Technology is bringing travel suppliers and corporate travelers closer together. Advances in generative AI coupled with enhanced loyalty programs are enabling these companies to provide more personalized services, which in turn creates more “stickiness” from the end user. The more the traveler stays in a supplier website or app, the more opportunity there is for a direct relationship.
Suppliers also are using technology to offer services that traditionally were available only through a travel management company. Examples include Marriott International’s SME-focused Business Access by Marriott Bonvoy program and Qantas’ Business Rewards Program, also geared toward the small and midsize enterprise market. Each offers bookings beyond their main proposition of hotels and flights to include a complete package—air, accommodation and car rental options—along with the ability to provide reporting and upload a corporate travel policy.
Next up is Concierge from Delta Air Lines, announced in January with plans to launch this spring. The AI-powered “personal assistant” will offer SkyMiles loyalty members “multi-modal” transportation options with partners Uber and Joby, among other services via the Delta app. While this example is not quite the same as the Marriott and Qantas ones, it is in the wheelhouse of using technology and loyalty to create more personalization and a deeper tie to customers, which includes the business traveler.
“There’s a pendulum … of things that’s going on right now between AI and apps and mobile,” said president and owner of World Travel Erika Moore. “I do think more and more you will start to see airlines having direct connect and corporate SME servicing and trying to build more and more stickiness into their apps.”
This trend is not new. “It’s been going on for quite a while. I think some suppliers are getting better at it as they’re advancing their technology,” said Traxo VP of client success Aash Shravah, who previously worked at TMCs. “The Delta Concierge service is a good example of advancing technology, and then the others are doing it because they’re changing their strategies a little bit. Whoever’s not doing it is going to either start or has ambitions to do something similar.”
For now, Delta Concierge will be for SkyMiles members who have linked their tickets to their loyalty account. Any existing limitations on servicing or changes for tickets booked through indirect channels will still apply, according to a Delta spokesperson. The service doesn’t yet recognize travelers from corporate customers, but the carrier is working on this “as we look to offer personalized recommendations through Delta Concierge in the future.”
In its initial form, the service will be able to assist with those elements of a trip as they relate to Delta, which can include any partner or third-party ancillaries booked along with a flight linked to a SkyMiles profile, according to the carrier. Delta, however, when asked if Concierge would be able to expand beyond partner assistance and recommendations, said that while there is no current timeline, it is “working toward a future state in which it’s able to offer tailored travel recommendations, based on your preferences.”
Partnership Travel Consulting’s Andrew Menkes said that if the Concierge services are limited to Delta’s ecosystem and partners, “then there’s a small market in my view, and it should not concern the TMCs too much. It’s basically an ongoing trend for travel service providers—specific to business travel more than anything else—looking to get closer to their customers.”
But if that traveler uses a TMC, it’s also the TMC’s customer, Menkes added. “There’s a bit of a push and pull. … No airline can compete against the TMC unless it’s a flag carrier in market, for example Qantas. But in a competitive market like the U.S., that’s not the same dynamic. No TMC can compete against an airline. They don’t fly people anywhere. There’s your divergent challenges. However, airlines have always had the right to distribute directly to their end customer, and AI is going to bring that supplier closer to the traveler, especially for those that tend to self-book using the OBT.”
ITW director of strategic sourcing, global travel and expense management services Cathy Sharpe is a “great advocate for serviceability in an omnichannel environment, so I do think that (these programs) pose a question to the TMCs on what else do they have in their armory to bring forward that is interesting and productive to us, the traveler,”
For ITW, “the best opportunity is going to be dependent on the persona of the traveler,” Sharpe said. Somebody who travels once a year, that TMC is going to be your go-to. But if you’re a Delta 360, … if you use the Concierge service … it might be worth it for a certain level of people. There’s not a one-size-fits-all.”
Moore thinks that individual supplier relationships “are not bad at all,” she said. “On the contrary, it’s actually good. It keeps TMCs on their toes, keeps you wanting to invest and innovate and make sure that you’re further adding value to the programs of your corporate buyers.”
