Looking at 2025, it was solid growth, in the mid-to-high single digits. If you had told me that was how it would turn out at the beginning of the year, I'd have felt pretty good.
Transactions are growing year over year in 2026, but how much it's growing depends on the sales channel. Airlines are low single digits, but the retail space has been really strong -- high single digits.
For 2026 we're planning low, steady growth. I think the economy is still pretty resilient as long as unemployment remains low. Right now, if you have a job, the groceries are expensive, but you're still going to spend. When you see unemployment creep up, that ends things pretty quick.
Globally, travel insurance is a strong growth industry. We've seen a lot of new entrants because they see an opportunity. It's a low penetration industry, and there's room to grow, there's room to add services.
In our surveys, when we ask, "Can you afford a vacation?" many say "No," but 40% then say "I'm going anyway." They're still very interested in the high-end luxury segment, but they're opting to do them a bit closer to home and on a shorter trip.
I manage both the U.S. and Canada. The U.S. consumer is mostly worried about the groceries at the store, not where they're going on vacation. Canadians feel differently. Travel from Canada into the U.S. is down 30%. The older generation is opting not to travel. The younger generation still did travel but are opting to stay in Canada, particularly in the summer. Winter is when they take their big vacations, and confidence is up. We're not sure their destinations will change, but we think the frequency of travel will pick up.
Whenever there's a disruption -- like the baggage delays in Heathrow or the FAA disruption and the canceled flights that followed -- the take-rates go up on "cancel for any unforeseen reason" policies. But again, it depends on the channel. Our retail partners love that product.
We like when our customers understand what they've bought and use it when they need it. In many cases, there's the perception that it's too hard or complicated to use, so we're trying to take the friction out. On the emergency medical side, with a comprehensive post-departure policy, if someone needs to see a doctor they can book either in-person or telemedicine visits in over 100 countries with our app Allyz, and there's no out-of-pocket cost.
We're super excited about proactive trigger delayed benefits, which we introduced in Alaska Airlines in late 2024. We're tracking flights, so if there's a delay over two hours, we automatically file and pay a claim for you. We're interested in bringing that to other airlines.
We also launched a program last summer with Delta so people can use miles to buy travel insurance. We're excited to roll that out to other airlines.
Another change: We consider cellphones to be baggage, but there are usually sub-limits for electronic devices. We're pulling that out and increasing the limit because the policy wasn't rich enough to cover a lost or stolen cellphone.
We're adding coverage for pets, which we've branded Paw Protector, for veterinary emergencies. Whether the pet is with you or at home, we cover different parts of those expenses.
And we're partners with Marriott and introducing features in their product tailored to the road warrior, with roadside assistance reimbursement, among other things.
AI is behind the scenes for us at the moment, to help agents answer questions better, faster and more accurately. An AI agent will make recommendations on a claim and pass that to a human, perhaps saying, "It's missing two documents, so follow up with the consumer." The adjudicator doesn't have to go through the policy and understand every coverage; the AI has already done it.
But we're not using AI customer-facing. I know there are visions of "no more customer service agents." We're not there yet, and I don't think the consumer's there yet, either.
This interview was conducted by Arnie Weissmann for our annual Preview issue.