kabarsula EXCLUSIVE: ‘Points can be a race to the bottom’ – Virgin’s experience chief on AI and efficiency bandar SLOT INDONESIA

Virgin’s chief experience officer Sam Kelly believes so strongly that the future of brands lies in the experiences they create that he wouldn’t join Virgin Group unless his title was changed.

The position was originally intended to be chief brand and marketing officer, but Kelly wanted a title that reflected his belief that the way brands connect with customers is fundamentally changing.

“Brand and marketing is experience today,” Kelly told Travel Weekly during an exclusive interview at World Travel Market (WTM) London.

Before joining Virgin Group in September 2025, Kelly spent 17 years at AKQA, the internationally renowned creative and innovation agency behind campaigns and digital experiences for some of the world’s biggest brands, including Nike and Rolls-Royce.

He rose to global chief marketing officer before becoming Virgin Group’s first chief experience officer.

Kelly is someone worth listening to, and when it comes to travel, he worries that an obsession with efficiency is distancing the industry from what makes people connect with it in the first place.

“I think the world has got really bogged down in efficiency, the optimisation of everything,” he said.

He pointed to an example from advertising executive Rory Sutherland, who described how a hotel could save £90,000 a year by replacing its doorman with automated doors.

On paper, it’s a saving. But the doorman is also welcoming guests, carrying luggage, providing security and holding umbrellas over customers in the rain.

Remove him and you might save £90,000, but what happens to the guest experience he asks.

How AI could transform travel loyalty

It’s a question that becomes particularly interesting when considering the future of loyalty, where advances in AI and technology could fundamentally change how travel brands interact with customers.

Kelly believes the industry’s traditional reliance on points and transactions is increasingly outdated.

“Points and transactions. That can be a race to the bottom, and points can get devalued,” he said.

“The future of loyalty is not transactions and points. It will still be there as an underlying foundation, but it will be around experience and belonging, and just knowing who you are.”

And rather than simply using AI to make bookings faster and more efficient, Kelly believes the technology could help brands understand customers on a far more personal level.

He outlined a future where customers could connect their Virgin profiles to third-party AI assistants, including ChatGPT, allowing the technology to take account of their loyalty status, points balance and personal preferences.

“You might connect your GPT, and then when GPT starts looking at flights, it will reference how many points you’ve got, where you like to fly to, what gold tier, what status you are,” he explained.

In practice, this could mean an AI assistant recognising a customer’s loyalty balance, preferred seat and travel habits before suggesting flights or upgrades.

But Kelly’s ambitions extend beyond the booking process.

He described a future in which a customer arriving in London at 6am after an overnight flight could walk into a Virgin hotel and find their room already prepared, complete with their preferred pillows.

Rather than being told to return at 3pm for check-in, the customer would feel that Virgin already knew them.

For Kelly, the opportunity lies in using technology to create more connected and personalised experiences across Virgin’s businesses, rather than simply making transactions faster.

Empowering staff to create memorable experiences

For all the possibilities of AI, Kelly believes some of the most memorable customer experiences come down to small human gestures.

He argues that employees need to be empowered to solve problems and create memorable moments, rather than having to navigate endless approval processes.

He recalled an incident aboard a Virgin Voyages ship, where a couple celebrating their anniversary arrived 15 minutes late for a dinner reservation and discovered their booking had been cancelled.

After Kelly raised the issue internally, the couple were quickly given a window table and a bottle of champagne.

He described it as an “epic recovery”, turning a disappointing experience into a memorable one.

The key, he believes, is giving employees the freedom to make decisions that improve the customer experience, rather than prioritising rigid processes.

Virgin’s return to rail

Kelly’s comments come as Virgin prepares to challenge Eurostar’s dominance of cross-Channel rail travel, with plans to launch services connecting London with Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam from 2030.

The new trains are expected to draw inspiration from Virgin Atlantic’s Clubhouses, Virgin Hotels and Virgin Voyages, with plans for social spaces, enhanced dining and integration with the group’s loyalty program.

However, Kelly remained tight-lipped about what passengers could actually expect onboard, beyond the details already announced.

He did, however, allude to questioning some of the established norms of international rail travel, including why passengers cannot bring their pets on trains between London and continental Europe.

Currently, Eurostar does not permit ordinary pets on its services to and from London, although assistance animals are allowed.

It’s an interesting question from a Virgin executive, particularly given that Virgin Australia introduced pets in cabins on selected flights in October 2025, subsequently expanding the service in 2026.

Kelly did not confirm whether Virgin’s new trains would allow pets, but his comments suggest the company is thinking about how it could challenge some of the conventions of cross-Channel travel.

And it’s not just the rules that Kelly believes deserve rethinking.

He referenced an argument from advertising executive Rory Sutherland about the billions spent reducing rail journey times, questioning whether some of that investment might be better directed towards improving the experience onboard.

“The journey should be as exciting as the destination,” Kelly said.

He pointed to Virgin Atlantic’s Heathrow Clubhouse, where passengers actively choose to arrive hours before departure because they enjoy the experience.

Why, he questioned, shouldn’t rail travel offer something similar?

The future of branding is experience

Ultimately, Kelly believes the distinction between marketing and customer experience is disappearing.

Having spent much of his career working with global brands, he argues that advertising alone is no longer enough to build lasting relationships with customers.

“Your experience has to be exceptional because that is your brand,” he said.

Customers increasingly form their opinions through the experiences they have and the stories they share with others, rather than simply what a company tells them through its advertising.

And while AI offers enormous opportunities to make travel more seamless, Kelly believes the industry’s biggest challenge is ensuring that efficiency doesn’t come at the expense of the experiences that make travel memorable.

Because ultimately, loyalty isn’t just about the points customers earn or how quickly they reach their destination.

It’s about how a brand makes them feel.