The airline payment guide for 2022

Today, people expect a lot from their online consumer experience. Especially when it comes to how they pay online, their retail payment experiences now influence their expectations of the payment experience everywhere. Innovative airline companies have an opportunity to lead the way if they align their payment processes with consumer expectations.

Since over 35% of travellers report that the payment experience is extremely important when booking flights, your payment strategy can be valuable to attract, convert, and retain customers. A secure and agile payment experience at every stage of the consumer journey, starting from the website or branded app right through to payments onboard the aircraft, can impact an airline's bottom line. It builds confidence and trust with consumers while still delivering the frictionless experience today's digital consumers expect.

In this guide, we'll go over ways airlines can improve the payment experience for their customers, improve conversion rates, and become payment leaders in the industry.

The payment process is an integral part of the travel booking experience. Nearly 30% of travellers stop the checkout process and move to another airline if their preferred payment method isn't available. Many times flights are a high-value transaction for travellers, so they give these purchases more consideration as they move through the payment process. This makes it critical for airlines to ensure minimal friction through the process by offering the right payment types across different markets.

For example, today's digital travellers may be open to booking and paying for flights in various ways:

• 51% of Indian travellers would book and pay for a flight through a mobile app such as an airline-branded or travel app.
• 43% of global travellers said they booked a flight after clicking through from social media.
• 19% of Brazilians would be willing to pay for flights in installments.
• 71% of U.K. travellers said they prefer to book flights via their computers.
• 30% of German travellers prefer using mobile wallets such as PayPal to pay for flights and travel.

Consumers expect each of these payment experiences to be seamless, regardless of their preference. The transition between starting the booking process (such as an app or website) and paying for it must be optimised to make it easy, efficient, and secure.

Airlines’ must have the appropriate technology, web / native apps, and mobile services that can offer all this and more while still being efficient and optimised.

Let's take a closer look at some of the ways airlines can optimise their payment processes to provide insight, increase topline revenue, and reduce costs, all while improving the customer experience.

Maintain and offer flexible payment options

Consumers have strong preferences in their online payment methods, so if your airline doesn't accept their favourite, you could be losing out on the booking. And even if the traveller reluctantly uses a different payment method if their preference wasn't available, you may lose future bookings as 18% of them would consider going elsewhere for travel arrangements.

Below is a small sample of the variety of airline payment options preferred around the world:

• Credit cards across North America
• WeChat and Alipay in China
• Paytm in India
• PayPal in Australia, Germany, and Spain
• Boleto Bancario in Brazil
• MercadoPago in Argentina
• Efecty in Columbia

Travellers have many reasons for choosing their preferred payment option, but it's about more than just using what's popular or available in their country. Many people use credit cards or other payment methods such as Paytm in India because of the loyalty program. Earning points or cashback on an expensive purchase like an airline ticket make them a top choice for travellers.

But being flexible enough to offer this much choice to travellers is a challenge for most airlines. While they're global companies, they still must work within their tech stack, vendor options, and payment processor framework when it comes to payments. Creating a centralised payments infrastructure that integrates with your consumer-facing channels (website, app) allows you to support more payment methods globally – and allows you to present the preferred form of payment to the applicable market You'll be better able to manage, increase and optimise your payment experience for travellers while still ensuring you've got their preferred method available.

Aside from integrating with global payment options, what else can airlines do to offer more payment flexibility? Keep reading to find out more.

Increase revenues by reducing payment friction

Friction in a payment process for customers could refer to many things, such as a declined payment without an explanation, an unexpected site redirect, or the need to re-enter their payment or contact information several times. Most travellers will react negatively to any payment friction, causing them to go with a competitor or skip the booking altogether.

Suppose you can reduce the friction by eliminating the obstacles that can happen during online payment. In that case, you stand a better chance of earning the immediate sale and keeping them as a loyal customer, for example, by automatically verifying correct payment details and providing meaningful error messages as needed.

• Make it easy to enter payment details
  Making it easy to purchase flights online starts by only asking for payment information once during the checkout process. If a web or mobile app requires travellers to enter the details more than once, they're more likely to exit the purchase process. In one survey, over 40% of travellers wouldn't continue a travel booking if they had to re-enter personal information more than once.