Notes from the Panel: Co-Brand Travel Rewards 2025

Yesterday, we gave away our secret recipe for selling rewards. ✈️💳

At Co-brand Travel Rewards 2025, I had the honor of joining loyalty leaders from , Allegiant, CarTrawler, and Comarch to discuss one question that had the whole room buzzing:
“Is loyalty dying?”

My answer: No — it’s evolving.
In today’s inflationary points economy, every airline is chasing the same premium customer with the same 100,000-milesignup bonus.

But here’s the problem — if everyone plays that game, it becomes a race to the bottom. The economics don’t scale, and the loyalty doesn’t last.

At Kalder | Turn Rewards into Revenue, we’ve seen a very different playbook emerging — one that turns rewards programs into real media and revenue engines.

Here’s the 3-part secret recipe we shared on stage 👇

Drive ancillary revenue with reward partnerships.
Instead of relying only on interchange fees, airlines and travel brands can open up their rewards ecosystem to merchant partners.

Think: customers earning miles for dining, shopping, or booking experiences through partners — while the airline earns commissions and fees from those brands.
Your rewards program becomes your ad space — just like Amex does so well.

Acquire customers earlier with card linking.
Right now, airlines only start building a relationship once a traveler applies for their co-brand card. That’s too late.

Imagine letting customers earn 1X miles on any card they link — and 2X miles when they use your co-brand card.
Suddenly, you’re engaging them months earlier, learning their spend behavior, and giving them a taste of your ecosystem before they ever fill out a credit card application.

When they see “You could’ve earned 500 miles instead of 250 on this Starbucks run,” they’re naturally nudged to upgrade.

Stay top-of-wallet through everyday spend.
Your customers aren’t flying every day — but they are buying gas, groceries, coffee, and concert tickets.

Adding partners across these daily categories makes your rewards program relevant every single day.
That’s how you drive retention, daily engagement, and incremental revenue — not just flight bookings.

One audience member summed it up perfectly:
“Why don’t all airlines and hotel groups offer card-linked partner rewards already?”

Exactly.

That’s where the industry is heading — from points-for-flights to rewards-as-a-platform.

And that’s the future we’re helping build at Kalder | Turn Rewards into Revenue.
Big thank you to Michael Pool for moderating, and to my fellow panelists — Spenser Marrich-Simon, Aleks Kaczmarek (CarTrawler), and Paula Sierra Martinez Sierra (Comarch) — for such an energizing discussion.