Business Case Studies,Marketing Strategies Case Study, When Customer Delight Becomes Dangerous: Managing Unprofitable Customers at Galileo Travel Port

Code : MM0097

Year : 2026

Industry : Travel & Tourism

Region : Asia

Teaching Note: Available

Structured Assignment : Not Available

Abstract: Galileo Travel Port, a Bengaluru-based online travel aggregator, built its brand on service rather than price. Between FY24 and FY26, its gross bookings more than doubled to US$290.53 million, but its EBITDA margin fell from 14.2% to 6.1% as fee waivers, complimentary upgrades and servicing costs grew faster than revenue. An audit commissioned by CEO and co-founder Rukmini Iyer revealed that 13,230 ‘Power Users’ – 0.7% of customers – carried a negative contribution of US$2.01 million against company EBITDA of US$2.35 million. It also found that 54% of discretionary benefits were approved without eligibility checks, driven by a ‘Delight Doctrine’ in training, frontline metrics that ignored cost, and queue pressure. Because Galileo buys every benefit from third parties, its cost of delight far exceeds that of an integrated airline. Yet removing the Power Users would push Galileo below an airline volume threshold and cost more in override commission than it would save. With the board unwilling to act on opinion, a consulting team must design a business research proposal to generate credible evidence. The case enables participants to define the management decision and research problems, choose research techniques, specify data needs, and design tests for a sustainable loyalty program.