Travel Loyalty News

If American and Delta follow United in raising requirements to earn elite status, it could drive a whole new class of budget travelers away from airline loyalty programs.

Aligning the corporate travel program to the needs and expectations of your employees helps increase in-policy bookings and gives travel managers more negotiating power.

Travel leaders are optimizing the customer experience through more thoughtful, human-centered design and technologies across the traveler journey. Here are our top takeaways from Skift Global Forum 2019.

Timeshifter, brandishing NASA-approved science, wants to revolutionize how the travel industry helps guests fight jet lag. The science has won consumers over — and is a no-brainer for airlines. But in Asia’s cutthroat hotel business, how it can integrate the app into different branded programs is perhaps a different science.

For those who are willing to pay for access, Delta's SkyMiles Select program is a good alternative to flying the requisite miles to earn elite status. But it also sets an interesting precedent for paying for overhead bin space.

This priority boarding craze is getting out of hand. Almost no one wants to get on an airplane 45 minutes before it departs. People go nuts over boarding early because they have overhead bin anxiety. Can we just start charging for bin space? It's a precious resource for which demand outstrips supply.

The new partnership in the works between Delta and Latam may drastically affect the way that Oneworld and SkyTeam loyalists shift their business. But there's still no timeline for when any changes will happen.

Airbnb has nothing to worry about. Marriott is mainly interested in using rentals as a tool to build brand loyalty. So the Bethesda, Maryland-based hotel giant won't threaten the established players in short-term rental booking.

United's MileagePlus program is changing dramatically in 2020 to focus more on high-spend rather than high-mileage travelers. Translation: It's getting harder for frugal flyers to be elite.

The joint venture between American and Qantas is bearing fruit in the form of better frequent flyer benefits on both sides.