Qatar Airways has strategically partnered with one of the mobile networks for a new service that offers greater flexibility for passengers who can now book tickets online on through the reservations office. The company together with Kenya’s Safaricom will now allow their customers to pay for Qatar Airways tickets through M-PESA, a successful mobile money payment system.
According to the CIO, M-PESA cash transactions using mobile devices will be allowed for users with national IDs or passports and in order to pay, customers can go to the M-PESA Paybill option, enter Qatar Airways’ Business number 816850 insert their booking reference number and the amount quoted, at time of booking. Upon receipt of payment, an SMS will be sent to the customer confirming the payment and the e-ticket will be sent to the customer by e-mail. The ticket may also be collected at Qatar Airways reservations or airport office.
Qatar Airways Country Manager Kenya, Sami Debbiche, said that :
[signoff predefined=”Movie Review Signoff” icon=”icon-username”]”Our passengers want to be able to book tickets 24/7 and instantly access our latest offers,” said Debbiche. “So this solution is both user-friendly and gives passengers greater flexibility. Qatar Airways is committed to continually innovating and improving our products and services like this to enhance the travel experience for our passengers.”[/signoff]
M-PESA commands more than one-third of all mobile money transactions in the world with over 18.1 million customers. The service that was originally intended as a micro savings product, but M-PESA was launched as a peer-to-peer money transfer service in 2007. Since then, the trend-setting service has grown and evolved to a financial services platform and its common all over Africa. People use it to pay all sorts of bills.
