From the booming experiential travel trends driven by Gen Z and Millennials to the Middle East’s increasingly influential role in shaping loyalty innovations, we’re unpack the fast-evolving world of travel subscription services with CEO of Custom Travel Solutions (CTS), Mike Putman.
Putman offers rare insight into what’s powering the next chapter of global travel. In a candid conversation, he explains why airlines in the Gulf are ahead of the curve, how lifestyle-driven loyalty programs are reshaping consumer expectations, and what truly differentiates CTS in a rapidly expanding market.
Can you tell us a bit more about Custom Travel Solutions?
Our primary line of business is providing travel solutions in white-label formats to other organisations interested in having travel as a vertical or those looking to offer a subscription-based travel product. We’re mainly focused on the loyalty subscription sector.
Our business is B2B2C, and our customers range from publishers, newspapers, organisations who may already have a subscription product as well as those looking for a greater wallet share. We work with multi-level marketing companies, banks, as well as credit cards issuers across a broad customer base.
There are many companies who want to get into the travel business however they don’t have the know-how, don’t want to make the investment in the technology, the fulfilment, the licensing, the regulations, so they look to us to power-up those solutions for their businesses.
What are the noticeable trends you’re seeing in the Gulf that are fuelling growth of travel subscription services?
If you think in terms where travel and subscriptions intersect, I think the Middle East is actually ahead of the rest of the world in a lot of ways, some of the airlines have introduced subscriptions to increase your status level. For example, Qatar Airways now allows members increase their frequent flyer status for a fee.
This provides additional perks that you’d only get at that higher tier level. There’s several different opportunities that have really emerged from Middle East, especially the airlines who seem to be a little more forward thinking then the rest of the world.
What about the way different demographics engage with loyalty programs. Are there any interesting insights you can share?
Absolutely, Gen Z’s and the millennials are all about travel as an experience. That is the big thing that everybody is really talking about. They’re not interested in going to Paris to go to Paris, there interested in going to Paris if Beyonce has got a concert or there’s a UEFA championship match. It’s a lot more experiential-led travel.
CTS and our white labels that we service, provide all the travel verticals including flights, hotel, transportation, but we can also get you tickets to the football championship, concert, festival, or other event you want to go to. We’re finding a lot of a lot of Gen Z and Millennials are interested in having that kind of full-scope capability and are willing to pay for it.
They’re willing because the overall travel experience is more important to them than staying in a nicer apartment. They’d rather spend their money experiencing life. So if you look at the discretionary income of Gen Z it tends to be slanted more towards spending on travel than in past.
Beyond flights and accommodation, what are the other types of loyalty services are increasing in popularity?
Shared workspace services are one of our optional benefits that our clients can take advantage of. We also have things like luggage storage so, say you’re taking a train into town to have a meeting but you can’t check into the hotel until 4pm, but you have a 10am meeting, we offer a left-baggage services. We offer eSims so when people are travelling they can stay connected and we provide free data allowance that goes along with the membership. As well as 24/7 concierge service.
Though our services differs a bit because it’s not just about concierge travel it’s about lifestyle. Take for example the digital nomad, they could be somewhere and need to take a client out to dinner, so ask us for a recommendation of the ten best Italian restaurants or if we could get them tickets to an event. So it’s a real lifestyle assistant which is works well for these younger generations who often times work in the spur of the moment.
What drives Custom Travel Solutions as a brand?
Because we’re based on the subscription model, ultimately our drive is to provide our clients with the very best price that we can. We work with a range of aggregators who know they’re competing with one another on price.
When you say subscription model, who is paying for that subscription? The travel company or the end user?
In general, we provide a package of services to our clients, for example, a publisher, bank or marketing company. They in turn package that up and sell it as their product to the end consumer. In some cases with credit card companies, they may have a platinum-type card that they’re charging USD 800 and they bundle our offering into that credit card.
So in most instances the subscription service is absorbed by the end user. Our clients typically collect membership fees from their customers which is a new revenue source for them and then we charge them a wholesale rate for the subscriptions.
Does CTS offer services in Arabic?
Yes, we do we have ability to take care of Arabic-speaking users as well.
How does CTS differentiate itself from others in the market?
Many of the people on our executive team come from the world’s largest international travel club so we learned a lot of lessons from that business. When we left, we decided to build the best travel subscription product possible. Our product is built on having superior customer service. Often if you book through an OTA and it’s hard to get to speak to someone or you’re speaking to a bot.
We built our entire experience around customer experience, and we’ve heavily invested in that. We’ve also built out the technology surrounding the customer experience so that all our clients have access to 24/7 customer support via telephone, via chat, via email. We’re there to help them navigate whatever challenges they might find when they travel.
When clients come to us after having been with one of our competitors, sub-optimal customer service experience is usually the reason. They don’t want to tarnish their brand and so they come to us for some help. It’s basically been our marketing for quite some time. It’s just quality of service that people know us for in the marketplace.
A common-pet peeve for frequent travellers is when the lounge their credit card promised is unavailable or oversubscribed, resulting in waiting lists that often don’t clear before their flight, or getting access to a lounges which is sub-par. Do you see this with any of your other clients?
That’s a very good point and even in my travels just in the last couple weeks I’ve encountered that. There were 60 minute waits for an Okay lounge and I would agree with you there is a definitely a problem. Mostly due to an over proliferation of people who have access. Credit card companies are building lounges around the world that are exclusive to their cardholders but you know that’s not an overnight solution, so I don’t have a good answer for you other than curbing the number of subscribers.
As travel becomes increasingly experience-driven, it’s clear it’s important for travel businesses to position themselves at the centre of where loyalty, lifestyle, and technology converge for their travellers.
With a model built on service, innovation, and customer care, Mike Putman and his team are proving that the future of travel isn’t just about where you go, it’s about how seamlessly you get there. Thank you to Mike for sitting down with us.
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