How would you measure the success of CT Flexmax, Cleartrip's free cancellation and rescheduling add-on?

Introduction

CT Flexmax is Cleartrip's paid add-on for domestic flights. For a small fee at booking, the traveller can cancel or reschedule the flight without airline penalties up to 24 hours before departure (the traveller still pays any fare difference on a reschedule). It grew out of Cleartrip's earlier cancellation-protection products and is one of its most visible ancillaries.

Measuring CT Flexmax well is harder than it looks. It's part customer promise and part insurance product: Cleartrip earns the fee on every sale, but pays the airline penalty every time someone uses it. A metric that only counts sales will push Cleartrip to oversell; a metric that only counts usage will make it look like a cost centre. I'll set out the product context, goals, a North Star and the supporting, guardrail, trade-off and counter metrics.

Step 1

Product Context

Key stakeholders:

• Travellers: Want flexibility without paying high airline change and cancellation fees.
• Cleartrip: Wants ancillary revenue, higher flight conversion and loyalty.
• Airlines: Receive cancellation and change fees, paid by Cleartrip on behalf of Flexmax users.
• Customer support: Handles cancellation and refund queries.

User flow:

1. The traveller searches and selects a domestic flight.
2. On the review or add-ons page, CT Flexmax is offered with a short explanation and its price.
3. The traveller adds it (or not) and pays.
4. If plans change, the traveller cancels or reschedules in the app more than 24 hours before departure.
5. Cleartrip refunds the fare minus non-refundable items (such as the Flexmax fee and some convenience charges), or moves the booking, and covers the airline penalty.

Product lifecycle stage: Growth and optimisation. The product is established; the question now is how to grow it profitably and use it to build trust.

Competitive context: MakeMyTrip, ixigo (with ixigo Assured) and EaseMyTrip all sell similar free-cancellation add-ons. Airlines also sell flexible fare families directly. Flexmax must stand out on clarity, speed of refund and price.