Travel customer acquisition is moving out of a public auction and into private treaties, writes Skift founder and CEO Rafat Ali. This spring and summer have brought a wave of partnerships — status matches, points transfers, and embedded bookings — between major airlines, hotel groups, and OTAs. Deals involve Marriott Bonvoy, Hyatt, Expedia, and Air India.

Underneath these announcements is one shift: what used to be bought in an open auction is now arranged privately between two companies. Loyalty deals trade access to members, while distribution deals trade inventory and shelf space. For two decades, all of it ran through one channel: Google.

Acquisition is moving out of the open auction and into private deals, and each one turns on the same unsettled question: who owns the customer.

The CEOs of Expedia, Booking Holdings, and Hilton take the stage at Skift Global Forum, September 22-24 in New York, where a working roundtable puts the question on the table: when the agent books the trip, who owns the customer?

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Flexible payments can help travel brands increase sales, protect customer relationships, and create value beyond the initial booking.

Barcelona's economy is 13% tourism-dependent, but the city is cracking down anyway.

In this clip from Good Morning Hospitality, A Skift Podcast, Brandreth Canaley and Michael Goldin break down why tourist bans in big cities are actually a win for smaller destinations that need the demand more, whether Spain's tourism authority should be redirecting its own domestic travelers, and what happens to the markets next door when the famous ones close the door.

How are public travel companies performing around the world? The Skift Travel 200 pulls the data you need to understand global market movements. Paid subscribers get full access here.

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