The last thing any traveler wants to deal with at the airport is a delayed or cancelled flight. And, to make matters worth, most stranded sojourners are compensated with vouchers, which can present a calamity of challenges and friction in unique ways.
The December edition of the PYMNTS.com Disbursements Tracker™, powered by Ingo Money, looks at how new disbursement tools are helping replace outdated and friction-filled systems being used at the airports.
Around the World of Disbursements
It isn’t just airlines that are turning to disbursement solutions to improve an age-old process plagued by challenges. A host of leading players in the financial space are adopting disbursement solutions that #KillTheCheck.
U.S. Bank, for one, debuted a disbursement service designed to decrease dependence on legacy payment methods. The company’s newly unveiled solution, known as Disbursements via Zelle, enables corporate customers to use the peer-to-peer (P2P) Zelle network to send payments to individual recipients.
Meanwhile, Mastercard is collaborating with Western Union to integrate Mastercard Send into the Western Union Money Transfer service. The collaboration aims to make it easier for debit cardholders in the U.S. to receive funds. The service is also open to non-Mastercard debit cardholders.
Find the rest of the news and trends from around the space in this month’s Tracker.
Travel vouchers get a disbursements upgrade
Even the best-laid travel plans can go awry. For decades, when they did, airlines would compensate customers for everything from computer glitches and lost luggage to flight delays and cancellations with vouchers redeemable at nearby hotels and restaurants.
But, while it may have been in an effort to appease inconvenienced travelers, redeeming these vouchers caused complications of their own, ranging from their validity to the places they can be used at — creating complications for travelers and airline employees alike.
For Keith Smith, president of digital gift and voucher solutions provider Wonder Technologies, the airline voucher seemed ripe for an upgrade. The company offers a real-time digital disbursement alternative powered by technology from Ingo Money that compensates inconvenienced travelers by delivering funds instantly to their preferred payment cards. During a recent interview with PYMNTS’ Karen Webster, Smith discussed how the company used existing voucher solutions, designed for companies like ski resorts, to update the airline voucher industry by issuing gifts directly to consumers via their mobile phones.
“From a consumer perspective, all they need to do is have an email or a cell phone on record with the airline,” Smith said. “They receive a text or an email or both, and they can link to their debit or credit cards — plural — and then go and shop as they normally would do in-store or online.”
To read the story, download the Tracker.
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About The Tracker
The PYMNTS.com Disbursements Tracker™, powered by Ingo Money, is your go-to resource for staying up to date on a month-by-month basis on the trends and changes in the digital disbursement space.
We’re always on the lookout for opportunities to partner with innovators and disruptors.
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