American Express and British Airways Tuesday will announce a new co-branded corporate card for middle-market companies in the United Kingdom, mirroring similar partnerships the corporate card provider has established with other carriers in various countries, American Express Corporate Services president Ed Gilligan on Monday told
Business Travel News.
"You'll see us announcing this tomorrow on the card side," Gilligan said. "We're still working on travel to try to reach a better relationship with them, but we're announcing the consumer and corporate co-brand card, and the new merchant agreement with them to accept all fares. I think we have reached a very good agreement with them that's definitely good for them, because we lowered the merchant fee, and good for us because it will enable us to grow our business much faster in the U.K."
The renewed collaboration between the corporate payment provider and the British carrier reverses years of discord, which culminated in a 2002 lawsuit after BA stopped absorbing merchant fees on U.K. net fares
(BTN, June 24, 2002). Last year, the two travel suppliers agreed to settle their differences outside of court
(BTNonline, April 6, 2004) and British Airways in October once again will accept American Express cards for corporate net fares
(BTN, July 18).
"We got into this big argument with BA. In fact, they sued us and we countersued them," Gilligan said. "It never went to court. We dropped everything and said, 'Why can't we just talk this out?' It took three years, but at the same time, we started talking to other airlines: Qantas, we launched a corporate card with Air France, we have one in Canada with Air Canada, Aeromexico we announced earlier this year, KLM we announced last year."
Amex two years ago launched its first midmarket card with American Airlines
(BTN, June 23, 2003). Since then, it has added carriers for other country-specific programs. At the heart of the programs are annual rebates for air spending and discounts with other travel providers.