- Expedia partners with Coinbase to offer crypto payments for hotel bookings
- Vueling, a Spanish airline of the International Consolidated Airlines Group (IAG), will become Europe’s first low-cost airline to accept crypto
- Vueling also plans to use UATP’s global payment solution, a platform run by global airlines that connects to alternative payment methods.
Key Takeaways
Notwithstanding the crypto market downturn, global corporations are eager to integrate cryptocurrencies with conventional finance. People’s interest in cryptocurrency appears to be alive and well. Despite a large crypto sell-off, public exuberance for the industry is strong, according to a survey conducted by banking giant Bank of America. The survey found that people are increasingly interested in using cryptocurrencies as an online payment option in the near future.
Expedia Partners With Coinbase To Offer Crypto Payments For Hotel Bookings
According to the news alert from Investmentpitch.com Expedia, the world’s largest full service online travel site, announced it will begin accepting bitcoin as a form of payment for hotel bookings, becoming the first major travel-agency to accept the digital currency.
To purchase hotel reservations, customers simply indicate bitcoin as their method of payment and then follow a few steps to safely and securely complete each transaction.
Michael Gulmann, Expedia’s vice president of global product stated, “Expedia, Inc. is in a unique position, as one of the world’s leading online travel agencies, to solve travel planning and booking for our customers and partners alike by adopting the latest payment technologies. We’re continually looking at ways consumers want to pay for their travel; bitcoin is a great example of how Expedia is investing early in an array of payment options to give our customers and partners more choice in the ways they interact with us.”
Expedia has partnered with Coinbase to process the bitcoin payments, which will convert the bitcoins back into U.S. dollars. Coinbase, which powers 1.3 million consumer wallets and supports 32,000 merchants, makes it easy to buy and sell bitcoin, securely store bitcoin in the cloud, and accept bitcoin as payment and receive funds in U.S. dollars. In December 2013, Coinbase received a US$25 million investment, the largest ever for a Bitcoin company, from the prominent Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz.
“We are pleased to partner with Expedia.com to welcome them into the growing community of forward-thinking companies that have opened their businesses to accept bitcoin payments,” said Fred Ehrsam, co-founder of Coinbase. “By accepting bitcoin as a form of payment, Expedia is giving a wider community of users the opportunity to book hotels from their site’s inventory of properties all around the world quickly and easily.”
Europe’s First Low-cost Airline To Accept Crypto
According to a press release, Vueling, a Spanish airline owned by the International Consolidated Airlines Group (IAG), has collaborated with BitPay, a heavily popular bitcoin payment infrastructure provider, to embrace bitcoin as payment.
According to the release, Vueling’s manager of distribution strategy and alliances, Jess Monzó, stated:
“With this agreement, Vueling once again reaffirms its position as a digital airline. We are overjoyed to have found in BitPay the best partner to provide our customers with the most secure and reliable cryptocurrency transaction experience possible.”
The airline will also collaborate with Universal Air Travel Plan Incorporated (UATP), a payments network provider for travel-based expenditures, to construct out the necessary infrastructure to openly acknowledge bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as payment by early next year.
This action would guide Vueling reposition itself as Europe’s first low-cost airline to accept cryptocurrency as a mode of payment. As early as 2023, crypto payment services will be available.
Vueling will use UATP’s tools to connect for a quick implementation phase, as per the official blog post. Users will be able to pay for their flight using more than 100 wallets as well as 13 different cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin (BTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Dogecoin (DOGE), Ethereum (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), Shiba Inu (SHIB), and Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC)
Processing transactions with cryptocurrencies is a push transaction, which allows the user to send the precise amount rather than making a withdrawal like with a credit or debit card. This will ultimately put an end to transactional fraud, such as phishing attempts. This facility, however, will only be available through Vueling’s official website.
“In this digital age of payments, offering cryptocurrency as a form of payment to the buying public is a must,” said Rachel Morowitz, senior VP partner processing at UATP. “UATP and BitPay partnered to bring this option to the airline industry, and it is meeting Vueling’s customers’ growing demand for cryptocurrency payment.”
BitPay’s Vice President of Marketing, Merrick Theobald, was enthusiastic about the partnership and stated that cryptocurrencies are the future of payments. Vueling, he believes, is acknowledging the possibilities of cryptocurrencies to reshape the airline industry by making global payments faster, more secure, and less expensive.
“At BitPay, our goal is to make cryptocurrency acceptance as simple as possible and to increase adoption.”
