By Adam Perrotta, BTN

UATP has launched a virtual card issuance and delivery platform powered by Conferma Pay. Integrated directly at point of sale in all major global distribution systems, more than 100 booking tools and 500 travel management companies, the service is aimed at delivering more secure airline payments through UATP and superior reconciliation of booking and payment data, the companies said.

Virtual cards issued through the system can be set with specific spending limits, enabling corporations to manage purchase amounts proactively. Virtual cards also can help direct transactions to authorized channels. Meanwhile, automatic reconciliation of booking and payment data reduces billing issues and obviates the need for manual reconciliation, according to UATP. “Virtual payments have become increasingly popular in the travel industry, which makes it important to provide these types of solutions for our members,” said UATP chief commercial officer Dave Holmes. “Airlines will benefit from the fact that UATP virtual cards are typically less expensive to accept as payment,” he added.

Proponents long have lauded virtual cards—which feature automatically generated, one-time-use card numbers—as offering better convenience and security compared to traditional plastic cards for certain use cases. The products are picking up steam in the commercial travel industry as companies like Troovo have begun offering fully automated virtual card issuance.

Meanwhile, the recently revealed data breach of Starwood Hotels & Resorts reservations system, which exposed data from 8.6 million payment cards, could drive increased use of virtual cards, some observers have predicted.

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