Travel has changed a lot since the days when families chose between brochures and fixed packages in a high-street travel agency.
Travellers today plan holidays and search for deals using apps, credit cards, rewards schemes and price comparisons. New research suggests loyalty programmes now form part of that strategy as well.
A recent multi-part consumer study from market researcher Phocuswright found that 84 per cent of leisure travellers used at least one form of loyalty ‘gaming’ in the past year to maximise rewards.
Are travellers still loyal to single brands?
The findings point to changing patterns in how travellers engage with rewards across airlines, hotels and online booking platforms.
Rather than sticking to one brand, loyalty benefits are increasingly used alongside price, convenience and availability when making booking decisions.
Between 57 and 68 per cent of travellers who identified a preferred airline, hotel or online travel agency still booked elsewhere within the previous year, typically because of better pricing or scheduling, according to the study.
“When we talk about loyalty in travel, the conversation often gets reduced to points and miles, but that misses the bigger picture,” Madeline List, manager of research and special projects at Phocuswright, said in a statement.
Travellers may be highly engaged with programmes, she added, but engagement alone does not amount to loyalty.
Instead, most prioritised value for money, fair pricing, reliability and ease of use over loyalty benefits when choosing a brand.
Are credit card rewards usurping air miles?
One in five airline loyalty users reported taking a trip they would not otherwise have flown in order to maintain status, while one in four hotel loyalty members stayed at a property they would not normally choose for the same reason.
Credit card rewards are also playing an expanding role in how travellers earn and use points.
The study found that 39 per cent of travellers charged gift cards to earn points for future use, while 27 per cent opened credit cards intending to reduce spending or close the account after receiving a welcome bonus. Another 16 per cent reported making purchases on behalf of others to generate rewards.
A separate survey this year from Skift Research – a branch of Skift, a US-based news group covering the travel industry – found that credit card rewards are now seen by many American travellers as more valuable than traditional airline or hotel loyalty programmes.
Similar credit card-linked programs also exist in Europe, but they tend to be less generous than those in the United States, as EU caps on interchange fees reduce the funding available for large bonuses and high earn rates.
How travellers are using rewards now
Points may also be a deciding factor in when and where people travel.
Half of travellers who redeemed points or miles on a recent leisure trip were visiting a destination for the first time, according to Phocuswright’s research.
The study also found clear generational differences.
Roughly half of Gen Z and Millennial travellers said variety mattered more than choosing the same brand, suggesting that switching between airlines, hotels or booking platforms can be an intentional choice rather than one driven by dissatisfaction.
“Loyalty is not the product of an interaction with a programme. It’s the totality of all brand interactions over the customer lifetime,” List adds.
“Points and perks can reinforce that relationship, but without strong product quality, fair pricing and experiences that work well, there’s no reason to expect a loyalty programme to move behaviour in a meaningful way.”