Still, when the corporation goes down the path of engaging directly with the supplier, then they have to figure out “what happens to the frequent flyer number? What happens to the tracking? What happens to the duty of care? When do I lose track of my customer?” Moore said. “The thing is, everything is great and a wonderful option until there is either an irregular operation or a natural catastrophe.”
End Game: Direct Bookings
In BTN’s What to Watch 2025 articles from January, VP at Thayer Investment Partners Cara Whitehill wrote about technology affecting travel management strategy. In one section, she posits that supplier direct bookings will take over.
“As GenAI revolutionizes travel search and loyalty programs get smarter, more transaction volume will accrue directly to suppliers and away from the TMC,” she wrote. “This has implications for the role of TMCs and travel managers, who will shift focus to service and support instead of transactions.”
Some sources agreed.
“Creating a demand in their preferred networks is the way forward for suppliers,” said GoldSpring Consulting partner Will Tate. “Creating a value proposition in their own app or in their own site versus the traditional TMC-GDS kind of infrastructure, that’s the secret sauce. They operate the carrier, they operate the hotel, so they can offer that upgrade to a concierge level or a mini suite or first class or 50 percent (extra) miles. There are all kinds of ways that they can sweeten the pot to make travelers more eager to move out of the traditional booking channel. … It’s going to continue to be competitive.”
Another reason suppliers are moving in this direction is to control the narrative of their own product,” Shravah said. “Through TMC channels, let’s face it, (there are) antiquated booking solutions. So here we go with the new business SME programs like Marriott’s. These things are inevitable, and I think that they’re competing directly (with TMCs). The corporate booking tools have not advanced to the (same) level and maybe they never will, but they’re definitely falling … far, far behind to the needs and expectations of today’s travelers. … So again, (it’s a) loyalty play, a direct-booking play.”
Referring again to Delta Concierge, “they’re connecting with Uber,” Shravah said. “And yes, it’s just Uber right now, but tomorrow it could be Marriott, it could be Hilton. When you get people like Delta together with Uber, they’re not doing it for small things. … Technology is going to allow that to scale, unlike in the past when that was not scalable. And AI is going to help with that scalability quite a bit. So yes, it’s definitely a threat.”
TMC Challenges or Opportunities?
Most sources agreed that TMCs are going to be in a tough spot because AI is going to enable to supplier offerings to be more personalized and more attractive than it has been in the past to go out of the corporate channel.
“If companies still want to manage travel well, they have to create some sort of a system that is competitive with what the market is innovating,” Tate said. ” You have to find the right TMC app that works well enough to create that same stickiness and innovation and keeps people in channel versus giving them a poor-quality experience that then drives them out of channel.”
Tate noted that most TMCs don’t necessarily have the capital needed to develop the same app services that suppliers are offering, “unless you are talking about some of the really giant TMCs,” he said. “But this is where innovation is going to come out. You’re going to see more of that travel innovation that often starts on the leisure side and then they pivot, and they get a corporate application. Kayak is almost the best example of that that we recently have seen. Some tech startup is going to build some pretty great AI around an app, and it’ll be a cross purpose to a TMC who can then license it.”
Shravah agrees that not every TMC has the investment money available for upgraded technology. “So TMCs do rely on third parties,” he said. “What they are offering is the service. That’s their own people, whether it be account managers or travel counselors. And I think that’s where they should be focused. Should a TMC be looking at these trends and changes and thinking, ‘I need to do something different?’ Yes, it should be. If you’re not thinking that way, something is wrong with your analysis of the market.”
TMCs can counter these trends by doing one key thing, Shravah said: Allow for bookings to occur outside of your channel.
“It’s that simple,” he said, adding that the greatest friction point is when booking flow and source are dictated. “The more frequently somebody travels, or the higher they are in their company’s C-level suite, they don’t follow any of these rules. Embrace all booking flows. By doing that, you are changing the way you present yourself. It becomes more user-friendly, it becomes more desirable.”
