GraspPAY single-use virtual cards now are among the payment
options available to those booking travel on Concur. Previously, bookers could
enter virtual card numbers as they would enter credit card numbers, but they'd
have to generate a virtual card number elsewhere first. Now, a traveler who has
GraspPAY saved as a payment option within his or her Concur profile can, in one
step, generate a virtual card number and apply it. The system also sends a PDF
record of the transaction to the traveler and a fax authorization to the
supplier.
For air transactions, Grasp Technologies creates a
single-use virtual card number that matches the cost of the ticket, and the
transaction occurs right away, director of virtual payment solutions Mike Duffy
told BTN. At the time of a hotel booking,
Grasp creates a card whose value matches the estimated value of the
reservation; as with any hotel booking, the charge goes through at the time of
the trip.
Via its contract with Grasp, Duffy said, a travel management
company or travel manager can control whether travelers booking in Concur can
use GraspPAY for air, hotel or both. Grasp also works with TMCs and travel
managers on other default controls, such as whether to limit hotel bookings to
room and tax or to allow padding for, say, parking. Similarly, a manager could
enable travelers to book just base airfare or could allow a cushion for baggage
fees or a lounge pass. Controls for specific vendors could be down the road, a
spokesperson told BTN.
How It Works
Rather than connecting to Concur through a new, custom API,
as often is necessary when technologies integrate, Grasp connected to Concur
through an existing API, Concur XML Sync, which handles profile-level data like
names and card numbers, Duffy said. In other words, according to president and
CEO Erik Mueller, Grasp uses the traveler profile as a "gateway to put the
card number in there."
Grasp already had done the work to establish API connections
to global distribution systems. "We did the GDSs and got that behind
us," Mueller said. Now, Concur, a giant among booking engines, represents Grasp's
first move into the booking engine arena. The company's decisions on which booking
tools will come next will weigh "size and opportunities," he noted,
and online travel agencies will be in the mix.
Farther on the horizon, Grasp will look at ways
to automate single-use virtual cards as payment options within Web browsers.