ATLANTA and WASHINGTON, Oct. 24, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — BCD Travel has become the first travel management company to issue UATP accounts. BCD will launch the payment program internally with a test group before making it available to all clients as early as Q1 2020.

UATP represents an innovative approach to travel payment, offering a focused payment and settlement process with hospitality industry players and touchpoints. Travelers can also use the cards for virtual payment solutions to book hotels.  

“At BCD Travel we’re continually looking to innovate in technology, business models, processes and corporate culture,” said Cees Batenburg, BCD Travel Global Chief Financial Officer. “Becoming the first TMC to issue UATP accounts is part of our broader effort to bring innovation to travel payment to improve both the traveler and travel buyer experience.”

“The TMC Issuer Program was a next logical step in UATP’s growth strategy, because TMCs are uniquely positioned to discuss form of payment with travel buyers,” said Ralph Kaiser, president and CEO, UATP. “We worked with BCD Travel as our first TMC Issuer based on their payment process expertise and technological maturity. We anticipate the program will result in greater spend volume, an increased number of Subscribers and more entrenched relationships with key travel agency partners.”

UATP payment is accepted by most of the world’s airlines, several rail carriers, more than 30,000 ARC-accredited U.S. travel agency locations and 130,000 other agency locations around the globe.

Under the new UATP program, BCD’s clients will instruct the TMC through traveler profiles to use their UATP account when booking travel with relevant merchants. Similar to UATP’s Airline Issuers, BCD will help manage their clients’ UATP program and provide customer service. The program is currently available only to subscribers in the U.S.