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Globally, travelers hold trillions of dollars worth of airline miles collected from flying with their preferred airlines or using co-branded credit cards that acquire miles every time they are used.
Some people use these miles to book cheaper flights or unlock upgrades. But as much as 30% of all miles go unused, leaving billions of dollars in value sitting idle.
“Using miles is hard because redemption options are limited, inconvenient, and often slow,” says Dominic Hofer, Founder and CEO of Pointspay. “We exist to change that, giving consumers a seamless way to spend their airline miles or loyalty points directly at checkout with their preferred merchants. Consumers can also earn more points at the same time.”
Pointspay works by letting shoppers pay for all or part of their purchase using points. If they don’t have enough points to cover the full amount, the checkout automatically splits the transaction, redeeming the points they have and processing the remainder as a standard card payment.
In addition to unlocking a new way for consumers to use their loyalty currency, Pointspay delivers meaningful upside for merchants by helping them attract affluent customers and increase average basket sizes.
“By offering Pointspay, merchants tap into that spending power and the additional value consumers hold in their loyalty wallets,” says Hofer. “When that extra budget becomes usable at checkout, basket sizes routinely increase, often by as much as 40%.”
A global business needs a global payments foundation
Just 18 months after going live, Pointspay has already integrated with major loyalty programs such as Etihad Guest, Miles & More, and Flying Blue from Air France/KLM. While more than 250 merchants now offer Pointspay at checkout, including brands like Samsung, ECCO, Boozt, and Etihad Arena, allowing their customers to pay with points.
But this momentum brought a major technical challenge: supporting global payments for a fast-growing mix of loyalty programs and merchants operating across multiple regions.
“We’re starting to expand rapidly, onboarding more merchants and loyalty programs in more markets, and we needed far more flexibility than a single PSP could give us,” says Hofer. “That’s why we’ve partnered with Primer, to avoid building endless PSP integrations ourselves and keep our team focused on what differentiates our product.”
For Pointspay, this wasn’t a choice made under pressure; it was a deliberate decision made early. The team understood that as soon as they began supporting loyalty programs with members in multiple regions, the payment complexity would compound quickly. Integrating PSPs themselves would have created technical debt they’d carry for years, slowing their ability to scale and move at the speed their partners expect.
“Primer gives us a clean foundation to build on,” says Hofer. “We don’t have to maintain payment infrastructure ourselves, which keeps us fast and focused as we grow.”
Why Primer was the perfect partner for Pointspay
So why Primer? Because Pointspay needed a payments partner that could match their pace and support their global ambitions from day one.
Maturity came first. They needed a partner with proven capabilities they could rely on as they scaled.
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The product experience was equally important for Pointspay. Dominic wanted the team to be the ones deciding whether Primer was the right fit as they were the ones who would use the platform daily.
“What the team immediately liked is the dashboard and how easy it is to interact with,” he explains. “It was simple, clear, and gave them the data they needed to make strategic decisions.”
The third factor was the people. Dominic and his team wanted a partner who would move with them at startup pace, not slow them down. The continuity from sales to implementation gave them confidence that Primer would be a long-term fit.
Less friction, more focus, and room to scale
Even in the early stages of the partnership, the impact has been clear. Pointspay has already onboarded PSPs through Primer and begun building out their payment sequences, giving them the flexibility they need as they expand into new markets.
Early conversion improvements are starting to show, but for Hofer, the biggest win is what his team no longer has to do.
Instead of spending time on PSP integrations, work he describes as manual, low-value, and a distraction from their core product, Pointspay’s engineers can stay focused on innovation and differentiation. Primer handles the payment plumbing, so the team doesn’t have to.
“It’s still early, but Primer already lets us grow without being held back by anyone else’s priorities,” Hofer says. “It gives us the freedom to scale on our own terms.”
