Who’s in Charge When a Trip Goes Wrong?

The Decision Brief Anna Kofoed, Chief Officer for Global Strategic Partnerships, Allianz Partners Jason McCauley, Director of Commercial Partnerships & Business Development, Alaska Airlines Moderated by Carolyn Kremins, Skift Sponsored by Allianz Partners THE VERDICT The connected trip described by platform executives this week still breaks down when a traveler books across multiple providers. When a traveler books a flight on points, a hotel through an OTA, and a rental car from a third provider, they experience one journey. The industry sees separate transactions, and Kofoed said the result is that “nobody really owns the traveler.” Kremins called this the accountability gap: “The traveler thinks it’s one journey, but yet the industry sees it as a series of separate transactions.” The gap between the vision and reality shows up the moment something breaks. If you cannot own the entire trip, own the recovery. PATHS FORWARD Use AI for simple cases and route the hard ones to people. Kofoed said Allianz processes simple claims five times faster with AI than with humans. She said the handoff point is the customer’s state of mind — calm, simple cases go to AI; complex, high-stress cases go to a person. She said Allianz repatriates 13,000 people a year, including a recent case that required conversations with five governments, several boat trips, and an air ambulance to bring a traveler home from a Pacific island. The most complex, high-stress disruption cases are not something AI can (or should) handle alone today. Treat disruption as a loyalty moment. McCauley said guest satisfaction at Alaska Airlines exceeds 90% when an issue is resolved on the first call, and that number drops materially when the customer has to call back. He said when a guest has proactive coverage, “they go from being a little bit frustrated to like, ‘Oh, this is an opportunity to go get a drink or some lunch.’” Kofoed said disruption is the moment “where brands can create extreme trust or the other way around, lose trust.” Every travel company has disruption. The ones that treat it as a service opportunity can build lasting loyalty. Close coverage gaps systematically. McCauley said Alaska’s response to a coverage gap revealed after two snowstorms was to fix the process in one booking channel for future customers. One-off fixes help one customer. Systematic fixes help every customer who comes after. WHAT TO WATCH Every connected-trip concept at the Forum this week — Fogel’s cross-vertical recovery vision, Al-Khater’s synchronicity, and Priceline’s Penny keeping trip context — are attempts to close the accountability gap from the platform side. Partnership models can help close parts of the gap, offering another route to cross-journey connectivity. If AI agents increasingly book trips across multiple providers, the accountability gap could widen before it narrows. An agent that assembles a trip across platforms could create a journey no single provider can protect. Kofoed said that when travelers book from “two to three, maybe even ten providers,” the protection challenge compounds. Access all the Skift Takeaways from this event, as well as full session videos, presentation documents, and more editorial coverage at our Skift Global Forum attendees hub.