RANCHO PALOS VERDES, CA — Retail media and commerce media networks are often flying blind when targeted consumers share login info. But United Airlines’ commerce network Kinective Media rarely flies off course thanks to the specifically known travelers taking its seats.
“You have to be you to sit on our airplane. There’s no way around it. You’ve proven it four times through TSA,” Alissa Spiwak, advertising partnerships director at Kinective Media, told Beet.TV contributor David Kaplan at the Beet Retreat LA. “Some other retail media networks, like I know for myself, my husband and I, share a login to some shopping apps. So who you’re really hitting is questionable, but with us and Mileage Plus as well as in air, there’s no way around it. You are you.”
This identity certainty enables precise data collaboration through clean rooms while passengers provide financial, psychographic, and behavioral signals beyond typical retail purchase data.
Exploring the full-funnel
Travel media data differs from retail media networks by targeting the entire funnel from awareness to purchase intent rather than focusing primarily on lower-funnel consumption patterns.
“Retail media data really focuses on consumption and purchase and really that lower funnel. Travel media data actually has the ability to target the entire funnel from high level awareness all the way down to purchase intent,” Spiwak said.
United’s partnership with TransUnion enables analysis of spending power beyond travel. Psychographic signals identify solo leisure travelers, business passengers, or families with lap infants. Behavioral data reveals content preferences through in-flight entertainment engagement and lounge usage patterns.
Captive attention spans hours
United engages passengers for seven to ten hours on travel days from check-in through landing, far exceeding rideshare trips or retail store visits while delivering messages at contextually relevant moments.
“United has these people’s attention for seven to 10 hours on a travel day,” Spiwak said. “The amount of time you’re in a retail location, hopefully not seven to 10 hours.”
Passengers sit 12 inches from screens engaging with movies they missed in theaters or shows from streaming services they don’t subscribe to, creating attention metrics that differentiate travel media from other environments.
Strategic messaging’s journey
Contextual targeting enables partners to reach passengers at decision moments, such as Lyft messaging during check-in when travelers decide airport transportation, or Instacart offering delivery while passengers plan Airbnb grocery needs from airport lounges.
“That’s a great moment while you’re thinking, ‘I’m traveling and I’m going to be staying in Airbnb and maybe I want to get my groceries delivered before I get there,” Spiwak said.
United carries about 173 million passengers annually, she added. Plus, with the airline’s upcoming JetBlue partnership, that reach will only expand in 2026. But a potentially bigger connection has been in the works by United since the fall.
Starlink’s in-flight personalization
Wifi access is at the heart of Kinective’s targeting. And United’s expanded rollout with SpaceX’s satellite-based broadband provider Starlink is poised to expand Kinective’s reach in tandem.
In October, United became the first major U.S. airline to offer Starlink wifi on a mainline flight with connectivity across both personal devices and in-flight entertainment screens. The airline expects to install Starlink on up to 15 mainline 737-800 planes each month; more than half of United’s regional fleet was already offering Starlink when the expanded installation was announced.
“Once Starlink is rolled out on our entire fleet, we’ll really be able to leverage that creative personalization, measurement, real-time optimization in the air, which is super exciting for partners and will all be enabled by AI,” Spiwak said.
Kinective currently uses AI through its Hemispheres platform featuring a generative AI search tool for trip planning and the trademarked “Three Perfect Days” destination content, plus relevant passenger messaging based on origin and destination data.
“We’re doing a lot right now,” Spiwak said, “but I think the real exciting part is when Starlink is rolled out.”
