Skift Travel News Blog

It’s the season for holiday surveys, with sentiment for exploration and unique experiences abounding.

“Experiences over gifts” continues as a trend in the latest Amex travel spending survey of U.S. travelers and their choices for the upcoming end-of-year holidays that largely involves classic winter adventures and quality time with loved ones.

72% of Millennial and Gen-Z respondents surveyed said they would rather spend money on a trip to go away with friends or family for the holidays instead of gifts, with snowboarding or ski vacations topping the list. But what’s particularly interesting in this year’s analysis is that more than half of Millennial and Gen-Z respondents said they didn’t travel enough this summer. Wellness and mental health were amongst the top priorities for this group when it came to goal setting for the year ahead.

Amex said it conducted its survey between September 15 – 18 among a sample of 4,017 adults, including 1,824 Gen Z and Millennials. Respondents have a household income of at least $50k+ equivalent and travel by air at least once a year.

Booking.com hasn’t announced a deal to launch a co-branded credit card in the U.S., but a LinkedIn post Tuesday by a relatively new employee and a job opening for “manager, co-branded credit card growth & strategy,” provided grist for speculation.

In the LinkedIn post, Jonathan Rossman, whose position is listed as “co-brand credit card at Booking.com,” said he’s hiring team members and asked people to reach out if they are “interested in helping to build and grow a unique and differentiated cobrand product” at Booking.com.

Rossman, who has been at Booking.com for nine months, according to his LinkedIn profile, did previous stints at JPMorgan Chase, American Express, and British Airways.

He linked to a Booking.com job posting for manager, co-branded credit card growth and strategy, which the company described as “a new role being created to launch and manage Booking.com’s upcoming co-branded credit card in the US, a top priority market for the company.”

Booking.com tried its hand at travel inspiration. Source: Booking.com

Booking.com has been pushing for the past few years to get stronger in the U.S. It will need a partner for a co-branded credit card and it’s unclear who it will be.

One possibility? Booking.com kicked off an important partnership with Citi last month when the Amsterdam-based online travel agency and sister brand Rocket Travel began powering a newly launched Citi travel site for cardholders, CNBC reported. Booking provides flights, accommodations, rental cars, and tours and activities for the portal.

Hospitality company Sonder Holdings said that it has been investigating a data breach involving unauthorized access to some guest records.

The company believes that guest records created prior to Oct. 1, 2021 were involved in this incident.

The information that has been accessed includes username and encrypted password, credit card information. Additionally, Sonder believes that copies of government-issued identification such as driver’s licenses or passports may have been accessed for some guests.

Sonder learned of unauthorized access to one of its systems that included certain guest records on November 14.

Following the discovery, Sonder said it has engaged security and forensic specialists to assist in its investigation and assured that its business remains fully operational.

The company has also launched a dedicated landing page for guests concerning the incident.

Sonder said it will be making services available to guests involved in the data breach, such as credit monitoring, identity protection, or monitoring of website where personal information may be shared.

The company also said it has contacted law enforcement and is notifying appropriate regulatory bodies.

In 2018, Marriott International reported a massive four-year data security breach.

The 26-member Star Alliance airline group is planning to add its first non-airline member, CEO Jeffrey Goh said on May 12.

Goh did not want to get ahead of a formal announcement expected in the next several weeks, but he said the partner would be in Europe and would most likely be a railroad. “I will take your money if you wanted to bet on the railways,” he told reporters.

It remains unclear if passengers would be able to redeem travel or earn points on the non-airline partner.

Separately, Goh said Star is launching an alliance-wide, co-branded credit card, an industry first. The card would allow members to earn points to redeem on the Star Alliance frequent-flier program of their choice, he said. The card will launch in an unspecified market in the third quarter of this year. If it is successful, the alliance will expand it to other markets, Goh said.