Hot 25 Travel Startups for 2027: Passtination

Passtination

Headquarters: Miami, Florida

CEO: Safir Jamal (pictured)

Website: Passtination

Founding date: February 2026

Investment: Undisclosed

Passtination helps airlines extend their loyalty programs beyond the flight and into the destinations their members visit. We custom build and manage a dedicated merchant network for each airline, giving their loyalty members instant, member-only discounts at local restaurants, hotels, fitness studios and experiences in the cities the airline chooses. Every redemption generates first-party behavioral data, which gives airlines new visibility into where and how their members engage in-destination and creates new opportunities to strengthen member loyalty.

PhocusWire coverage:

• Startup Stage: Passtination wants to help airlines extend loyalty programs

Below, we asked founder and CEO Safir Jamal to share strategic priorities for 2027 and what has been learned since founding.

Strategic goals for 2027

Our biggest goal for 2027 is turning the airline partnerships and active conversations already underway into live, in-market programs across multiple regions. At the same time, we’re building an AI-powered intelligence layer that uses the first-party behavioral data generated through member redemptions for micro-segmentation, personalized offers, and churn mitigation. As we expand, our goal is to establish Passtination as the infrastructure airlines rely on to better understand and engage their loyalty members beyond the flight.

Key lessons learned since founding

One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned is that the market can reveal a much bigger opportunity than the one you originally set out to pursue. We started by building Global Nomad Pass, a consumer membership with local merchant networks across more than 25 cities worldwide. Our partnership with Marketing Greece and Aegean Airlines exposed that model to the airline industry, and other airlines soon began asking us for white-label versions built specifically for their loyalty programs. Those conversations revealed an entirely new opportunity, which led us to create Passtination. It taught me to pay close attention when customers pull your business in a direction you hadn’t originally planned.