Alex Bainbridge's Musings on travel ecommerce blog
Musings on travel ecommerce blog
Blog home  Blog home

eBay travel rumour - Paypal and flyMonarch.com

Wednesday, October 24th, 2007

Yesterday I was working away (very busy at the moment) when the phone rang. They said it was Paypal on the phone. My first reaction was - what have we done wrong? Has someone undertaken some fraud that we need to react to on our system? (see how I think!)

No - it turned out that it was in fact a PR agency asking me to write a post about how the flyMonarch.com low cost airline now take Paypal payments. I told them I don’t do news and wouldn’t post anything as TravelMole had already covered it fairly well and I couldn’t add anything sensible. (read article - registration required). Do people think I am a news website or something?

But then I thought - hey - I have this Paypal PR person on the phone. I asked them about Skype and their recent problems…. and about eBay’s secret travel strategy…. nope - they wouldn’t tell me anything unless it was about Paypal. Boring.

Then my project management background kicks in….. when I get bored in meetings I always ask the word “why” - and if no one can answer sensibly - we don’t do it. So I ask this PR person - why would an airline want to take Paypal when they have an existing credit card system? What is their USP? I didn’t get any answer either on the phone - nor later when they said they were going to get back to me. (OK - we have some press though - that helped me)

Therefore I have come up with some ideas….. some unlikely, some completely speculation…. you have to decide which are which!

Are flyMonarch getting close to a PCI credit card security audit rules level?
There are all sorts of new credit card data security rules that are just coming in at the moment (globally). Many of these require additional levels of IT auditing and IT security than has been the case upto this point. This is costly to introduce and can take time. However, if flyMonarch could move some of their transactions from their credit card system to Paypal - then maybe they will stay below one of the transaction volume auditing levels… and put off some of the security work - perhaps to another financial year….. however this all sounds a bit unlikely to me.

Is it a web usability improvement?
This would appear to be the line that FlyMonarch want to tell us:

“It also gives registered travel agents who book on flyMonarch.com another flexible way to pay and manage their booking activity without having to rely on credit or debit cards.” (Liz Savage, FlyMonarch.com Managing Director)

 

The standard credit card entry…

2007_10_24_paypal_cc.gif

 

 

The new Paypal entry (notice you don’t put your credit card details in)….

2007_10_24_paypal.gif

 

Low cost carriers do not tend to offer commission and are not very well distributed via travel agency systems (by their own choice) (I don’t know about FlyMonarch but I assume they work like this - I am sure someone will correct me).

Therefore these flights are often booked by travel agents directly on the airline website using either the customer’s own card (which is complex to keep track of and has security implications) or by the travel agent using the agency credit card (but this requires the agency to share the card details will all their frontline travel agency staff - which isn’t ideal).

Paypal may be a really clever way to let your front line sales staff make bookings using the shared corporate card - but without everyone in your company knowing the card details (as it means the details don’t have to be entered each time a new booking is added).

I am sure that if it was this clever that Liz would have said so - wouldn’t she? (Because this use of Paypal may not have been immediately obvious to all travel agents - so would need to be clearly stated as a key message in the press that was sent out). This does raise some element of doubt in my mind that this usability line is the right one…..

Are Paypal working on getting “trophy clients” within travel?
Maybe Paypal are looking to get a few new clients on board within travel. These are the clients that other companies look at - and go - wow - they have Paypal - then go and add it to their own system.

Is this an eBay push with Paypal as a trojan horse?
eBay own Paypal. eBay have been working on a travel strategy (but no one knows what it is) - Travolution have an interesting article about it. We also know that Paypal likes travel (when both Amazon Payments and Google Checkout refuse to take travel company clients)….. 

Maybe flyMonarch are part of this new dynamic packaging system that eBay are rumoured to be building. flyMonarch may not even know this themselves…. it could be a very clandestine operation for eBay?

Summary
I ran all these questions and ideas past the Paypal PR when they called me…. so they knew what I was going to write…. they didn’t deny it… and could have come back to deny it if they had wished. They missed that opportunity so I have published. Perhaps there is something in all these rumours about eBay after all.

Anyway, they can hardly complain - I wrote up their news didn’t I? - which is what they asked me to do!


