Some of the team behind The Points Guy (Red Ventures) has created a new loyalty program for stays and experiences that fall outside of the mainstream programs.
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Journey: A New Player in Travel Loyalty Programs
The travel industry has witnessed the launch of “Journey,” a loyalty program aiming to redefine how modern travelers earn and redeem rewards. This initiative seeks to address the evolving preferences of today’s travelers by offering a more personalized and flexible approach to loyalty.
“More than ever, loyalty is important to consumers,” said Brian Kelly, founder of The Points Guy, Senior Advisor and Investor at Journey. “Travelers want to earn and redeem points for life changing experiences. Whether that’s a safari or a private vacation rental, many of the best lodging options don’t exist within the current loyalty landscape… With Journey, travelers will no longer have to sacrifice loyalty when seeking bespoke and boutique travel experiences.” – Brian Kelly
“John Sutton, Founder and CEO of Journey added: By designing a platform from the ground up, we introduce travelers to inspiring, off-the-radar properties while rewarding them for supporting independent operators.” – PR Newswire
The program is currently waitlisted; you can get in line here.
Understanding Journey’s Approach
Journey differentiates itself by focusing on customization and user-centric benefits. Members can earn points through various travel-related activities, including flights, hotel stays, and car rentals. These points are redeemable for a wide array of rewards, such as exclusive experiences, upgrades, and discounts. The program emphasizes flexibility, allowing travelers to tailor their rewards to align with individual preferences and travel habits.
Comparing Journey to Established Programs
In a market dominated by established loyalty programs, Journey’s success will depend on its ability to offer unique value propositions. Traditional programs often focus on point accumulation tied to specific airlines or hotel chains, which can limit flexibility. Journey’s broader earning and redemption options could appeal to travelers seeking more diverse and personalized rewards.
Particularly in the luxury space, smaller operators offer some of the most sought after experiences but many do not have a loyalty program. Programs are expensive to build, maintain, and promote especially for boutique operations. By diversifying beyond just hotels like Small Leading Hotels (SLH) into a broader travel profile. Clients that choose luxury 10-suite riads, private reserve safaris, home rentals in Tuscany, and hotel tours over volcanos would normally operate outside of a loyalty program but are a valuable market segment and should be rewarded as such.
Potential Challenges Ahead
Despite its innovative approach, Journey may face challenges in gaining traction. Building partnerships with various travel service providers is crucial to offer a comprehensive rewards system. Additionally, educating consumers about the program’s benefits and differentiating it from existing options will be essential for adoption.
Journey will, no doubt, remain small by its mere nature. The success of broader loyalty programs like Marriott, Hilton, IHG, and Hyatt depend on mass market appeal, hundreds if not thousands of locations all of which are predominately filled with lower end properties. If Journey remains for boutique and bespoke offerings without the benefit of large marketing machines, lots of available rooms, and across hundreds of major cities making adoption a struggle.
Conclusion
Journey enters the travel loyalty landscape with a promise of flexibility and personalization. Its success will hinge on effectively delivering these benefits and distinguishing itself in a competitive market with lesser known operators. Travelers seeking a more tailored loyalty experience may find Journey’s offerings appealing, provided the program can establish robust partnerships and clear value propositions.
What do you think?
Thanks for the warning. TPG actually makes Marriott look like they have integrity. Anything involving TPG is to be avoided at all costs short of death or financial ruin.
I’m certainly not a fan of TPG per se. Barely read the blog anymore or have any other association. But that’s mostly as I don’t particularly like the content. Do you have specifics on TPG not having integrity or causing financial ruin? Those are pretty strong words to use with no particular example. I know that Kelly had some issues with over partying etc, and that there may have been some cozying up to Bonvoy…but so what? Commercial enterprises gonna commercial enterprise. And people can have personal faults and some issues arise. Am I missing something?
Fair questions. Starting at the end I said that the website was to avoided at all costs short of death or financial ruin, not that it causes financial ruin.
As to the integrity, when a blogger stops accepting comments because people are questioning their integrity that says a lot. Then there’s TPG AMA debacle where Kelly ran for the hills when people called him out for being a sellout. And let’s not forget the Marriott’s CEO Is Out To Lunch episode where one of TPG’s bloggers correctly called out the CEO we have to thank for being Bonvoyed, then someone who had the power to have the post removed (wonder who?) yanked it just before Kelly got a ride – in the Marriott limo – to the Freddy Awards. Possible gigantic conflict of interest there? Hmmm. That doesn’t even go into the expose of ol’ Brian that showed what a charming human being he is. And lastly, years ago TPG himself posted something like “Top 10 First Class Seats Anyone Can Fly With Miles” or something like that. In the comments (this was before comments were discontinued) I pointed out that two of the programs he listed only offered first class awards to super elite level loyalty members and it was dishonest for him to mention that without a caveat so readers wouldn’t think that they actually could fly those products just by getting the miles. Kelly doubled down and said he didn’t care because he was technically correct. You do you but anyone who speaks well of TPG makes me cautious about where they’re coming from.
