Q&A: iSeatz Founder and CEO on the Future of Travel Loyalty

This sponsored content was created in collaboration with a Skift partner.

Evolving alongside the travel and hospitality industry for the past 25 years, iSeatz specializes in providing configurable travel booking solutions and loyalty program integrations — from pioneering third-party ancillary services in the booking path with Delta in 2007 to continually expanding the breadth of lifestyle rewards. 

Kenneth Purcell, founder and CEO of iSeatz, recently sat down with SkiftX to reflect on the lessons he’s learned and the milestones that have shaped the company’s path, and discuss exciting developments on the horizon, including a new platform launch and the continuous enhancement of user experience and accessibility.

SkiftX: What are the most significant lessons you’ve learned since founding iSeatz 25 years ago?

Kenneth Purcell: We started iSeatz to offer online restaurant reservations for consumers and hotel concierges. However, we quickly realized that achieving success would require significant capital to build a consumer-facing brand — so we pivoted our business model multiple times until we found a sustainable approach.

There’s a significant gap between having a great idea and turning it into a profitable business. A good idea can lack monetary reward or simply need the right timing. We were likely too early with our idea and not sufficiently capitalized to sustain ourselves long enough to build a business with strong fundamentals.

We responded to market needs by pivoting from restaurant reservations to launching third-party ancillary services. Over time, we expanded to include earning and burning points for transactions, incorporating airline tickets, and integrating loyalty systems.

SkiftX: In 2007, iSeatz was the first to launch third-party ancillary services in the booking path with Delta. How did this innovation influence your approach to partnerships and services?

Purcell: It was a significant achievement for us to secure that relationship, especially since we had never facilitated car rental bookings or hotel reservations before. We went from offering a white-label solution as an external link to being integrated into the primary purchase path of a major airline, significantly increasing our volume.

The shift also forced us to change our operations, ensuring our solutions were resilient, robust, and secure. As a relatively young company at the time, we needed to prove we could handle the scale and reliability required for a booking system central to an airline’s operations. Eventually, we powered the booking engines for Delta, Northwest, KLM, Air France, Amtrak, Eurostar, and others, making sure our systems were robust with fast response times.

In 2012, we achieved another major milestone through our partnership with American Express. Previously, we had offered hotel, car rental, and activity bookings, allowing users to earn points for these bookings. Our focus was on enabling airline sites to book these ancillaries, incentivizing users with points. In 2012, we launched the ability for users to book airline tickets and, through Amex Travel, redeem points for hotel rooms, airline tickets, and car rentals. We’ve powered Amex Travel ever since, and we’ve been able to continuously evolve through that relationship and our other key client partners.

SkiftX: Lifestyle rewards have been a core part of iSeatz from the beginning. How have these rewards evolved over time?

Purcell: Initially, integrating travel and lifestyle experiences was an afterthought and very disjointed. Now, there’s a shift towards consolidating travel and lifestyle-related options under a single, unified umbrella for members. Booking a hotel room, flight, or car rental is a purely transactional experience. While you may be excited about your destination, the booking process itself isn’t glamorous — it’s just a means to an end.

The lifestyle component changes this by focusing on the experiences and activities that travel enables. It’s not just about getting a flight — it’s about what you’ll do once you arrive. We travel to see and experience new things, not just to find a cheap fare. Integrating lifestyle options reflects this purpose, making the travel experience richer and more meaningful.

SkiftX: As rewards categories are expanded to drive more direct bookings, what new opportunities are you exploring for airlines and other sectors?

Purcell: Suppliers and content providers need to decide what additional capabilities they will offer to encourage customers to book directly on their sites. Lifestyle options play a significant role in this. While offering hotel reservations through a car rental agency or an airline is straightforward, there needs to be a compelling reason for loyalty members to book more than just the basics on these sites.

The more enhanced capabilities and offers that airlines, hotels, and car rental agencies provide, the more likely they are to shift from being seen as purely transactional or commodity services to offering real, differentiated value to their members. For example, Delta’s Platinum Medallion members could receive better seats on the plane, more points for booking a hotel room, or exclusive content access if they book through Delta rather than an online travel agency (OTA).

There must be a compelling reason for customers to book directly rather than through aggregators, and integrating lifestyle options is key to providing that incentive. 

SkiftX: You’re in the process of launching a new platform. Can you share more details about that? 

Purcell: Our new platform, called LXP, is product-centric, highly configurable, and designed to scale easily in a multi-tenant environment. It features a powerful business rules engine, allowing us to change business rules without new code, offering a flexible off-the-shelf solution and fully custom user experiences for enterprise clients.

LXP is supplier-agnostic, enabling us and our partners to choose the best content providers without being tied to any one supplier. It serves as a bridge between suppliers and distribution partners, simplifying integration and reducing technical complexity. The system is API-driven and composable and supports configurable user experiences and specific custom booking flows.

SkiftX: How has your user interface changed to meet evolving user needs, and how are you incorporating accessibility into the platform? 

Purcell: Our user interface is cross-industry inspired, not just travel. By integrating modern e-commerce practices, we’re creating a more streamlined and user-friendly process. We test everything before deployment, allowing us to make informed decisions that benefit both us and our users. This people-first approach helps users navigate the booking process more efficiently and supports our partners in generating more transactions and happier customers.

Accessibility is a core tenet of that user experience and a key initiative for us. We don’t want to just check a box on compliance; we want to truly lead in this space. Not only is it a good thing to do, but it’s also good for our and our clients’ business, and it drives innovation. During a recent internal training session, an employee, inspired by her experiences with her disabled daughter, proposed using generative AI to create personas of people with varying disabilities. This initiative aims to identify vulnerabilities and improve accessibility testing. Her idea was immediately adopted by the accessibility and user experience team and put into practice. She’s also since become certified as an accessibility development specialist, supported by iSeatz. It’s a great example that committing to culture, accessibility, and innovation are not mutually exclusive.

SkiftX: How does iSeatz’s people-first mentality manifest in your company culture? 

Purcell: We genuinely care about culture. Just like with our user experience or client satisfaction, we consistently audit, monitor, and improve our employee engagement strategies. We regularly gather feedback, and we act on that feedback. We’ve established a culture where our team knows they are being listened to and heard. 

We recently made the Inc. Best Workplaces list again this year. Awards are nice, but one of the sayings we have internally is that we don’t just want to be named a best place to work — we want to be a best place to work. I’ve been here for 25 years, and my priority is maintaining a positive work environment, regardless of external recognition. We’re committed to doing what we believe is right and holding ourselves accountable.

To learn more about iSeatz, click here.

This content was created collaboratively by iSeatz and Skift’s branded content studio, SkiftX.