Cycling for Discounts

The starting point: the market five years ago

Mobility-related incentive systems

When we first looked at the market for mobility-related incentives in the early days of Catchment, we wanted to know: which models exist at all – and what role do sustainable modes of transport play in them? For our analysis at the time, we recorded 452 mobility-related incentives from the fields of mobility and marketing. They shared two characteristics:

• A mobility-related condition – such as kilometres cycled, a public transport ticket purchase or ticket spending – unlocked an incentive.
• The incentives were linked to specific destinations: they could be redeemed exclusively or in addition to online offers on site in stores or at other points of interest.

We examined offers from 30 mobility providers and service providers from the sustainable transport sector and from what was then often still called the "new mobility" landscape. These included campaigns by transport companies and transport associations as well as offers from car sharing providers and incentive systems for cycling and walking. In addition, we looked at BahnBonus, an established customer loyalty programme. The analysis was not meant to provide complete market statistics, but an initial classification: which forms of incentivisation were already established – and which approaches were just emerging?

Striking at the time: public transport hardly played a role in large bonus worlds

Dedicated bonus programmes of large public transport players were the exception. Particularly visible was RMVsmiles, which linked digital ticket purchases with benefits from partners. Other transport associations relied more on offers for specific target groups or on discounts at certain destinations. Examples were the VBB-Abo 65plus, tourist offers such as CityTourCards, and the VGN Sparfuchs Ziele or hvv KombiTickets for leisure, cultural and event destinations. It is precisely this starting point that is interesting today: some of these offers no longer exist, other models have evolved – and new forms have been added.

We also examined bonus programmes, cashback offers and voucher services such as Payback, DeutschlandCard or Groupon for offers related to public transport. Here we reversed the perspective: a mobility service was not the prerequisite for a discount; instead, the mobility service itself was to become the benefit or reward.

Our finding at the time was clear: while offers related to cars, petrol stations, car services or rental cars were relatively easy to find, classic public transport was barely present in broad-based bonus and cashback programmes. An important exception were offers related to Deutsche Bahn and BahnBonus in particular.

How the players of that time have developed

Of the 452 incentives recorded at the time, 130 stated a discount directly as a percentage. A particularly vivid example came from RMVsmiles: 15 percent off a regional gin. Across all percentage discounts, the median was 15 percent and the average 21.8 percent.

For 115 deals, a minimum purchase was also required for redemption. On average, it was 40.40 euros. These values are a snapshot of the survey at the time. They cannot simply be extrapolated to today's market: offers, providers and technical models have changed considerably since then. As a starting point, however, they show well how strongly the topic was still shaped by classic discounts, vouchers and individual partner offers.

The current values are not a complete market comparison. The survey at the time covered 452 deals from various mobility and marketing providers. The current sample comprises 221 offers from the same providers, recorded in September 2026. We therefore compare the structures of the observed offers, not representative market shares.

A shift in the form of incentives becomes apparent. Percentage discounts today account for almost the same share, at 27 percent, as in our survey at the time, at 29 percent. Direct euro discounts, on the other hand, are much rarer in the current sample: their share falls from 26 to 12 percent. Today, specific services and benefits in kind are more common – from coffee and admission tickets to bike servicing. The typical directly quantified discounts are also lower in our current sample than five years ago. The median of percentage discounts falls from 15 to 10 percent, the median of euro discounts from 9 to 5 euros.

Our conclusions in the rear-view mirror

In 2021 and 2022, the market seemed to us to be shaped mainly by three forms:

• classic customer loyalty programmes,
• destination-related discounts and
• first behaviour-based systems.

The third group in particular was still young. Offers such as Rad+, Changers (now Klimataler), lynes and various research and pilot projects tried to link sustainable mobility behaviour directly with points, vouchers or other benefits. Our thesis at the time was that two worlds could grow closer together:

• Locations, leisure destinations and retailers that want to reach visitors and at the same time support good accessibility by more sustainable modes of transport.
• Mobility providers and service providers that can not only transport their customers, but also retain them through additional benefits or motivate them to make certain mobility decisions.

We saw a gap especially among public transport players. While loyalty and bonus mechanisms had long been established in other areas of mobility, offers in public transport often consisted of individual campaigns rather than permanent systems. Our expectation at the time was therefore that behaviour-based and destination-related incentives would increasingly be combined and integrated into digital mobility offers.

