For travel merchants, having a loyalty program in place offers more opportunities to engage customers across more channels. But the course of loyalty is transforming. It’s no longer “travel on my airline, stay in my hotel, or buy my product” but “buy and be loyal to my brand.”

Travel has never been more rewarding – or more complex – than it is today. Frequent flyer programs are still wildly popular, but airlines are also expanding and diversifying the ways in which they generate ancillary revenue – and that means more partners, more channels and more complexity.