Smiles
“Can an airline loyalty program become the default travel commerce and financial-services distribution layer in Brazil?”
Founded2013
HQBarueri, São Paulo, Brazil
IndustryLoyalty / Travel Rewards
The story
Smiles is the loyalty/miles program of Brazilian carrier GOL Linhas Aéreas, operating as Smiles Fidelidade S.A. (SMLE3). It has evolved from a pure miles program into a broader travel platform (flights, hotels, cars, insurance, shopping, partner services including Nomad and Uber credits) with embedded finance limited primarily to co-branded credit card partnerships with Brazilian banks.
Last 12 months
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Product timeline
2013
Smiles Fidelidade S.A. spun out as loyalty program of GOL Linhas Aéreas.· pivot
2021
Launched digital transformation program to modernize customer experience across platforms.· pivot
The stack
1 layer disclosed in Smiles’s embedded-finance stack
Lending
Installment purchases (parcelamento) via co-branded card up to 12x
Accounting gap: none