Dive Brief:
- Two in five active travelers say they treat travel loyalty programs as financial optimization tools, according to a survey released Tuesday by iSeatz, a travel and lifestyle loyalty platform. That share rises to nearly 45% among Gen Z and millennials.
- Nearly one-third of travelers say maximum financial value is their priority in travel loyalty programs, according to the survey of 2,000 U.S. consumers.
- If loyalty programs disappeared, more than half of travelers — 56% — say they would shift to prioritizing price and convenience over brand affinity.
Dive Insight:
Customers’ interest in loyalty discounts isn’t unique to the travel industry, but loyalty programs can’t win on financial benefits alone. However, they are still powerful when offered alongside other reasons to stick with the brand.
Consumers' top reasons to join a loyalty program are rewards or benefits tied to a current purchase and specific discounts for members, according to a survey of 1,500 U.S. consumers released earlier this year by EY. These reasons held the top spot in the 2025 study as well.
Discounts provide a strong incentive, but they make for a poor loyalty differentiator, according to Patricia Camden, loyalty leader for EY Americas.
“One important consideration is that a program built purely on price is very hard to defend,” Camden said in an email. “The moment a competitor decides to discount a little more, your member is now their customer. If the only reason someone chose your brand was a coupon, another coupon can move them somewhere else just as easily.”
The iSeatz survey found a similar sentiment, with 2 in 5 travelers saying they see themselves as strategic loyalty users who optimize rewards across multiple programs to maximize the return.
Financial perks can still serve as a strong core for a loyalty program if they have extras to back them up, according to Camden. Some of the most successful loyalty models in the world are built on value. What sets them apart is that they back up their discount-focused program with a combination of experience and convenience that is hard for other brands to replicate.
“The most successful brands use price as the door opener and then work quickly to build a second reason to stay,” Camden said.
Loyalty programs aiming to win over customers may want to focus on ease of use. While customers often say they want flexibility, a small selection of clearly useful rewards can make customers feel like they’re getting good value while building long-term relationships.
Friction is a significant challenge for travel loyalty, iSeatz found. Nearly three-quarters of travelers say they have tried to redeem a reward and failed at least once, and half of travelers say loyalty redemption takes more effort than it should.
The most common barriers to redemption were availability issues, insufficient points or belonging to the wrong status tier, a redemption process too confusing to complete, and a portal that did not work, according to iSeatz.