The problem with this program is that you will never get outsized value out of it, which is what most of us look for out of a loyalty program. My assumption is that they’re simply taking a commission from bookings, turning a portion of those commissions into “points” and then offering to turn those points back into experiences and bookings. Unless the properties are willing to give them preferred/discount access to unused inventory (which rarely exists at small, quality resorts), it will just basically be a rebate program worth 1-2 cents back on spend. I’d love to be wrong, but I have low expectations.
They should be working on fixing the mess that Expert Flyer has become.
If Bilt is the model after which Journey is assembled, then it is not a confidence inspiring prospect.
Kelly seems to trigger a lot of negative emotions that I cannot explain fully, as if he does not really belong with “the rest of us,” and he has made out like a bandit Maybe there is some envy involved, and it feeds into the snake oil salesman perception.
Despite whatever anyone may say, he seems to have played his cards masterfully until now.
I am slightly surprised to see this promoted here. It’s essentially a PR fluff piece. I get that you are a high end travel agency, and that is fine. You are–from what I gather–ethical. Kelly and his buddies are a whole other league. TPG and Red Ventures are lacking all manner of ethics. I concur with Christian.
@Antwerp, for one, Red Ventures is a parent company of CNET, which was called out for its inaccurate and undisclosed use of AI “writing” in Futurism, leading to massive controversy (see here if I can post this link: https://futurism.com/the-byte/cnet-publishing-articles-by-ai)–if the link has to go, just google CNET AI RED VENTURES. The stories that were inaccurate were on things that were basic, like interest rates and CDs, not the music kind. But it got people signing up for credit cards…
Meanwhile, TPG was also running AI articles. That’s a whole other issue (I cannot even handle View from the Wing, but he even called them out on that. Of course, Journey is big on AI and says so: “Journey also provides operators with next-generation AI marketing tools to personalize guest experiences, optimize off-seasons, attract repeat guests, and compete globally with big chains.”
Other issues of (lack of) integrity:
The 8/23 Kristy Tolley piece of baloney on her husband buying her a piece of Scotland! I personally called her and TPG out on this one, and the article is still there. It is a KNOWN SCAM. You cannot just buy a deed to part of Scotland.
Of course, half the hotel reviews over at TPG begin with “[Insert name] provided TPG with a complimentary 2 night stay…. the writer’s views were all ours and not IN ANY WAY AT ALL EVER EVEN REMOTELY SUBJECT TO ANY BIAS!!!!” (I am clearly being sarcastic with that part, but essentially it says that without saying that.
I would not ever trust a word of their leaders. I can buy a few of the writers who are clearly writing their own stuff, but for the most part, Kelly is out for his next buck, and apparently partnered with some more rich guys to make a killing off of shilling. One of the partners is one of the owners of one of the hotels listed as a Journey partner. No conflict of interest there. Riiiight.
I’ll hop in the comments :), only because I love to travel and I want to clarify for your avid readers some things,
First, Journey is built for independent luxury hotels, boutique hotels, unique stay resorts and private rental homes…we created the solution focused on independently operated properties…will it stay small forever…maybe, but those are some of the fastest growing categories for consumers who want authentic experiences.
Second, how will we provide outsized upside. We aren’t an OTA taking a commission. We are a platform for the operators…they can create their own campaigns to provide larger point multiples, issue bonus points, etc based on their desired objectives. They pay Journey when points are claimed and then Journey is in turn responsible for building the consumers product for redemptions. We make money as a small transaction fee charged to the operator on claimed points…not from the consumer. To this end, we do expect to have some very attractive promotions on earning and we have similar campaign options for burning points.
Third, Brian Kelly himself is not “The Points Guy” brand and Red Ventures is its own separate entity. The Points Guy brand and Red Ventures are not investors in Journey. Brian is a friend, advisor and investor…I would defend him as a person of high integrity to anyone who says otherwise. He is the OG of travel content and has helped millions of consumers learn how to play the game. That said, just like this website, monetization of content in the 2010 era to now has primarily been on marketing partnerships…I firmly believe that is changing.
Lastly, on AI. I wasn’t at Red Ventures when these articles started coming out…so I can’t comment on that. I can say that AI can be so powerful in many positive ways. Trips and curation is a very personal thing and the options are so numerous that filters and search are not an effective way to curate. Is AI a panacea? No. Does it replace real world experience with places? Never. Can it help create a more magical experience on discovery or help surface insights across the numerous traveler touchpoints so operators can deliver a better experience? I think so.
A lot to figure out and we’re just getting started…if your audience wants to put any ideas on what their dream loyalty program would look like, I’d welcome the feedback. Obviously there are financial constraints, but I think loyalty perks and rewards can be so much better than the mass programs of the past…not only at small scale, but in ways that inspire people to travel more.