Transforming the legacy Global Airport Lounge platform into a scalable, premium platform that serves millions of travellers and multiple global partners.
Priority Pass, a membership program providing access to over 1,500 airport lounges across 600+ cities in 145 countries, serves as a white-label solution for global partners including AMEX, Visa, and HDFC Bank. The company faced a critical challenge: completely rebuilding their platform from scratch while transitioning from physical plastic cards to a fully digital experience and launching new features like trip planning and real-time travel insights.
Over 18 months, we embedded this transformation project, designing from concept to delivery and ultimately securing a long-term contract with a new customer while supporting business case development and stakeholder management.
From physical cards to a fully digital experience
Priority Pass was moving away from physical plastic cards toward a fully digital experience managed within the app, while simultaneously launching new features including trips planning and on-day-of-travel insights.
Working closely with brand and marketing teams, we identified critical gaps in existing brand guidelines: missing key decisions around digital product design, patterns, colour ratios, and motion. Rather than forcing a single approach, we developed three strategic pathways for brand evolution:
Defining new directions for brand evolution
We explored several strategic directions: building on the current foundation to fill in the missing digital elements, evolving the brand to better suit digital-first experiences, and reimagining it entirely to support future growth. Through collaboration with stakeholders, we chose a hybrid approach that balanced continuity with innovation, honouring the brand’s existing equity while introducing modern digital patterns to enable seamless and mobile-friendly interactions.
Embedding strategic expertise to deliver at pace
We embedded designers and strategists directly into Priority Pass squads, creating unified teams that moved quickly while maintaining quality. Our Service Designer connected partner services to traveler experiences, while the Experience Lead set strategic vision and mentored squad designers.
Product squads for each tailored experience
Product squads managed device-specific experiences: App Squad focused on mobile flows and engineering collaboration, while Web Squad redesigned the website during Contentful re-platforming.We introduced DesignOps practices with robust user research cycles, establishing foundations for continued innovation.
The success of this project was built on true collaboration between Collinson and 383. By seamlessly embedding themselves within our teams, 383 not only brought strategic and operational expertise but also helped us align on user-first, experience-led solutions. Their support was instrumental, not just in getting this project off the ground but in ensuring we delivered a globally consistent, scalable design system that empowers innovation and brand integrity across our digital ecosystem.
Digitalising global services
We delivered a full app re-platform within 18 months, securing a long-term contract through a strategic design vision. The project established scalable DesignOps, unified web and app experiences through a shared content system, and guided cohesive brand evolution. The rebuilt Priority Pass platform transforms how millions access premium airport services, replacing physical cards with intuitive mobile interactions and real-time insights.
Our embedded approach continues to drive innovation and supports ongoing digital evolution for both travellers and global partners.
