AirPlus, MasterCard Co-Brand
AirPlus and MasterCard International last week launched a co-branded corporate card that helps companies track air spending and enables travelers to pay for non-air expenses while on the road.
The product—the first walking plastic card issued by AirPlus in the United States—builds on AirPlus' traditional centrally billed payment vehicle for air expenditures and adds to it all the accoutrements of MasterCard's commercial card offerings.
"The one thing that people always said—if there was a negative to AirPlus—was, 'It's just air.' MasterCard is our way to address that," said AirPlus U.S. division president Richard Crum. "MasterCard has the most acceptance globally and, in my opinion, is leading the way in folio data. We're going to take all that data from MasterCard and combine it with data from UATP in our Information Manager."
Crum added that travel managers can use the single sign-on platform—Airplus' Information Manager tool—to access data from the traveler's card, as well as centrally billed airline expenditures.
The partnership mirrors a similar arrangement AirPlus put in place with British Airways in February through a partnership with Visa International (BTN, Feb. 9, 2004).
While the corporate card in the United Kingdom specifically is targeted to British Airways customers, the U.S. version can be used in conjunction with any AirPlus airline partner, which includes all of the major airlines in the United States.
GE Capital Financial issues both the U.S. and U.K. card.
"We have a partnership with Continental, and they will be promoting this product. Any other partner we have worldwide that wants to promote it in the U.S. can do it," Crum said.
Crum added that while the companies are positioning the card option to be used with MasterCard's standard commercial travel and entertainment card, it also can be used in conjunction with any MasterCard commercial card offering, including its MultiCard one-card product and meetings card.
The partnership has not yet garnered clients, Crum said, but actively is targeting customers, primarily in the midmarket. However, "It really comes down more to sophistication than to company size," he said.
In addition to its British Airways card and the new U.S.-based card, AirPlus also issues walking plastic cards through a partnership with Austrian Airlines and Diners Club in Austria and is planning such offerings in other European markets, including the Netherlands.