Ask travellers which loyalty programs actually pay off, and the answer is no longer a hotel chain or an airline. It's the credit card in their wallet. That's the headline finding from Skift Research's Global Travel Insights survey, which put credit cards and banks on top with 32% of travellers naming them the most rewarding loyalty programs. Hotels came second at 26%, airlines third at 20%, and online travel agencies trailed badly at just 8%. Retail and lifestyle programs barely registered at 5%.
The numbers upend a long-running anxiety in the travel business. For years, hotels and airlines have worried about online travel agencies squeezing between them and their customers, capturing the booking and the relationship. The survey suggests the real competition was somewhere else entirely: travellers increasingly see their card rewards, not any single travel brand, as the place their loyalty earns the most.
It makes sense once you think about how people actually travel. A hotel points balance locks you into one chain. Airline miles tie you to an alliance and often come with frustrating redemption rules. A good travel credit card earns on every purchase — groceries, bills, subscriptions — and the points can flex across flights, hotels, or statement credits. In a cost-of-living squeeze, travellers are also gravitating toward rewards that feel tangible: a knocked-off airfare or a cash-back style credit beats an aspirational suite upgrade they may never redeem.
For travellers, the takeaway is practical. If you're loyal to one hotel brand or airline, you're now in the minority. Most people get more value from a single well-chosen travel rewards card than from chasing status across multiple programs. It also means your points strategy should start with the card, not the destination: pick a card whose transfer partners or travel credits match how you actually like to travel, then let the hotel and airline programs be a bonus rather than the goal.
For the travel industry, it's a wake-up call. Loyalty is no longer owned at check-in or at the gate — it's earned at the point of sale, every day, by banks. Expect hotels and airlines to push harder on co-branded cards and richer everyday earning categories as they try to claw back the relationship. And expect the gap to matter: when a traveller decides where to book, the program that delivers the clearest, fastest reward wins. Right now, that's the bank.
The bottom line for anyone planning trips this year: audit your points. If most of your spend is going on a card, make sure that card is the one doing the heavy lifting — because that's where the most rewarding loyalty clearly lives.