Card Cos. Await Impact Of DOJ Ruling, Broaden Offerings
Although this month's federal court decision forcing MasterCard and Visa to allow member banks to issue other cards, such as American Express and Discover, can be viewed as a victory for the likes of Amex, the impact on the corporate T&E space largely remains to be seen.
A handful of payment vendors interviewed by Business Travel News said that while their official position generally is that it's too early to comment—particularly since MasterCard and Visa are mulling appeals—any immediate impact of the court ruling would be on the consumer side.
A lot of questions remain, they said, about how, operationally, a bank would issue an American Express card and what opportunities corporations might have to pick and choose the best combination of vendors.
The three-year-old suit, brought by the U.S. Department of Justice against MasterCard and Visa, alleged that the two nonprofit associations violated antitrust law by limiting competition.
Delta Air Lines has replaced TWA on the Universal Air Travel Plan Inc. board of directors with the addition of 20-year Delta veteran Pamela Elledge, director of agency and corporate programs. Elledge filled the seat vacated by Gary Smedile of TWA when it merged with American Airlines. The UATP board is comprised of 10 directors, nine of whom are elected airline representatives from UATP shareholder carriers.
Airlines currently represented are American Airlines, British Airways, Continental Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Japan Airlines, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, Lufthansa German Airlines, Swissair and United Airlines. The president of UATP sits as chairman of the board. Representatives from the Air Transport Association and the International Air Transport Association also are members in a non-voting capacity.
In a separate announcement, UATP said American Trans Air is the newest airline to join the UATP acceptance network. "As ATA has grown, so has the number of business travelers flying with us," said Don Moonjian, ATA vice president of marketing. "These customers have told us that UATP is important to them. Acceptance of the UATP card fills a void that will allow us to provide yet one more valuable service to that critically important group of travelers."
Sabre last month released Merchant Pay, a merchant payment processing product and service offering for Sabre-connected travel agencies. The first global distribution system to offer a payment processing solution to travel industry merchants that is integrated with its host reservation system, Sabre developed the offering through an exclusive partnership with Australia's QSI Payments. Merchant Pay enables financial institutions and their customers to securely authenticate, authorize and process payments through the Sabre GDS.
Sabre claimed the subscription-based service would allow travel agents to reduce their operating costs by 15 percent to 20 percent, maximize the efficiency of their business with online reporting and reconciliation, minimize the risk of fraudulent transactions and streamline the payment process.
Diners Club is promoting its Group Event System by offering double Club Rewards points to travel agents through Dec. 1 as part of the Premier Performances corporate travel agency rewards program. Double points are awarded for every new and approved GES account that agencies refer.