The Death of the Points Hoarder: Why the Future of Travel Loyalty Is Instant, Emotional, and a Little Bit "Disloyal"

For decades, the unspoken contract between traveler and travel brand was simple, transactional, and excruciatingly slow. It was a game of delayed gratification. You flew the red-eye, you stayed in the beige business hotel, and you swiped the co-branded credit card, all in service of a distant dream: a free flight to the Maldives five years from now—provided, of course, you could find a seat that wasn't blacked out during school holidays.

But the traveler of 2024 has lost the patience for the long game. In the post-pandemic landscape, we have become a generation of immediate needs. We don't want a free toaster in a decade; we want a free coffee this morning.

At the recent Marketing Summit at World Travel Market, a panel of industry disruptors took the stage to declare the old era dead. The session, titled "Next Gen Novelty," revealed a fascinating paradox: to build true loyalty today, brands might actually need to embrace "Disloyalty."

The session began with an icebreaker that accidentally perfectly encapsulated the tension in the industry. When asked for a favorite movie quote about loyalty, Andrew Antonopoulos, VP of Brand Marketing for Ennismore, didn't choose a line about friendship or devotion. He chose Jerry Maguire: "Show me the money."

"I know loyalty programmes have been cash cows for airlines for many years," Antonopoulos noted, "but in recent years, we're seeing the values of these loyalty programmes... and there's this 'show me the money' from the loyalty programme at one end."

This financial pragmatism is driving a seismic shift. The modern traveler is screaming "show me the value," and they want to see it immediately. This is the insight that drove Ennismore to launch a program provocatively named "Disloyalty."

It is a travel and food membership that completely abandons the traditional earn-and-burn points system. Instead, it is a subscription model. For £12 a month (or £144 a year), members get immediate access to benefits across 90 hotels and 175 restaurants.

"People are looking for instant access, they don't want to wait around and maybe I'll gather some points that will ultimately expire and then I'll never get to use them," Antonopoulos explained. "They want immediate access to those benefits. We're all impatient nowadays."

The perks are designed for instant dopamine hits rather than long-term hoarding. Members get 50% off hotels that have just opened—a brilliant strategy to fill rooms during a property's ramp-up period while giving members a massive discount—and a free barista-made drink every single day.

It turns the loyalty model on its head. By charging a subscription fee, the brand changes the dynamic from a series of transactions to a committed relationship. But it also raises the stakes. "If I'm paying something, I want to make sure that actually what I'm getting is worth it," Antonopoulos admitted.

If instant gratification is the "what" of modern loyalty, trust is the "why."

While the flashy mechanics of subscription models grab headlines, the underlying psychology of the traveler is shifting in subtler, more profound ways. Alex MacMaster, VP of Loyalty at CarTrawler, shared findings from a report surveying 3,500 participants in the US, which unearthed a surprising statistic that challenges the very foundation of points-based marketing.

"The number one reason for joining a loyalty programme was trust," MacMaster revealed. "Above discounts, above the ability to earn and burn points... it's trust."

This signals a move away from loyalty as a simple bribery scheme. In an era of travel chaos, hidden fees, and complex terms and conditions, consumers are flocking to brands they believe will actually deliver. MacMaster noted that this is particularly vital because some loyalty programs have built "incredible bonds with their customers over years," creating members who are "fanatical about that brand."

However, trust is fragile, especially when finance departments get involved. Gilbert Ott, Director of Partnerships at Point.me, a tool that helps travelers manage and redeem points, warned that the "show me the money" attitude can backfire if CFOs get too greedy.

"You have to keep value in a programme," Ott cautioned. "All of these things have consequences in the overall brand perception... I think we've seen devaluations across almost every industry in loyalty... and it's a shame."

The danger, as Antonopoulos pointed out, is a "race to the bottom on price." If loyalty is just about who can offer the cheapest room or the lowest fare, the emotional connection evaporates. The goal is to avoid simply centering everything on "how can we make it as cheap as possible," and instead focus on an "emotional connection."

