Continental Adds AirPlus To Upgrade UATP Program

In an attempt to lower distribution costs and make its Universal Air Travel Plan payment solution more attractive to the large market, Continental Airlines today announced a co-branded payment and billing system with Frankfurt, Germany-based AirPlus International--UATP's largest issuer.

The Continental Airlines AirPlus Company Account provides clients with a centrally billed account to purchase tickets on more than 200 airlines. The corporate account also can connect to travel agencies, through which "anything that can be charged at the travel agency can be booked on this card, such as service charges, prepaid lodging packages or prepaid rental cars. It is an improvement over our current card, which is good for air only," said Scot Bealer, national account sales manager for Continental.

While the core functions of the relationship already are in place through its issuing relationship with UATP, Continental is building upon the framework with AirPlus.

"The current product has grown significantly in the small/midsize market," Bealer said. "As corporations get larger, they need more sophistication to manage data. We could not provide that in our current environment because of the difficulty to build that in. We decided it made sense to look to outsource" to AirPlus.

AirPlus is UATP's "largest and arguably most successful issuer," according to Richard Crum, UATP president and chairman. It also has become the most advanced issuer through bolstering UATP's framework in international reporting and data processing.

As a UATP issuer, Continental runs its program on an "internal platform" through which Continental acts as the "bank and the tech vendor," performing all services and providing the data feed. "The new card uses AirPlus technology. It is a much more sophisticated platform," Bealer said. "It allows us to provide new features to corporate customers."

"The main enhancements beyond the standard UATP offering is our data delivery," said Patrick Diemer, CEO of Lufthansa-owned AirPlus International. "It's twofold: There's one set of data that enables a corporation to integrate the UATP payment information into its own booking data systems, general ledger and things like that. The other set of data provides a management information system for the travel manager, which integrates all air data, all train data--which is not that relevant in the states but is over here in Europe--car rental information and hotel information. We can combine UATP information with corporate card information."

Bealer added that while Continental's current UATP program only can offer billing and collection in U.S. dollars, AirPlus' enhancements provide a more global reach--making the option more appealing to large multinationals.

The realization of a fully functional co-branded card between AirPlus and Continental "will take a few months," Bealer acknowledged. In the meantime, "there is an AirPlus product out there that we will piggyback on for now."

There is also the opportunity to expand the program to cover more than air travel and agency-related purchases. Bealer said Continental may consider a walk-around card option in conjunction with the traditional corporate card offering, which would give travelers a card they could use at hotels, restaurants and other establishments--something AirPlus has implemented successfully in Europe.

"Our UATP product is offered in 23 countries and in 10 of these countries we combine it with a corporate card, issued by a bank in cooperation with us," said Diemer. "We're looking forward to adding the U.S. to that list in 2004."

Crum said that UATP has relationships to provide such a walking plastic offering with MasterCard and Visa on the corporate level but UATP first needs a bank to endorse the card as an issuer.