The rise of dynamic pricing, NDC, and pinpoint personalisation are part and parcel of how the airline industry is evolving its offering and distribution connected to individual traveller loyalty. These developments can present complex challenges for managed travel programmes and require open and honest conversation between airlines, corporates and TMCs on what it means for the managed travel programme.

Tips for Buyers Facing These Challenges

 • Work with your airline partners: Understand where soft dollar benefits can be incorporated into the wider partnership and what the airline’s strategy is around personalisation. Have honest conversations about what will and will not work for the business relationship and how you can work together for the benefit of both (even in a test environment).
  •  Strengthen your travel policy: Be explicit about booking channels, price thresholds, and how loyalty should (not) influence decisions.
  •   Work with TMCs that support NDC: Ensure your TMC and tools are evolving to handle NDC content fairly and transparently.
 • Educate travellers: Help them understand the trade-offs of personalised offers, especially when it leads to out-of-policy or unmanaged bookings.
  •  Use data to monitor trends: Track which airlines are being booked, where price jumps are occurring, and identify signs of loyalty-driven behaviour.

Navigating Changes Within Your Travel Programme

Below summarises practical guidance for those affected by airline loyalty changes:

Enforce Policy
Get leadership support and write clear rules that loyalty should not influence bookings.
Use Data
Build live dashboards (e.g., in Power BI) to track compliance, spend, and route behaviour.
Educate Travellers
Reinforce the value of the managed travel programme.
Monitor Behaviour
Watch for loyalty-driven booking patterns and address them early.
Stay Pragmatic
Focus on preventing major policy breaches, not minor loyalty preferences.

Strengthening Travel Policy Controls

Align with executive leadership to support policy enforcement at all levels, including senior travellers.

  •  Clear rules on supplier choice:
Policies are being reinforced to state that loyalty benefits must not influence booking decisions. Buyers are reminding travellers that policy compliance comes first, not personal rewards.
   •  Robust pre-approval processes:
Some companies have added pre-trip approval layers to flag unusually high fares that might be linked to loyalty chasing.
   • Business-class scrutiny:
For companies with business class entitlements, buyers are watching spend levels more closely, as these travellers are more likely to chase top-tier status.
 

Enhancing Data and Reporting Tools
Create transparent, visual reports that show trends and highlight problem areas; this will help to engage stakeholders and travellers.

Live dashboards and KPIs:
Some buyers are using tools like Power BI to build real-time dashboards tracking:
    •    Fare compliance
    •    Booking behaviour
    •    Spend benchmarks
    •    Top routes and travellers
    •    Online adoption and advanced purchase rates

Benchmarking:
Buyers are comparing performance to industry averages (via the major TMCs etc.) and setting stretch goals to push their programmes toward better outcomes.
 

Educating Travellers (and Managing Expectations)
Use FAQs, webinars, or infographics to help travellers understand the value of the managed programme and reasons for specific policy inclusions (i.e. advance booking).

    •    Identify your top travellers and engage with them (if you don’t already).
    •    Communicate the value of the managed travel programme.
    •    Address frustrations.
 

Monitoring Behavioural Trends
Run monthly audits on top 10 routes and travellers to spot trends early and intervene if needed.

Watching for loyalty-driven choices:
Buyers are actively looking for signs of:
    •    Travellers booking more expensive fares
    •    Repeated use of specific carriers despite cheaper options
    •    Flights booked closer to departure to avoid policy detection

Testing supplier shifts:
Some buyers are experimenting with alternative airlines when loyalty-driven pricing or service declines affect preferred carriers.
 

Accepting and Managing the Grey Areas
Frame loyalty changes as an opportunity to reset expectations and rebalance cost vs. comfort in your travel culture.

Acknowledging some loyalty is inevitable:
Most buyers recognise that some level of loyalty-driven behaviour is human nature—particularly for frequent travellers. The key is managing it within acceptable boundaries. For some, personal benefit for travellers is considered acceptable given the time away from home and family while on business.

Maintaining balance:
Buyers are choosing their battles—focusing more on high-impact behaviours (e.g., £1,000+ unnecessary fare differences) rather than trying to eliminate all loyalty considerations.