Virtual Cards for Business Travellers Now Available on Mobile Phones: New App for People on the Move

With Mobile A.I.D.A. AirPlus presents a new development for flexible business travel payment by smartphone: Innovative solution offers clear benefits for travel managers

London 6th February 2014 –Mobile payment systems have many advantages over classic methods and are increasingly part of daily life. Nowadays no-one can imagine being without their mobile phone, and for this reason AirPlus has developed an innovative mobile payment technology that expands the possibilities of the AirPlus Company Account: Mobile A.I.D.A.

Using AirPlus A.I.D.A. Virtual Payment, customers can already take advantage of the global acceptance of MasterCard and harness the advantages of the central payment solution for companies, the AirPlus Company Account.

The future-oriented Mobile A.I.D.A. app allows travellers to generate MasterCard numbers on demand, anywhere. The app displays a virtual MasterCard with the number and card verification code on the user’s smartphone. This enables travellers to pay for travel services on the road that are then settled centrally through the AirPlus Company Account.

Payment by mobile phone has tangible advantages for business travellers. Whenever they use Mobile A.I.D.A., the Company Account is billed directly, eliminating the need for cumbersome travel expense reports. Naturally, the app is quite flexible. Airline tickets, hotel accommodation, train tickets, events and many other travel services can be paid for with the AirPlus Mobile A.I.D.A. app – both before and during the trip.

Mobile A.I.D.A. means companies now have a controlled but ultra-convenient way to pay for all employees’ trip expenses, whether they have a corporate card or not. New hires, temporary workers and interns: all of them have a payment mechanism literally in their pockets, but one that can be used only within limits set by the company.

Security has top priority for this solution. The Mobile A.I.D.A. function is protected by password and high security encryption. The app is universally accessible to download, but can only be used when company travel managers provide the corresponding login data. This ensures that only authorised employees can access the card payment and the AirPlus Company Account.

"Virtual payment solutions are highly flexible and enable companies to steer their business travel spending in a way to capture areas of spend they may not have been able to capture before," says AirPlus Managing Director Yael Klein. "Travel managers can now put a controlled payment method literally in the pockets of their employees – even ones they wouldn’t normally give a plastic card to or regular travellers who have lost their plastic card."

About AirPlus International

AirPlus International specialises in integrated payment and MIS solutions, helping more than 40,000 corporate customers worldwide optimise their expense management through streamlined processes. AirPlus International offers a complete payment solution for all business expenses, including unique invoicing options and high-quality reporting and analysis. Its standing in the marketplace has been acknowledged through some of the highest accolades in business travel management, including the Buying Business Travel Awards. At the forefront of its award-winning product portfolio lays a strong commitment to innovation, greater transparency, enhanced data quality and research.

AirPlus is underlining its strategic focus on mobile payment with substantial investments in market research, development and product innovations. Together with the Association of Corporate Travel Executives (ACTE), AirPlus published a white paper that addressed the question of how mobile payment will transform corporate travel and expense management. Besides this market study, the AirPlus R&D team mainly devotes its attention to the future technologies involved in mobile payment.