Amadeus, Elavon and Mastercard provide B2B wallet solution for Thai Airways

Amadeus, Elavon and Mastercard have partnered on a payments approach that is designed to benefit both travel agents and airlines. The Amadeus B2B Wallet Partner Pay solution is being used in an ongoing trial with Thai Airways and Select Travel, a travel agency based in Sweden, with the aim of reducing the cost and complexity of receiving and making payments.

When the agency initiates a payment on a Thai Airways booking it uses a virtual Mastercard card. Elavon acts as the acquirer so the airline can accept payments initiated by a wide variety of issuers within Mastercard’s global network.

The solution covers the entire payment flow between Thai Airways and Select Travel. According to Amadeus, this reduces costs by up to 70% compared to existing payments methods – such as cheques and bank transfers – which incur higher transaction costs. Savings are achieved through efficiencies in fraud prevention, charge backs and cash flow.

Airlines can now accept Amadeus B2B Wallet Partner Pay virtual card from travel agencies. The solution is designed to facilitate flexible payment models and transparency on the cost of acceptance. Amadeus says that this payment method encourages loyalty and has ultimately been designed to attract additional bookings from travel agency partners.

The solution is an extension of Amadeus’ B2B Wallet offering, which is integrated into the travel agency booking flows allowing each payment to be made by a single use virtual card. By adopting the single use virtual card approach, payments reconciliation is automated and travel agencies are protected from the risk of supplier defaults.