This sponsored content was created in collaboration with a Skift partner.
As travelers seek flexibility, personalization, and peace of mind, credit cards have become central to the travel loyalty ecosystem. Nearly half of U.S. travelers carry a travel card, with protection among their top decision factors.
As research for a new report from Skift and Allianz Partners, SkiftX spoke with Erik Heusel, head of global client segments at Allianz Partners and Rob Cavaliere, chief sales officer at Allianz Partners USA, to explore how financial institutions can lead the next era of loyalty. Banks that connect protection, personalization, and partnership will have a powerful opportunity to strengthen trust and create more meaningful, enduring relationships with cardholders.
SkiftX: As financial institutions expand their role in travel, what unique value can they offer travelers?
Rob Cavaliere: Financial institutions add unique value to travelers by capitalizing on strong brand loyalty and integrating travel into their services. We’re already witnessing this trend in the U.S. among major banks. Chase, Capital One, and American Express all have loyalty programs with travel rewards, cash back, and points redemption that rival those of leading travel brands.
As Skift data shows, younger generations increasingly prefer booking travel through bank platforms over traditional OTAs due to the convenience and tailored benefits offered. Travel-focused credit cards and booking platforms deliver seamless, user-friendly experiences. These cards — and the points and discounts they provide — offer a hedge against uncertain financial conditions, enabling customers to continue prioritizing travel. Banks can act as trusted one-stop shops for travel needs, simplifying the process while instilling confidence in travelers.
Through these innovations and robust loyalty programs, financial institutions are reshaping how travelers engage with the industry.
How can trip protection and other care-driven benefits deliver the personalization travelers expect?
Cavaliere: Embedded benefits are a huge selling point for financial institution loyalty programs. When considering a new credit card, a customer looks at the annual fee and APR but mostly cares about the benefits. They want to know, “What comes with this card? Why should I choose this one over another?”
At first glance, travel insurance may not be as exciting as a free streaming subscription or rideshare discount, but it’s a critical component of well-rounded programs and a key loyalty driver.
At Allianz Partners, our products protect customers in the moments that matter most — when they need to cancel a trip for a covered reason, face long delays, or experience a medical emergency abroad. Delivering proactive, responsive service in these key moments turns customers who are neutral about travel insurance into lifelong advocates.
How does offering trip protection help financial institutions provide more seamless experiences?
Erik Heusel: In the past, consumers had modest expectations for travel insurance — they looked for reimbursement for a trip cancellation or rental car claim. Today, they expect providers to take care of them throughout their journey. At Allianz Partners, we’ve enhanced our solutions to meet and exceed those expectations.
As consumers increasingly seek travel solutions through their financial institution loyalty programs, they prefer a one-stop, end-to-end experience. Embedding travel insurance within bank offerings helps deliver that.
We take our role as an extension of partner brands seriously. When a customer contacts us, the experience we provide reflects both our brand and our partners’. That’s why we digitally integrate our service into partner ecosystems and offer the human touch of our award-winning assistance team to solve travel mishaps with ease.
What can banks do to make cardholders more aware of their travel benefits?
Cavaliere: Financial institutions do a great job highlighting card benefits during acquisition, but awareness can fade over time. That’s an opportunity to remind cardholders of their benefits throughout the travel experience.
We’re not a typical travel insurance company; we want customers to use their benefits and file claims. We show value through real-life scenarios, illustrating how their credit card benefits can solve unexpected problems.
We believe in marketing throughout the journey — from the initial purchase to pre-trip and post-trip communications — to highlight how travel insurance protects customers at every step.
How do Allianz Partners’ relationships with banks differ from partnerships with travel providers?
Heusel: The key difference is how closely travel insurance connects to a bank’s core business. Banks are major distribution channels for many types of insurance, making them credible and trusted partners, but travel insurance isn’t always top of mind.
We work closely with our financial institution partners to design products that address real customer friction points across travel, purchase protection, and home services. We’ve also focused on new ways to promote and deliver these solutions to consumers.
Our partnerships include several models: embedded benefits for credit and debit cards, optional upgrades, digital bancassurance such as P&C insurance for SME customers of ING Netherlands, and Allyz, our ecosystem of travel and home-related services. This approach creates a win-win: banks turn a cost center into a profit center while customers gain more value and personalized products.
What makes a successful partnership?
Heusel: It’s a mix of art and science. Successful partnerships are built through constant, data-driven co-creation that responds to evolving customer needs.
Rome wasn’t built in a day — we’re in this for the long haul. We work with our partners to continuously review financial and customer experience results to design programs that fit seamlessly within their value propositions.
We also balance benefits with cost. As an Allianz company, we excel in providing high-value, life-saving benefits like air ambulance assistance that deliver crucial support in high-pressure situations — but we also aim to provide simple services that customers use and value every day.
For more data, information, and insights around opportunities to grow credit card loyalty among travelers, download the new report from Skift and Allianz Partners.
This content was created collaboratively by Allianz Partners and Skift’s branded content studio, SkiftX.
