CellPoint Debuts Payments Orchestration Tool for Airline and Travel Sectors

CellPoint Digital is bringing its payment orchestration offerings to the travel sector.

The company’s new payment orchestration platform is designed to support the airline and travel space’s shift to “modern retailing practices” and simplify the complexity of travel payments, according to a Tuesday (Feb. 18) press release.

“The travel industry faces a once-in-a-generation transformation creating a unique set of payment challenges that generic payment solutions simply cannot address,” CellPoint Digital CEO Kristian Gjerding said in the release. “Our new platform is the culmination of our deep expertise in travel payments, built from the ground up to handle the intricate payment flows, multiple currencies and complex routing requirements unique to travel commerce. As airlines specifically move toward modern retail practices, our new platform provides the foundation for this transformation.”

Payments orchestration has emerged as a linchpin of the travel sector’s transformation, offering a centralized platform that simplifies, optimizes and secures payment processes, allowing for seamless transactions across multiple channels. It’s also reshaping the way travel brands engage with their customers.

“The traveler journey is complex,” Gjerding told PYMNTS in January.

Pointing out that modern travelers demand experiences that are fast, flexible and frictionless, Gjerding said airlines need to juggle currencies, refund rules, payment regulations and millions of digital interactions.

“Whenever they break, this is where you get a bad customer experience,” he said, which can push customers to intermediaries, costing airlines more in transaction fees. This underlines the need for airlines to prioritize seamless payment processes.

“Travelers want to pay with whatever method they think is most valuable to them,” Gjerding said. “If we don’t serve them, they’ll find other routes to get the same product, even from you as a travel merchant.”

In a separate interview last month, Tom Randklev, global head of product at CellPoint Digital, told PYMNTS about the rise of technologies like artificial intelligence in travel payments. Generative AI is driving improvements in personalization.

“Through payment orchestration, we’re creating hyper-personalized, dynamic forms of payment presentation,” Randklev said. “We’re meeting our customers where they want to do business, when they want to do business, and providing the ability to pay however they want to.”

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