UATP has the lowest administrative cost of any form of payment and is a globally-accepted product. More and more carriers are using the UATP product to significantly reduce distribution costs, regardless of the distribution channel (travel agents, airline ticket offices or via the Internet).

When a UATP issuing airline’s card is used by a corporate client to purchase a ticket on that airline, the Issuer pays no commission fees--compared to the 1.5-3+% charged by other credit cards. And when a Issuer’s card is used to purchase a ticket on any other card-accepting (“Merchant”) airline, the Issuer earns revenue on the transaction value. This results in significant savings and increased revenue for card-issuing carriers. In addition, Issuers receive valuable MIS data for all online and interline travel charged to their card. This data provides when, where, on which airline and at what cost their most important corporate clients traveled. This data can be used to help carriers understand their corporate clients’ travel behavior and develop strategically targeted incentive and discount programs to capture greater market share of each corporation’s travel spend.

UATP supplies Issuers with the entire super-long record for every transaction charged to their card, regardless of ticketing airline, point of sale or geographic location of purchase. As a result, UATP provides the most detailed, centralized billing information for corporate customers, which saves them money and reconciliation time. Direct billing by the card-issuing airline also ensures that corporate customers will be credited for all of their flight activity and secure maximum benefit from loyalty agreements.

Originally created as an air-only product, UATP now provides several options designed to allow maximum flexibility and choice for the carriers’ corporate accounts: lodged (or “ghost” cards), walking cards and co-branded cards.

The lodged card offers the advantage of a cardless account that allows corporations to control travel costs and simplify the reconciliation process. The walking cards give individual travelers a means to purchase air tickets from carriers or travel agents from their office or while on the road. With a co-branded product, the airline can centrally bill airfare, using the UATP card system, while also being able to offer corporate clients the flexibility of having a card to handle all of the other T&E expenses.