Albertsons Adds Expedia-Powered Travel Booking to Loyalty Program Platform

Albertsons Cos. has added a travel booking experience powered by Expedia to the mobile app and website of its “for U” loyalty program.

The new “for U Travel” offers Albertsons Cos. customers the travel booking experience; member-only deals on flights, hotels, car rentals and vacation packages; and cash back to use toward grocery purchases, the company said in a Tuesday (Sept. 23) press release.

When booking air and non-air travel through the platform, members of the free “for U” loyalty program can earn 5% cash back for grocery purchases, while members of the paid FreshPass loyalty program can earn up to 10% cash back, according to the release.

This cash back can be used at Albertson Cos. stores, including Albertsons, Safeway, Vons, Jewel-Osco, Acme and Shaw’s, per the release.

Manjari Mehrotra, vice president of loyalty at Albertsons Cos., said in the release that this offering is another way for the company to bring value and convenience to its customers.

“for U Travel extends our loyalty experience beyond the grocery store and rewards our customers for something they already do — travel,” Mehrotra said.

Carolina Cabero Manrique, senior vice president of private label solutions for Expedia Group, said in the release that “for U Travel” is powered by the company’s White Label Template solution and enables Expedia to reach the 82% of consumers who are interested in booking travel through a non-travel loyalty program.

“At Expedia Group, our mission is to make travel accessible and rewarding for everyone, and partnering with Albertsons Cos. allows us to reach travelers where they already shop,” Manrique said.

Expedia’s B2B business, which works with more than 60,000 firms to integrate Expedia offerings into their own consumer-facing operations, has been among Expedia’s fast-growing operations, Alfonso Paredes, president of private-label solutions at Expedia Group, told PYMNTS CEO Karen Webster in an interview posted in April.

“Eighty-five percent of customers are looking to redeem or to use the rewards and those points during the different paths of the shopping experience,” Paredes said.

Albertsons Cos. said in July that its loyalty program grew to include 47 million members after gaining 14% during the quarter ended June 14.

The company attributed the gains in part to further enhancements to the value the program offers.