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Chase announced yesterday that they have bought cxLoyalty Group Holdings, which runs Connections Loyalty (the travel agency that has served many bank travel and gift card redemption portals and the group that handled the Chase Ultimate Rewards travel portal before they switched to Expedia in 2018). That could be good news for the Chase Ultimate Rewards travel portal in the long-term.
Those who used the Chase travel portal before and after it moved over to Expedia have surely noticed a general increase in prices / decrease in value in terms of hotel and activity pricing. I think it is likely to be good news for consumers when Chase brings this in-house rather than outsourcing it since it should give them more room to pass savings on to customers and/or at least be very competitive with what you find elsewhere with one middle-man eliminated.
cxLoyalty’s business also includes gift card and merchandise redemption technology platforms, but I’m most interested in what Chase does with the full-service travel agency. Chase has not announced a timeline (or even firm intention) for moving away from Expedia, but the announcement notes that “over time” customers “will have access to enhanced travel experiences”. It won’t be immediate, but I imagine that we’ll start to see benefit from the relationship sooner rather than later overall.
H/T: Dan’s Deals
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[…] have to think that the recent acquisition of cxLoyalty wasn’t an accident. Chase wants in on the travel agency game and wanted to cut out the […]
This might also fill in the missing piece they needed to make decisions on the future of CSR and CSP, so we might finally see updates to those products.
Wonder if Disney point redemptions will return..I guess that JPMC is pushing to complete better with Amex since they have been so travel centric for years.
That or it is a profit/loss center for corporate umbrella.