also a selection of different modules that can be re-arranged as necessary in the UI based on the airline’s needs.