The same goes for these “TMC-like” programs. “If you’re a TMC, if you don’t embrace those products, they’re going to figure out a way to do it without you,” he said.
Moore said that for a simple trip say from Delta, and then you want to get an Uber, you can do that through the Delta app. “But you still want to be able to have your entire trip, your invoicing, your duty of care, all of those things,” she said. “That’s still done through the TMC.”
That said, Moore thinks there will be a swing “whereby individuals do become very entrenched with their own airline and the capabilities on, for example, that mobile app. But then as you are having companies that want to continue to do such things as duty of care and provide cost savings and policy compliance, you still need something that extracts it all from all the individual apps and brings it together.”
World Travel has moved in that direction by opening an IT innovation center in Uruguay, which uses AI and machine learning to enhance the TMC’s services.
It Comes Down to the Data
Tate concurred that with the AI-powered supplier apps, “it gets all connected, then that is a pretty sticky place to live,” he said. And because they are all leisure apps in essence, “why wouldn’t an OpenTable love to connect in with Delta customers?” he posited. “That’s probably where those concierge-related apps will go, to include restaurant reservations and so on. What has to happen is if you get an integrated profile, and it collects all that stuff, and you as a traveler—you have personalization—you have to opt in and say okay to that transfer of data. But if you do, can you imagine how seamless your experience would be?”
Moore believes that eventually there will be an additional pendulum swing “where you will want data to allow you to compare between the different individual offerings, (because) more and more with the consumers, sort of Gen Z, that choice around variety and loyalty to the experience, it’s not necessarily tied to a single brand. … And it’s up to your travel policy to make it up to me to have the best experience all around.”
At Traxo, Shravah said there is “freedom. … If you love Amex GBT, great. You love Delta.com, great. You love Marriott.com, great. Whatever you want, because if you are somebody who wants to solve the problem of direct bookings, we can help you, and we can bring the data flow because what is it about the end of the day? It’s about data. … If you can capture the data directly or indirectly, it doesn’t matter how you do it, you can then showcase your value. … Also, eliminate the transaction fee model. … Now you can compete.”
Travel Manager Implications
The move toward stronger loyalty and direct relationships with travelers “creates another conflict point because undoubtedly, there will be some services inside of these supplier specific apps that are unique and offer value to the travelers. And those are not easily replicated in the booking tools or in mobile apps or in TMC apps, any non-supplier owned app,” Tate said. “It will drive more competition from the traditional channel. Buyers are certainly not going to be supportive of that.”
Sharpe noted that most travelers will self-service when they can. “This is why the airlines and the Marriotts who, if you go to their apps, you can do so many things,” she said. “It’s a breath of fresh air to check in, to do all of the things that you need to do. … And the more time that they have to talk on the phone or even in a chat channel is just aggravation. It’s a challenge for the TMCs.”
But it also can be a challenge for the buyer. “Our job is tougher,” Sharpe said. “The travel buyer has a more difficult position, but I think the airlines know and are trying to set up ways to fulfill some of the requirements we have. … I’ve never been transactional for my role, so I don’t understand that, but I do see that old adage of ‘you must take the lowest fare and you must buy through our travel agency,’ I don’t hear that much anymore. I think that everybody’s opening up to the idea that you have to look at it in a more Amazon-like marketplace kind of way where there’s possibilities.”
Tate believes this battle will continue between supplier direct preferences for cost control and experience control versus companies that will want to say, ” ‘No, I want to control that.’ … Because GoldSpring represents buyers, our hope is that with your preferred suppliers, you could integrate the two. Go to your preferred hotel chain and say, ‘could we institute some of those offers you’re putting in your public app? Could we make those private for our organization? And then that way create a little more stickiness with our people to your product, but they’re within channel.’ The hope is that suppliers will work with buyers and preferred relationships to enhance that experience.”
