REPOST on SQ and Paypal

Professor Andy B was a bit challenged today and left this as a comment. So I have deleted it there (Because he doesn't speak Gaellic) and am posting it here as a complete item on its own. The question he poses is valid. And at the end - please read my answer....



Team.....,

I don't usually bother sending on the daily industry e-mail updates, as I assume you mostly also see what I see.

But this one is interesting - is it a signal that the march by IATA / legacy carriers towards direct distribution is gathering pace, perhaps?

Technlogy News
SIA PASSENGERS TO PAY VIA PAYPAL
Singapore Airlines customers in the US, Singapore Malaysia, Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan, Australia are now able to pay for their flights with PayPal on Singaporeair.com.
The plan is to add more countries to the Paypal options which will make this the largest collaboration between PayPal and an Asian carrier.
A year-long global marketing campaign will be launched to celebrate the collaboration between Singapore Airlines and PayPal.

I know that American is leading the move to DD in the US market. Are they into offering Paypal as a direct settlement channel yet?

There is a consultants argument (really based on a re-cycling of domino theory, from the 60's..) that, without the prior existence of Paypal, then E-Bay could never have grown in size to be the force that it now is.......

--
brgds

AndyB.


Andy most US airlines already have Paypal. Northwest I think was the first - followed by Southwest and now almost all airlines operating domestically support it. it works just fine and I use it for Southwest bookings because its faster. (Its linked also to my WN credit card).

Cheers

The Professor