The Conversation - October 2025

BTN's monthly roundup of business travel and distribution and technology topics as shared on social media channels. In recent weeks, industry insiders discussed traveler behavior scores, airlines searching for that Amazon-like retail experience and the interview with Concur and American Express Global Business Travel at BTN's Business Travel Show America. 

What if there were "traveler behavior scores"? 

Travlr ID founder and CEO Gee Mann on LinkedIn asked what would happen if a traveler's behavior "followed" them. "Not in a creepy 'Big Brother' way, but as a reflection of how you treat others," he wrote, say if airline could see your "behavior score." "Maybe then, more people will remember that travel is a privilege, not an entitlement," he wrote. 

The idea came up after Mann read a post about entitled travelers, and he noted that the technology for it is already here. "AI systems already tag voice tone, analyze complaint patterns, and log incident reports." Would it be supported? Or is it one step too far? he asked. 

"This could potentially have unintended consequences, taking into consideration people's biases (unconscious or otherwise)," replied freelance Festive Road associate consultant Ami Taylor. "What could it mean for neurodiverse travelers, whose behaviours and needs might be misinterpreted by staff? The power to block access to products or services based on one individual's perception/opinion of another person is a slippery slope, especially when based on a single interaction." 

New Distribution Solutions senior consultant Robert Levy (not pictured) added that "unless passengers gave explicit consent, using passenger details to create this sort of profile would likely breach data protection laws (at least in the U.K. and EU) and result in large fines for any company that took this approach." 

"Really have we now got to the point where the extreme minority's bad behaviour affects everyone else?" replied independent consultant and program manager Milind Puri.  

Are airlines too late for an Amazon-like experience? 

Agentivity CEO Riaan van Schoor on LinkedIn wrote that "we need to talk about airlines and the A word." The A meaning "Amazonification." The talk by some suppliers at a recent industry conference saying their aspiration is to do retail like Amazon "made me cringe," he said. Also, "it's 2025. If your goal is to be like Amazon today, you've missed the boat. You need to be what Amazon is going to be in 5 years time." Van Schoor added that another A word—apps—was not the way to go. "People don't want more apps, they want seamless access to your offerings in their channel of choice," he said. 

"Sweet music to my ears, it is about data, data, more data and then it is about orchestration of selling and offering a marketplace," travel technology strategist Ann Cederhall replied. "Totally agree with you that the future lies in integration into others, to be where the customer is and aggregation of content. It is about speed and agility, it is not about waiting 16 months for an NDC integration." 

Commercial Excellence Partners co-founder and managing partner Vimal Kumar Rai added that Amazon is a marketplace and a platform, "neither of which airlines actually want to be (if one were to look at their strategy). The last time any airline spoke about selling tickets for other airlines was a few years ago now, and it was Airasia. … Their silence since then speaks volumes about how this panned out." 

Is the Concur-GBT partnership just about tighter ecosystem control? 

Consultant and former CWT executive Martijn van der Voort commented on LinkedIn about the transcript for the Business Travel Show interview with Concur Travel and American Express Global Business Travel following their announced partnership. He claimed that Concur is detached from reality and that the companies' claim that the partnership is "absolutely driven by the customer" is unconvincing.  

"This is driven by two legacy giants seeking to protect share through deeper lock-in," van der Voort said. "For corporates and TMCs the message is subtle but important. Beneath the language of innovation sits a strategy of consolidation and tighter ecosystem control. It may bring efficiency for some but constraint for others." 

Talma Group CEO Iya Magen replied that "this conversation should serve as a reminder of what happens when innovation becomes selective. In a world moving toward openness, creating two versions of Concur feels like a step backward." 

"To me it always seems the same in business as in politics, the clearest picture for me comes from looking at who benefits (and in what ways) most from [fill in the blank]," wrote Travel in Motion senior airline retailing consultant and former Lufthansa manager Roman van Alten. "The last paragraph can apply to just about any player in any industry I think unfortunately."