Credit card travel reward providers have already solved one of the biggest challenges in loyalty: getting consumers to show up. Our latest survey of 2,000 U.S. travelers found that 62% of travelers with access to a loyalty travel portal say it is their first or usual destination when booking travel.
Travelers are already there, ready to book, but they don’t always follow through.
Today, reward program providers have an opportunity to turn existing intent into real bookings, redemptions, and repeat engagement. That starts with making the value clear from the moment travelers arrive to the portal, and delivering on it well enough to bring them back.
Travelers are price-conscious and comparison-minded, which gives portals that clearly demonstrate their value a significant advantage. Nearly half (47%) of respondents say better prices would encourage them to book more through a loyalty portal, while 38% say extra points would make them more likely to do so.
Yet value is rarely just about price. A traveler might see a different rate on a third-party site without realizing that what they are comparing is not equivalent. A portal rate might include free cancellation, seat selection, or loyalty benefits that the other option does not. Booking through the portal should offer unique advantages, and the opportunity for credit card reward programs is to make the full picture of those advantages more visible. Answer the consumer’s question before they have to ask:
Value also has to hold up once travelers are ready to use their rewards. Seventy-three percent of active travelers have tried to redeem a reward or benefit and encountered an obstacle. Availability is the biggest challenge, cited by 38%, followed by insufficient points or status at 31%. Another 28% say the redemption process was too confusing, while 22% have encountered a broken app or website. Half of travelers say redeeming points requires more effort than it should.
Part of what drives that effort is a mental calculation challenge: travelers often arrive knowing they have points but no easy way to see how they apply to a specific trip. The opportunity is in reducing that cognitive load, showing travelers what they have, what it is worth toward this booking, and the simplest path to using it. Partial redemption is just one example. Travelers can often apply a small number of points to offset part of a booking rather than saving them for a larger reward. Is this flexibility made explicit somewhere within the portal? Small changes in the way benefits are communicated could drive conversions.
The brands that offer the strongest portal experiences give travelers a clear answer to a simple question: Why should I book this trip here?
This is especially important for the Strategic Traveler, one of the most engaged travel personas today (more on the Strategic Traveler and the three other traveler mindsets in our recent blog here). These consumers actively compare programs and shift their spending toward whichever option delivers the clearest return. A portal that makes that calculation easier gives them a reason to keep coming back.
For travel brands, the portal is one of the few places where loyalty, commerce and customer experience converge. That makes improvements measurable, from portal visits to bookings and repeat engagements. When travelers can easily see the benefit of booking through their credit card’s rewards program directly, the portal becomes a powerful way to turn passive participation into a loyal relationship.
The portal is already open. Give travelers more reasons to keep walking through the door.
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