Emirates enhances online booking.

Byline: Staff Report

Dubai: Emirates on Monday said it has made online bookings and payments easier on its website www.emirates.com , including the option to pay in one of 14 major currencies.

"Payment options in many of the airline's markets have now been widened, taking into account recent research on which payment methods are likely to most appeal to customers," an Emirates statement said.

Partnering with GlobalCollect, the world's premier payment service provider of local e-payments, Emirates can now offer alternative payment methods in 34 countries served by the site.

"In selecting these additional payment methods for customers using emirates.com we took a very local approach. Each country has its own unique preferred payment methods and we very much wanted to give options which catered for the needs of our customers in each market" Richard Vaughan, Emirates Divisional Senior Vice President of Commercial Operations Worldwide, said.

"Germany is an excellent example - Giropay is a very popular payment system there and we have now added this as an additional payment method for passengers purchasing tickets from the four cities in Germany from which we fly."

Existing credit and charge card options like Visa, MasterCard, Amex and Diner's Club are expected to remain popular choices with customers.

Additional options now offered include real-time bank transfers, online banking and offline bank transfers, allowing passengers to make direct fund transfers.

Passengers will also now be able to send payments for their tickets at selected Western Union agent locations, using the Western Union Quick Pay service or via their PayPal accounts. There are also some market-specific options like Solo and Maestro cards in the UK.

One of the new benefits the airline believes will be most useful to customers is the opening of the option for a third party to make a payment on behalf of another passenger. So far this facility has not been offered, in order to prevent any possibility of fraud in an online transaction.

With the addition of alternative payment methods like Western Union Quick Pay and bank transfers, chances of fraud are reduced because the transactions are done via cash at an agent location or a cash transfer directly from a bank account, allowing, for example, someone to pay for a ticket booked for another family member.

In response to customer demand, Emirates also now offers the option for passengers who purchase their tickets through emirates.com using selected payment methods, to do so in the particular currency in which they are charged.

This provides the customer with greater transparency as the final charge will appear on their statement in their chosen currency.

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