Expedia.com, Orbitz and Travelocity Collaborate with UATP to Expand US Corporate Travel Market Prese
By accepting UATP for payment, Expedia, Orbitz and Travelocity join forces with Egencia to give corporate travelers more point of sale options when purchasing airfare in the US
UATP announced today that it has joined with Expedia.com, one of the world's leading full-service online travel brands, to accept UATP for airline ticket payments purchased in the U.S. along with Travelocity and Orbitz.
"Corporate travel is booming in the U.S.; GBTA predicts that travel spending will reach over $296 billion in 2017.1 This includes unmanaged travel that doesn't go through travel management companies such as Egencia. Accepting UATP for payment will give us a competitive advantage to capture a portion of that unmanaged corporate travel market," Falk Richter, Vice President, Expedia Global Payments.
UATP's Corporate Subscribers now have the option of purchasing airfare directly through Expedia, Orbitz and Travelocity, giving Subscribers in the U.S. more point of sale options when using UATP as their form of payment. All airfare purchased through Expedia, Orbitz and Travelocity follow the same process flow as a ticket purchased directly from an airline, and travel managers receive the same detailed UATP statement with itinerary level data.
"Expedia is one of the largest travel companies in the world; it only made sense to work with them to provide corporate travelers access to the form of payment that many of their companies require when booking airfare," said Ralph Kaiser, President and CEO, UATP. "Through this collaboration, corporate travelers using Expedia, Travelocity or Orbitz can choose flexible routes to meet their needs for booking flights on any airline."
With Expedia as a Merchant, UATP's Subscribers that don't have access to a travel management company such as Egencia now have the opportunity to personally book their own airfare with company-approved payment methods.