🤯 The next war in the travel industry isn’t being fought by OTAs or airlines—it’s being won by your bank.
The battle for traveler distribution has quietly shifted from price wars to transaction ownership. The article, « The Wallet vs. The Web, » argues that banks are building an impenetrable « fortress » that bypasses traditional online travel agencies (OTAs) and emerging AI agents.
This seismic shift, dubbed « Paymentification, » means the entity that owns your daily spending is now moving to own your entire trip experience.
Here are the key takeaways from the piece on how institutions like Capital One are disrupting the market:
Vertical Integration: They are combining Payment (Identity), Product (Inventory), and AI (Risk Pricing) into one proprietary block. This allows them to predict and service travel intent before a customer even performs a web search.
Invisible Loyalty Loop: The daily, intimate relationship with a credit card (earning miles/points) locks consumers into the bank’s own travel portal, making their currency « legal tender » only in the bank’s « store. » OTAs never get a bid.
The Merchant of Record: Banks are moving upstream from being the « dumb pipe » that processes money to becoming the actual Merchant of Record that owns the customer experience and liability.
The article poses a critical question: In the war of relevance, does the entity that holds the Liability (the money) and the Ledger (the data) already hold the high ground?
What does this « Bank Block » strategy mean for the future of travel distribution, especially for independent suppliers?
Read the full analysis here: https://lnkd.in/gya_3ENh
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