Five years later, this expectation can be checked for the first time with some distance. The market has indeed moved – but not always in the direction that seemed obvious at the time. Some of the most prominent systems have disappeared. Others have grown considerably. And with the Deutschlandticket, forms of incentivisation have emerged that hardly played a role in our first market analysis – and others have become superfluous.

What has disappeared – or changed its form

The review begins with one of the most striking examples from our analysis at the time: RMVsmiles no longer exists. The Rhein-Main-Verkehrsverbund discontinued the bonus programme on 1 April 2025. With it, one of the few stand-alone customer loyalty programmes of a large German transport association disappeared.

The VBB-Abo 65plus, which in our analysis at the time stood for target-group-specific offers in public transport, has also been dropped. It has no longer been offered since the beginning of 2026. Among other things, VBB pointed to the Deutschlandticket, which was already cheaper and at the same time offered a much larger area of validity.

lynes is discontinuing its stand-alone app after four years. Instead, its gamification system is being integrated as a technical solution into existing mobility apps – including NürnbergMOBIL.

What has grown: mobility behaviour is rewarded directly

DB Rad+ has developed in a different direction. The system was already part of our first analysis, but was regionally limited at the time. Since September 2025, Rad+ has been available throughout Germany. Users collect kilometres while cycling and can exchange them for rewards and discounts at partners. New additions include digital rewards, groups and challenges.

Our current survey from September 2026 shows how broad the offer has become. For Rad+, we recorded more than a hundred rewards – from percentage and euro discounts to free products and services. What they have in common is the basic logic: only the measured mobility behaviour creates the credit that is then used to unlock a benefit.

Klimataler belongs to the same cluster today. In 2023, the nationwide network expanded the former Changers offer and links climate-friendly behaviour with its own digital currency. Klimataler can be earned, among other things, through trips on foot, by bike or by public transport and then redeemed with participating local partners – often on site at points of interest.

The current range of Klimataler offers also shows great variety: discounts in retail and gastronomy sit alongside free drinks, admission tickets, bike services, leisure offers and other goods or services. This reveals an approach that was still much more experimental five years ago: a specific sustainable behaviour is measured digitally and directly linked to a redeemable benefit.

Then came the Deutschlandticket

Perhaps the biggest change in the market over the past five years initially has nothing to do with incentives at all: since 2023, the Deutschlandticket has been a nationwide public transport subscription that is available through many different transport companies and sales channels.

This has also changed the role of additional services. When the actual mobility product is largely comparable across regions, additional benefits can become a means of tying the customer relationship to one's own sales channel and app.

This can be observed well at Deutsche Bahn. Anyone who buys their Deutschlandticket via bahn.de or the DB Navigator and is registered with BahnBonus receives reward and status points for it every month. When buying via another transport association, these BahnBonus points are not credited. In addition, with DB Benefits, DB offers a world of benefits with discounts, vouchers and partner offers for eligible Deutschlandticket customers.

VAG Nürnberg also offers such a mechanism, here closely linked to different forms of mobility. Anyone who obtains the Deutschlandticket via NürnbergMOBIL currently receives free minutes for VAG_Rad and Voi every month as well as free kilometres for car sharing. At the same time, "Mein Bonus" provides a points system within the app.

Five years later: from bonus programme to mobility ecosystem – but no match for the car

After five years, there is no simple picture of growth or decline. Stand-alone bonus programmes such as RMVsmiles have disappeared. Other offers such as Rad+ and Klimataler have considerably expanded their geographical and functional scope. At the same time, the Deutschlandticket has created a new competition for the customer relationship: benefits are increasingly tied to the sales channel, the customer account or the mobility app.

Nevertheless, another finding of our analysis at the time has not simply disappeared. Large, cross-industry loyalty systems remain strongly present in the automotive environment.

Aral and Payback already celebrated 20 years of partnership in 2026. Points can be collected and redeemed there not only when refuelling, but also when charging electric vehicles, at the car wash and when shopping or eating at participating petrol stations.

Perhaps that is why, after five years, the most interesting question is no longer whether mobility can be rewarded with points, discounts or vouchers. There are now plenty of examples of that. The decisive question is rather: which incentive actually changes a mobility decision – and which one ultimately remains just a discount?