Saudia Airlines · 2022
Two research tracks, one national carrier: how do you make booking effortless without cheapening a premium brand?
Redesigning the Flight Booking & Add-ons Experience for Saudia Airlines
UX Research & Design
- Saudia Airlines
- Web booking platform
- End-to-end booking + ancillary purchase journey, microsite
Saudia Airlines is the national carrier of Saudi Arabia and one of the region's largest airlines, flying to over 90 destinations worldwide. Established in 1945 and a member of the SkyTeam alliance, it represents the Kingdom's hospitality and innovation in aviation.
- Role — usability research, experience design, high-fidelity flows, microsite concept
- Scope — end-to-end flight booking journey + ancillary add-ons
Saudia aimed to modernize its digital booking experience while maintaining its premium brand positioning.
- Complex and lengthy booking journeys
- Confusing add-ons and pricing structures
- Inconsistent user experience across touchpoints
- Lack of clarity during key decision-making steps
The goal: simplify booking, improve add-ons clarity, and create a seamless end-to-end travel experience.
Two focused research tracks
Flight Booking Experience (research-driven) — detailed usability testing on the existing booking flow to identify friction points, drop-offs and usability gaps, analyzing user behavior and decision patterns. Results were captured in a confidential findings document.
Add-ons Experience (guerilla testing) — quick, real-world guerilla usability sessions observing how users interact with extras such as seats, baggage and meals, and identifying confusion around pricing, selection and value perception.
of users found the booking flow intuitive (baseline)
of users found add-ons pricing unclear or confusing
These insights directly informed design priorities — add-ons clarity became as important as booking speed.
Booking experience redesign — simplified multi-step flows, reduced cognitive load and unnecessary steps, improved clarity in flight selection and progression, for a smoother, more intuitive journey.
Add-ons experience optimization — simplified pricing and selection of extras, improved visibility and understanding of add-ons, clearer decision points to reduce confusion, and a flow that feels seamless within booking rather than bolted on.
Microsite experience — a dedicated microsite showcasing services and promotions, creating a more engaging, visually rich brand experience and improving discoverability of key offerings outside the booking flow.
faster booking completion
increase in task success rate
improvement in customer satisfaction
The redesigned experience reduced friction, improved clarity, and created a more cohesive, premium travel journey.
“Breaking the problem into focused experience tracks — booking and add-ons — enabled deeper insights and more targeted impact.”
What’s next