Banking ecosystems (Kaspi Travel, Freedom Travel) have become full-fledged market players, displacing traditional agencies and even global aggregators. The ability to buy a ticket in installments or get a large cashback for a tour makes the bank the starting point of any journey. Nevertheless, for the user, the bank still remains more of a checkout counter than a full-fledged assistant accompanying them from boarding to returning home.
What is this research about?
In this research, we conducted in-depth interviews with Kazakhstanis to study their experience interacting with banking ecosystems.
In this article, we analyze travel services:
- How do different segments choose between bank cashback and searching for the "lowest price" on Aviasales?
- What tools do they use to book tours and plan logistics?
- What exactly stops them from fully entrusting their vacation to a single ecosystem?
Below is a detailed breakdown of the five archetypes defining the landscape of the travel industry in Kazakhstan.
😐 Normies
For this segment, traveling is a rare event that should pass "without a headache." They use travel sections in banks simply because it is a familiar interface where their passport details and money already reside.
Travel / Travel (Score: 5/10)
Basic needs for finding tickets are easily met, but they do not use the ecosystem's potential fully. For them, the bank is just a convenient wallet, not a travel agent.
Quote: "I go to Kaspi.Travel just to compare prices with some 'Poyekhali' or ht.kz. If the price is the same, I will buy on Kaspi because it is more familiar there."
Behavior: Buy tickets situationally. Rarely plan tours on their own, preferring either to contact agents or to visit the "Tours" section only for comparison. The main motive is "to have everything in one place and fast."
Blockers and barriers
- The "change of plans" barrier: The main blocker is the fear that if they have to return or exchange a ticket, it will be harder to do it through the bank than directly with the airline. The fear of "hanging" in bank support during an emergency.
- Lack of support on the road: The normie lacks reminders: when is check-in, which terminal, where is their insurance. Without this, the service remains just a ticket shop, not a travel assistant.
- Price arbitrage: The constant need to double-check prices in Kaspi Travel through external services (Aviata/HT.kz), which deprives the banking service of the status of the "final point" of purchase.
🤑 Pragmatists
Rational users who view buying tickets as a mathematical problem. They are the main growth drivers for Kaspi and Freedom Travel, as their loyalty directly depends on the cashback size and installment terms.
Travel / Travel (Score: 8/10)
Ecosystems perfectly meet their demand for value. The ability to get 5–10% bonuses or interest-free installments on an expensive airline ticket is a decisive factor.
Quote: "Freedom Travel — I buy tickets there because of the cashback. Plus, I compare prices between Kaspi, Aviasales, and airline websites — with Kaspi, it's convenient that there are installments."
Behavior: Use Aviasales or Aviata to search for a flight, but conduct the final transaction in the banking app where bonuses "drip." Often tie the purchase to promotional periods (for example, Kaspi Juma) to arrange a tour for the whole family in installments.
Blockers and barriers
- Aggregator price lag: The main unique blocker is when the price in the banking app turns out to be higher than on the airline's official website. The pragmatist instantly calculates whether the cashback covers this difference; if not, the purchase in the ecosystem is canceled.
- Inability to combine miles and bonuses: It annoys them that they cannot simultaneously use airline miles (for example, Nomad Club) and bank bonuses when buying inside the super-app.
- Illusory benefit: Situations where the base price in the bank is higher than the market price, forcing them to calculate whether the cashback and installments cover this difference.
🥸 Old-schoolers
A segment with minimal engagement in bank travel services. For them, buying an airline ticket online is too complex and responsible an operation, where they are afraid of making a data entry error.
Travel / Travel (Score: 2/10)
Almost never use these sections. Prefer either to buy through children/relatives or use traditional ticket offices.
Quote: "I am not technically savvy — I try not to get involved with things that take a long time to figure out."
Behavior: Can pay an issued invoice for a ticket via QR or Apple Pay if someone else has already found and processed it. They ignore the "Travel" or "Tours" sections themselves, considering their interface too confusing.
Blockers and barriers
- Fear of typos in documents: The key unique blocker is the fear of making a mistake in spelling the name or passport number on a small smartphone screen. The lack of a "Check by operator" function makes the purchase too stressful.
- Lack of physical confirmation: They miss a paper ticket with a stamp. A digital file in the app seems unreliable to them: "what if the phone dies at the airport or the internet goes down?".
- Service blindness: Complete ignorance of built-in travel sections due to the belief that buying a ticket is too complex an operation for a mobile app.
🧐 Financially Literate
For them, a trip is a major project requiring precise calculation and risk protection. They value banking ecosystems not for the tickets themselves, but for the accompanying financial services: insurance, multi-currency cards, and business lounge access.
Travel / Travel (Score: 7/10)
Well cover the "rear" part of the trip. They actively use premium features (Lounges in BCC, Forte) and analytics to control the vacation budget.
Quote: "Airports have lounge access — with BCC it is somehow more accessible. Plus, I look at the Kaspi report on entertainment and vacation spending."
Behavior: Carefully study roaming and insurance conditions included in the service package. Use multi-currency accounts to avoid losing on conversion when paying abroad. Plan expenses in advance, using bank reports as a base for forming the budget for the next trip.
Blockers and barriers
- Blind spots in trip analytics: A unique blocker is the inability to separate "vacation" spending from everyday spending in the general statement. They lack a "Vacation Mode" button that would collect all expenses abroad (taxis, hotels, food) into one clean report.
- Difficulties with activating insurance claims: If, upon the occurrence of an insured event abroad, the bank sends them to a third-party insurance company with "manual" paperwork, the value of the ecosystem is nullified for them.
- Demand for a real advantage: The expectation from the bank of a "single window" that provides not just payment convenience, but tangibly better conditions compared to market aggregators.
😡 The Burned
A segment with critically low trust. For them, a bank error in the "Travel" category is not just an inconvenience, but a real life drama: a travel ban or blocked funds in a foreign country.
Travel / Travel (Score: 0/10)
Complete rejection of travel functions of those banks with which they had a negative experience. Even profitable promotions cannot outweigh the fear of a repeat situation.
Quote: "I used Freedom, but a bad situation happened: six months later I find out that I am banned from leaving KZ due to an error in their processing center. I don't deal with them anymore."
Behavior: Consciously avoid buying tickets through banking super-apps. Prefer AliPay for China or foreign bank cards so as not to depend on failures of local ecosystems during the trip.
Blockers and barriers
- Fear of a sudden "stop-list": The main unique blocker is the fear that when trying to buy a ticket, the bank's system will "trigger" an old debt or error, which will lead to account blocking right before departure.
- Distrust of refunds: If they have already encountered the bank taking a long time to refund money for a canceled flight, they will never buy a ticket there again.
- Risk of pre-flight blocking: The fear that buying an expensive ticket or any activity in the app will "trigger" the system and lead to account freezing right before the border.
Final Summary
Banking ecosystems in Kazakhstan have successfully captured the ticket sales market, but have not yet become full-fledged partners in travel. The main insight: trust in travel is built not on cashback, but on reliability and support in critical situations.
The ecosystem that wins will be the one that can guarantee "old-schoolers" error-free data entry, "pragmatists" the best price without having to check with Aviasales, and "the burned" 100% certainty that their departure will not be blocked due to a technical error. The next step for banks is the transition from a "ticket shop" to a full-cycle service: with automatic insurance, offline access to documents, and instant resolution of refund problems.
