British Airways and Click Travel Pilot Automatic Payment System for Direct Booking
Photo Credit: Tail of a British Airways aircraft. The airline will be piloting a new payment system with travel management company Click Travel. British Airways
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This is a good step for the industry, bringing tech improvements not just to the retail side but also to the companies managing the bookings through New Distribution Capability.
So-called New Distribution Capability is purported to make the process of booking business travel more efficient, letting travelers book directly with airlines, and giving them greater access to deals and amenities. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has slowly been coming out with new standards for the distribution technology, in order to establish a system that works for all parties involved.
However, the majority of developments surrounding the new technology have been on the retail, or customer-facing side. Travel management companies have made big changes to implement New Distribution Capability, but so far much of the old infrastructure still remains in place.
Now, the International Air Transport Association has developed a new system for managing payments between travelers and airlines, doing away with the more time-consuming parts of the payment process, a