If you want to be notified next time something is published sign up for email alerts or subscribe to the RSS feed. Thank you for reading!





More posts (maybe related, maybe not)

  • PayPal accepts travel company payments, Google doesn’t
    Plenty of discussion on the web regarding whether eBay will move into travel (seems likely - see article from Travolution). There is also speculation that Google will also dip their toe into the travel...
  • Amazon Payments for travel?…..No
    I wrote last month about Paypal vs Google Checkout and their policies towards taking online payments on behalf of travel companies. In summary, Paypal (owned by EBay) accepts travel companies while Google doesn't. Anyway, roll on...
  • Rumour week - blogs and big travel companies
    Travel industry blogging is looking up..... but one trend that should worry larger travel companies is the move towards "rumour blogging". Just this week..... Darren from Travel Rants.com managed to uncover the sale of Holidays Uncovered to...
  • EasyCruises use eBay to raise money for a good cause
    Sometimes, when launching a new travel agency, it is helpful to receive some positive PR. If you can help support people in need at the same time then this is a double benefit. EasyCruises.com.au , a...

One Response to “eBay travel rumour - Paypal and flyMonarch.com”


  1. October 25th, 2007 at 10:44 pm
    Darren Cronian

    Alex,

    I noticed the PayPal option last week when looking on the site for more information on my flight.

    I think it’s a great idea and Superbreaks have offered PayPal for a method of payment for a little while too.

    I don’t see it as a payment method for many though.




This blog is about travel ecommerce with a focus on topics of interest to tour operators & travel companies

Alex has previously started up a small tour operator (5 staff) and also worked for leading "dot coms", airlines, hotel chains and tour operators advising and project managing web, ecommerce and reservation system projects.

Alex is available for travel ecommerce consulting via Travel UCD. Travel UCD also operates TourCMS - a web based reservation system for small tour operators


RSS Feed

Subscribe via daily email



AddThis Feed Button

Homepage
About this blog
Best of the blog (top 10 posts!)

Recent comments
Tamara: It’s a lot of money! But I guess it’s probably good value for the column inches it generates - of course as long as you get to the top five! To guarantee that it looks like you have to have...

Alex Bainbridge: Hi Tamara …. as for PhoCusWright….. I am sure that at the point the judges judged they were impartial - however it was a fairly self selecting group who put themselves forward to be judged...

Darren Cronian: Alex, I am worried that we are becoming on the same wave length. http://www.traveldotnet.co.uk/ articles/lets-not-forget-offli ne-travel-innovation/ No, I have just read this post now, I didn’t...

Pete Meyers: Alex - I’m really looking forward to hearing the pirate story, well done!

Ben Colclough: I must say I had more fun acting out a chicken in a restaurant in Yunnan, China than I would have had with the flip book. Seriously though - it is a good idea & innovative. Not sure I would want to...

Alex Bainbridge: Hi Pete The times I would have found this useful (PocketComms) I really wouldn’t have wanted to put an iphone into someone elses hands! For example negotiating with a people smuggling ship in...

Pete Meyers: I think the best innovation is a combination of great ideas and succinct execution. To your example about the PocketComms, it was a good idea that fermented for a number of years, yet who’s to say...

Tamara: This is an interesting debate. I wonder what the PhocusWright judges views are. They seemed to be very clear however that they wanted to reward companies who had actually created something - rather than simply...

Ben Colclough: P&G, generally regarded as a very innovative large consumer branded company has an approach to innovation that throws some light on this. They embrace failure as a necessary part of innovation. This...

Categories
Top commentators
Kevin May
Darren Cronian
Jeremy Head
John
Ben Colclough
Alex Bainbridge
graham steele
Ian McKee
Big Travel Web
Tamara
Guillaume
Ignacio
Neil MacLean
Dominic
John Pyle

Other travel & tourism blogs
Travolution
The Boot
Hotel Blogs
Travel Rants
TraveBlather
Travel PR Blog
Dot Tourism
Albert Barra [Spanish]

Wiwih blogs - a directory of travel industry blogs

Small Fish Big Ocean

Come and join my travel business social network! for small tour operators and niche agents


TourCMS