You’re about to book a $800 flight trip with United Airlines, you feel slightly anxious to buy that flight and that’s when United Airlines grabs you by the balls. Well played United, well played!

Here is how United Airlines upsells flight insurances

Challenge: How can we sell as much United Airlines flight insurance packages as possible?
Solution: Emotionally “guide” people into buying it, formerly known as “tricking them” by creating fear

1 Point buyers to the upselling option

Very clever United Airlines. When you forget to select an option when confirming your flight ticket -which is easy since you easily overlook insurance information- you point to the option to buy an insurance. Nice way of making the user believe that is the correct option to pick.

2 Create fear by showing the amount a buyer is taking risks with

Strategy that has been around for ages in the insurance business: make the buyer think about the amount of money that are taking a risk with. Create a sense of danger and irrisponsibility & really milk that feeling.

3 Show the”low” price of the solution

Creating fear is one strategy, clearly showing the price of the solution that is “o, so much lower” is the second piece to convincing users they really should get that insurance package. $50 versus risking $800? Let me buy that insurance United Airlines!

Well played United Airlines…well played. But can we please put less text on that page and make the actual benefits stand out more? I’m pretty sure you’d upsell even more.