CHICAGO and LONG BEACH, NY, Jan. 24, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- In order to meet the needs of Chinese travelers, United Airlines, UnionPay International and Planet Payment, Inc. (NASDAQ:PLPM) today announced the launch of UnionPay Credit Card acceptance with United Airlines for reservations and other ticketing purchases online and through call centers
UnionPay International provides high quality, cost effective and secure cross-border payment services to world's largest cardholder base and ensures convenient local services to a growing number of global businesses. It is a subsidiary of UnionPay, a Chinese financial services corporation which provides bank card services and a major card scheme in mainland China. Planet Payment is a leading provider of international payment processing and multi-currency processing services.
According to the World Tourism Barometer published by the United Nations World Tourism Organization, China led international outbound tourism in 2015 with the largest population of overseas tourists -- 120 million Chinese citizens traveled overseas in 2015, spending $194 billion across the world.1
"As a global airline with customers across the world, United places tremendous value in providing customers with easy, flexible, and secure options for payment when choosing to fly with us. UnionPay credit card acceptance, with the help of Planet Payment, gives our valued customers the ability to use UnionPay card products directly with United," said Praveen Sharma, VP Loyalty at United.
Shuan Ghaidan, Director of Products of UnionPay International said, "We are very glad to cooperate with United Airlines and Planet Payment and believe this cooperation will offer greater convenience to our customers. We are devoted to providing safe and convenient cross-border payment services for our global cardholders."
"We are excited to announce the launch of our UnionPay solution with United Airlines," said Paul Levine, Senior Vice President, Planet Payment. "Our goal is to broaden payment acceptance for UnionPay cardholders around the globe."
The first phase of this launch supports the acceptance of UnionPay Credit cards with acceptance of UnionPay Debit cards expected to follow at a later date.
About United Airlines
United Airlines and United Express operate an average of 5,000 flights a day to 336 airports across six continents. In 2015, United and United Express operated more than 1.5 million flights carrying more than 140 million customers. United is proud to have the world's most comprehensive route network, including U.S. mainland hubs in Chicago, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, New York/Newark, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. United operates more than 715 mainline aircraft, and this year, the airline anticipates taking delivery of 21 new Boeing aircraft, including 737 NGs, 787s and 777s. The airline is a founding member of Star Alliance, which provides service to 192 countries via 28 member airlines. Approximately 86,000 United employees reside in every U.S. state and in countries around the world. For more information, visit united.com, follow @United on Twitter or connect on Facebook. The common stock of United's parent, United Continental Holdings, Inc., is traded on the NYSE under the symbol UAL.
About UnionPay International
UnionPay International (UPI) is a subsidiary of China UnionPay focused on the growth and support of UnionPay's global businesses. In partnership with more than 1000 institutions worldwide, UnionPay International has enabled card acceptance in 160 countries and regions with issuance in more than 40 countries and regions. UnionPay International provides high quality, cost effective and secure cross-border payment services to the world's largest cardholder base and ensures convenient local services to a growing number of global UnionPay cardholders and merchants.
About Planet Payment
Planet Payment is a leading provider of international payment processing and multi-currency processing services. We provide our services in 23 countries and territories across the Asia Pacific region, North America, the Middle East, Africa and Europe, primarily through our 70+ acquiring bank and processor customers. Our point-of-sale and e-commerce services help merchants sell more goods and services to consumers, and together with our ATM services are integrated within the payment card transaction flow enabling our acquiring customers, their merchants and consumers to shop, pay, transact and reconcile payment transactions in multiple currencies, geographies and channels.