I originally had a separate post written on my travel plans for 2024, but Gary Leff over at View from the Wing highlighted an interesting development in regards to American Express that I wanted to leave some comments on.
It appears that they are hiring a Senior Manager to lead the development of a travel & lifestyle mobile app.
More specifically, they write:
We are seeking a Senior Manager, Product Development to support the design, development and delivery of TLS’s first-ever travel & lifestyle booking and servicing mobile native booking experiences. We are hoping to not only enable native mobile travel and lifestyle shopping and booking journeys for our customers, but also serve as a true companion in all phases of the customer travel lifecycle, including trip inspiration and planning, post-booking servicing, and on-trip engagement and benefit reinforcement.
–Job Ad
Given that many credit card issuers over the past decade or two have made huge inroads to being more of a travel & lifestyle agency, which I would argue that this primarily stems from building their own proprietary rewards programs, I have my doubts that building a lifestyle app will ultimately be successful for American Express.
I ultimately wonder if this will join the ranks of Plenti, which was another interesting, but failed, American Express experiment (fun fact: Macy’s still has the Plenti landing page live, even though it was discontinued in 2018).
However, as the owner of this blog, I am allowed to play armchair CEO / VP of Product / VP of Customer Experience, and I wanted to give my thoughts on my doubts about the American Express’s proposed lifestyle and travel app, as well as what I would push for if I were leading this project.
Why do I have doubts about the lifestyle & travel app?
American Express is primarily a financial institution, while lifestyle & travel is clearly secondary
When you survey the brand “American Express,” I can almost guarantee you that people think of the credit card. They have banking and loans on the side, but most people think of the American Express charge and credit cards.
If you were to ask them if American Express is a lifestyle & travel company, I would gander that most people would say, “No.” I think that if you were to ask most people who hold an American Express credit card if they are leaders in travel and lifestyle, I think they would say, “No.”
While they are a massive travel agency (I know that they have a corporate travel program associated with their corporate cards), to your average consumer, I think they would either a.) go to the brand that they are most likely to purchase a flight from, or b.) go to one of the other current sites, such as Expedia or Booking.com.
Furthermore, if you look at their line-up of premium cards, they are basically coupon books that don’t really scream lifestyle. When you have to spend so much time figuring out which credits you’ve used under what conditions, does that scream premium lifestyle? I don’t think so. I cancelled my Platinum card purely because I was tired of keeping track of all the coupons.
Out of all my concerns, I actually think that this is the easiest one to overcome. They have already made several moves to position themselves as the leader in credit cards, but I think it’s a much more Baby Boomer & Generation X sentiment. Millennials (of which I am one) and Gen Z appear to view American Express as a brand as just another card distributor. I would bet that Chase has American Express beat on younger generations (except for those in Delta hubs).
On a practical level, people want a seamless experience
I think the biggest thing that is really getting in the way is that they are looking to build a separate app.
I do not believe that a standalone app would be successful unless it was successfully tied to the Membership Rewards program. The way that American Express has their app currently set up is that you go through your financial instruments to get to your rewards. When you separate what gets you your rewards from the actual rewards themselves (by moving them into another app, which is tough in and of itself), you break the key relationship between the two things what makes American Express a burdgeoning lifestyle and travel brand. Having the card leads to rewards, which, in turn, leads to better experiences.
By separating those two and still keeping financial instruments at the top of the food chain, you are really just shooting yourselves in the foot as people make their way down the funnel to a separate app (which most people wouldn’t even both downloading). Access to rewards would necessarily require a separate log-in on this new app, so not being able to connect the two in an easy manner will just necessarily make it more difficult to monetize.
What could actually make this idea work?
Don’t make a second app – Incorporate the lifestyle & travel component into the main mobile app
This is key: meet customers where they are already engaging. Where are most people interacting with American Express travel? They are currently interacting with American Express Travel within the American Express website. There’s a seamless experience to get between your financial instruments, your rewards, and the ability to use your rewards to book travel in one place.
Based upon the job description, it seems like that American Express is looking to create a combination of Expedia and Trip Advisor. Why do it in a separate app? Why not just do it within the current app, but engage customers in a way that adds further value to the one app that they are already using? If they plan on selling things like tours and other lifestyle items via affiliate links within this new American Express app and taking a percentage of the sale, why not redo the current app to make that a greater aspect of what’s already been built?
As seen above, the current homescreen has “home” (won’t change), “Membership,” “Offers,” & “Account.” I love using Amex Offers as much as anyone else, but is that really what’s going to drive more revenue over a fully functioning travel & lifestyle portal? I don’t have access to this data, but I can guarantee you that, long-term, there is much more ability for revenue with a “Lifestyle & Travel” tile (or whatever the UX team comes up with) than an “Offers” tab.
After acquiring a new customer, make lifestyle and travel 1A, with its financial instruments as 1B
In my first point, I discussed that American Express is seen primarily as a financial company…and I don’t think they need to stray from those roots. The money machine comes from those financial instruments.
However, within their marketing, they should highlight their seamless connection with lifestyle & travel, and then, once someone has become a financial instrument customer, they transition from financial services being over travel and lifestyle (by a lot) to travel and lifestyle being over financial services (50.1% vs. 49.9%, respectively).
American Express would hate to hear this, but I think that Bilt has done a fantastic job in this department (and they are quickly gaining marketshare, venture capital funding, and profits from the clientele that American Express likely wants to gear this app towards).
I never use the credit card travel portals. I never use them for advice. Why would I use them when Google Flights & Trip Advisor exists? Credit card travel portals do not make themselves easy to use without using them for very specific purposes.
When you open up the Bilt app, the first thing you see is not their credit card. It’s about things such as “The Best Spa Destinations in the US,” “The 10 Coolest Ski & Snowboard Destinations,” and other interesting articles. I actually read them! Why? Because they are convenient. They are in my face. It’s easy to get to my rewards and see what my rewards are, but the travel and lifestyle experiences are in my face, when Bilt, at it’s core, is a new credit card brand that has a hook of being able to get points on your rent.
Screenshots of what you see when you open up the Bilt app. Notice that wallet is in the very right side of the app.
Separate experiences for personal and business customers
I would think that this is already a given, but given the crossover between personal credit cards, small business credit cards, and corporate-managed cards, these need to be separated. Lifestyle content would only be relevant for personal credit card customers, while more tailored content could be created for business customers.
I believe that this would naturally come with time and as the content is built up.
Conclusion
I have my doubts about how American Express is going to build a lifestyle & travel app for its customers. However, I do see a path forward if done right by primarily meeting customers where they are already engaging. Build this liftestyle & travel portal directly into the current app. By doing this, you make the experience seamless between the financial instruments that are at the core of American Express’s identity and what it is trying to build.
What do you think about the prospects for a separate lifestyle & travel app for customers from American Express? Would it be something that you would use?