Case study · EngageAI

14% of nudged travellers cancelled an out-of-policy booking

GlobalConsultancy

A global consultancy was losing money, time, and carbon to one repeated out-of-policy booking: flying Amsterdam to London.

The challenge

A clear policy that nobody read

The Amsterdam–London route is incredibly common amongst their business travellers. They have a sustainable travel policy that mandates rail under 4 hours, but as a static policy, it does not always have the desired impact. Without an active prompt, the default behaviour of booking a flight rarely changes. The consultancy's aim was to get travellers who had already booked a flight to cancel it and rebook by rail.

46%
of travellers never check the policy before booking Source: Business Travel Magazine
The solution

Policy, delivered at the moment of booking

EngageAI turned a static travel policy into a live, personalised nudge: reading TMC data in real time, flagging AMS to LON flights that break the mandate, and nudging the traveller to make the right choice.

What makes it convert?
Personalised Names the traveller’s actual booking, not a policy reminder email.
Benefits the traveller Leads traveller benefits: time saved, comfort gained, and adds a social element.
Zero adoption cost Lands straight in the traveller’s inbox, and sends them directly to where they can make the change.
Sent after flight booking confirmation
10:24 5G
Thursday 11 December 10:24
T
Corporate travel team now
You’ve booked a flight from Amsterdam to London The Eurostar gets you to central London in around 5 hours, almost the same as flying once you add airport queues and transfers.
‹ Inbox
T
Corporate travel team via EngageAI
Now
You’ve booked a flight from Amsterdam to London

The Eurostar gets you to central London in around 5 hours, almost the same as flying once you add airport queues and transfers.

Benefits of taking the train
90% lower emissions than flying.
Almost as fast About an hour longer door to door.
Join your colleagues 101 already take the Eurostar.
In policy Rail is our policy on this route.

Change your booking in a few minutes.

Change my booking
The impact
14% of travellers cancelled their out-of-policy flight
How it was measured +

Nudged travellers who cancelled their flight and did not rebook one, assumed to have switched to the Eurostar.

91% lower emissions on each journey switched to rail
Flight 43kg
Eurostar 3.9kg
kg CO₂e one way
How it was measured +

DEFRA factors (radiative forcing 1.7): 43kg CO₂e for the flight vs 3.9kg for the Eurostar, one way.

2 hours productive working time unlocked on each train journey
Flight 60 min
Eurostar 180 min
focused working time
How it was measured +

Realistic working time door to door: around 60 minutes when flying vs up to 3 hours on the Eurostar.

Conclusion

A prompt at the right moment changes the outcome

Travel policies can work – but they need to be brought to life. A single, well-targeted message, like the air-to-rail shift, can change behaviour – even when the behaviour change has a high level of friction. As a result of this pilot, they are expanding these notifications across more of their most common routes in Europe and the West Coast Corridor in the US.

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