So, how do brands build this emotional connection without just giving everything away for free? The answer lies in leveraging data to create moments of unexpected joy—personalization that feels like magic rather than surveillance.

The panel discussed how loyalty, at its peak, makes people behave illogically. "Loyalty at its best makes people do irrational things," Ott observed. "Some of you will have stayed out of the way to stay loyal to a chain."

To trigger this irrational love, brands are moving toward hyper-personalization. MacMaster highlighted that younger travelers have vastly different values than their parents. In CarTrawler’s data, over 55% of travelers under 50 were willing to book an electric vehicle, compared to only 24% of those over 50. Knowing this allows a brand to tailor an offer that feels personal: offering a Tesla to a Gen Z traveler isn't just a car rental; it's a value signal.

But the most compelling example of emotional loyalty came from the skies. Ott recounted a recent story involving Emirates. A passenger hit a major status milestone mid-flight. In the old world, they would have received a form letter and a plastic luggage tag in the mail two weeks later.

In this new era of connected data, the crew was alerted while the plane was in the air. "As the plane was landing, they said this was the flight you hit X milestone," Ott said. The crew celebrated with the passenger at 30,000 feet.

That is the difference between a database entry and a memory. "Immediate feeling of reward, joy, benefit in that emotional moment," Ott said. "That was really good leveraging of data which most teams would never have thought to actually look at."

This shift toward immediacy and emotion is also democratizing who gets to be a "loyal" traveler. Historically, elite status was the reserve of the road warrior—the consultant flying weekly between London and New York. But the modern loyalty landscape recognizes that people are living their lives on the ground.

"We wanted to think about frequent buyers, not just frequent flyers," Ott explained regarding Point.me's approach. "I think there's always this conception... [of] frequent flyer programmes, they're really not that anymore. They are engagement tools for brands."

This is where the Ennismore model shines. By offering a free daily coffee, they turn a hotel—usually a place visited once or twice a year—into a part of a local’s daily routine.

"How many coffees do you have in a day?" Antonopoulos asked. "Even if it's just one, that's something you can get for free... it's not just focused on the stay." This captures the local market, driving revenue through food and beverage, and keeps the brand top-of-mind every single morning. It solves the problem of travel being "episodic," as Ott put it, where infrequent interactions make it "very hard to get that momentum."

Underpinning all of this—subscriptions, trust, emotional rewards—is a demand for simplicity. The labyrinthine terms and conditions of the past are being rejected. Travelers want transparency.

Ott noted that while many people raise their hands when asked if they collect points, "if you feel like you know what you're doing, I think you're in a fairly small group." The complexity is a barrier. New technologies and partnerships are trying to tear down these walls, connecting inventory directly to the consumer so they don't have to call a hotline or search for "saver" fares that don't exist.

"People want to know what the comparative pricing is and... want it to be easier to join, to take advantage, to redeem points and to feel like they're in control of the journey," Ott said.

This is why "Disloyalty" offers no blackout dates. It removes the friction. "We want to be able to ensure that we have no blackout dates, it's not pay till you stay... reliability and trust," Antonopoulos said.

As the session wrapped up, the message to the travel industry was clear: The days of holding the customer hostage with points that are hard to earn and harder to spend are over. The power dynamic has shifted.

Gilbert Ott’s opening quote from Suits rang true as the guiding principle for the next generation of travel marketing: "Loyalty is a two-way street. If I'm asking it of you, you're getting it from me."

Today’s traveler is willing to pay for access. They are willing to offer their trust. They are even willing to be "fanatical" about a rental car company or a hotel chain. But in exchange, they demand a relationship that values them today, not tomorrow. They want the coffee now. They want the discount now. And they want to be recognized before the wheels touch the tarmac.

The most loyal act a customer can commit might just be signing up for a program called "Disloyalty." It is an admission that the old rules are broken, and a new, more honest, and infinitely more instant relationship has begun.