By Eduardo Ronzano
The next generation of travel loyalty will be driven less by rewards and more by a traveller’s ability to stay connected, anywhere.
For decades, travel loyalty has been built around points, miles, and rewards. But as travellers increasingly prioritise convenience, immediacy, and seamless digital experiences, the industry is entering a new era. Connectivity is becoming a critical part of the customer journey, enabling travel brands to remain present, useful, and relevant throughout the trip. In doing so, it is reshaping how loyalty is earned and maintained.
Virgin Atlantic recently made a clear statement about the future of travel: connectivity is no longer a nice-to-have.
With its ambition to become the world’s most loved travel company, the airline has announced a major focus on seamless connectivity, including free onboard Wi-Fi for Flying Club members through Starlink from late 2026. It has also partnered with Kolet to help travellers stay connected abroad with free mobile data when they land.
Taken together, these moves point to a broader shift in the travel industry. Connectivity is no longer just a technical feature or a customer perk. It is becoming a core part of the travel experience, and, increasingly, a new driver of loyalty.
For years, airlines, hotels and travel platforms have built loyalty around points, miles and rewards. The more customers travelled, the more they earned. For frequent travellers, this model still has value. But for the wider travel market, occasional travellers, families, younger generations and digitally native consumers, traditional loyalty programmes are no longer enough.
Today’s travellers do not only want rewards in six months’ time. They want their trip to be easier now.
They want to land in a new country and immediately order a taxi, open their accommodation app, message their hotel, find their way with maps, check a flight update, book an activity, or simply tell their family they have arrived safely.
In other words, they want the digital comfort they have at home to follow them abroad.
That is why connectivity is becoming one of the most important layers of the travel experience. Not just as a loyalty benefit, but as a way for travel brands to remain useful, relevant and present throughout the journey.
From points to presence
The travel industry has invested heavily in loyalty for decades. Airlines, hotels and online travel agencies have built sophisticated programmes around miles, upgrades, discounts and redemption schemes.
These programmes remain powerful, especially for frequent travellers. But the market is changing. Travellers compare more, switch more, and expect more. Younger customers in particular are less likely to stay loyal to a brand simply because they have collected points. They expect brands to deliver value in the moment, not only after repeated purchases.
This does not mean loyalty is dead. It means loyalty is changing.
The future of loyalty will not only be defined by who has the biggest rewards catalogue. It will be defined by which brands are able to remove friction at the exact moment travellers need help.
A traveller who lands abroad already connected does not experience the same trip as someone searching for airport Wi-Fi, queuing for a local SIM card or worrying about roaming charges. Connectivity changes the emotional tone of the arrival moment. It turns stress into relief. It makes the travel brand feel useful beyond the booking.
And that usefulness is what creates loyalty.
The “blackout zone” in travel
One of the most overlooked parts of the travel experience is what happens during the trip itself.
Before departure, travel brands are highly present. They inspire customers, help them choose destinations, sell flights or accommodation, send booking confirmations and provide check-in reminders.
After the trip, they often reappear with surveys, loyalty messages, offers and retargeting campaigns.
But during the trip itself, many brands disappear.
This is the “blackout zone”: the period when the customer is actually travelling, spending money, making decisions and experiencing the destination, but the original travel brand is often no longer part of the journey.
This gap is becoming increasingly problematic.
During a trip, travellers book restaurants, taxis, experiences, insurance, tours, entertainment and local services. They face delays, changes, questions and unexpected problems. They are highly active, highly mobile and often highly open to relevant recommendations.
But without reliable connectivity, even the best digital customer experience strategy breaks down.
A travel brand may have the right app, the right CRM strategy, the right offers and the right customer data, but if the traveller is offline, none of it matters.
Connectivity is therefore not only a convenience for the traveller. It is the foundation that allows travel brands to stay present during the most valuable and emotional part of the journey.
Why Virgin Atlantic matters
Virgin Atlantic’s move is important because it shows how connectivity is moving from the margins of the travel experience to the centre.
Free onboard Wi-Fi helps solve one part of the journey: staying connected in the air. Mobile connectivity abroad solves the next one: staying connected on the ground, from the moment travellers land.
Together, these initiatives point to a more continuous travel experience, where the brand does not disappear between departure and return. Instead, it remains part of the journey.
But Virgin Atlantic is not an isolated case. Across the industry, airlines, hotels, online travel agencies and travel platforms are starting to understand that connectivity is no longer a side benefit. It is becoming part of the product experience itself.
And this shift goes far beyond loyalty club members.
The opportunity is not only to reward frequent flyers. It is to help all travellers feel supported during their journey, whether they are loyal customers, occasional passengers, first-time users or families travelling once a year.
Connectivity gives travel brands a new way to be useful at scale.
Connectivity as an ancillary revenue opportunity
The business case is also strong.
Ancillary revenue has become essential to the economics of modern travel. Airlines and travel brands already generate significant income through baggage, seat selection, insurance, upgrades, lounge access, car rental, transfers and experiences.
But many traditional ancillaries are becoming familiar. Some are even perceived negatively when customers feel they are being charged for basic convenience.
Connectivity is different.
It delivers immediate, practical value. It solves a real pain point. It improves the customer experience from the moment the traveller lands. And once the traveller is connected, it opens the door to a much wider digital relationship.
A connected traveller can receive relevant local offers, transport suggestions, destination services, experience recommendations, upgrade opportunities and real-time support. The travel brand can remain present not only before the trip, but throughout the trip itself.
In that sense, connectivity is not just another ancillary product. It is the gateway layer that makes other digital ancillaries more effective.
Without connectivity, personalisation remains theoretical. As AI-powered travel assistants become more common, the ability to recommend the right service at the right time will depend on one essential condition: the traveller must be online. Connectivity is what turns real-time personalisation from a concept into an actual travel experience.
Why eSIM changes the equation
Until recently, international connectivity remained fragmented.
Travellers had three imperfect options: expensive roaming, public Wi-Fi or local SIM cards. Roaming is often convenient but costly. Public Wi-Fi is unreliable, insecure and unavailable on the move. Local SIM cards can be cheaper, but they require time, effort and sometimes a confusing activation process.
eSIM technology changes this.
With an eSIM, travellers can activate mobile data abroad in just a few taps, without changing their physical SIM card and without losing their main number. For travel brands, this creates a simple and scalable way to offer connectivity as part of the customer journey.
This is why eSIM partnerships are increasingly appearing across the travel sector. Airlines, online travel agencies and hospitality brands are exploring connectivity not only as an add-on, but as a way to improve the customer experience and create new moments of engagement.
The goal is not simply to sell data. It is to close the blackout zone.
By integrating connectivity into the travel journey, brands can give customers a useful benefit at exactly the right moment: when they arrive abroad and need to get online immediately.
The new loyalty equation
The future of travel loyalty will not be built only on points, miles or redemption catalogues. It will be built on usefulness.
The brands that win will be those that make the journey feel easier, more personal and more seamless, not just before departure or after the trip, but while travellers are actually on the move.
Virgin Atlantic’s latest connectivity moves are a sign of where the industry is heading. Across travel, connectivity is moving beyond the status of a perk or ancillary product. It is becoming the layer that enables service, personalisation, revenue and loyalty to happen in real time.
In a world where travellers expect everything to work instantly, the most powerful travel experiences will be the ones where connectivity becomes invisible, because it simply works.
Eduardo Ronzano
