Switching flight allowances for its crew from cash to a prepaid card, from Travelex, has massively reduced administration and distribution costs for the airline and increased security and convenience for staff.
Following a tender process, the Travelex Corporate Cash Passport was selected for the real benefits it would deliver.
Based on experience with several other airlines, Travelex has invested heavily in building a prepaid product platform specifically to offer customers simple integration and optimisation of their current per diem, expenses and compensation process.
Virgin Atlantic Airways benefit from automatic loading of the cards by linking their Crew Management System directly to the Travelex card platform.
This means that funds are loaded to a specific crew card, in the correct currency for each flight, giving Virgin Atlantic a much greater element of financial control over allowance distribution.
The Travelex Corporate Cash Passport allows the crew to withdraw their daily allowance in local currency from over one million Visa ATMs and Visa Electron retailers worldwide.
In addition, users benefit from the award-winning, multilingual Global Emergency Assistance, which means card funds can be replaced if the cards are lost or stolen anywhere in the world, 24 / 7.
Alistair Hartley, head of flight operations strategy at Virgin Atlantic Airways said:
”We were looking for an alternative to distributing Crew Allowances as this was a security concern for staff and crew. Travelex offered a solution that matched our requirements to reduce distribution and administration costs. This, alongside the global support that Travelex can provide, made switching to the Corporate Cash Passport a good business decision.”
Travelex is the largest distributor of prepaid currency cards globally and provides Virgin Crew with tailored cash cards according to the airline’s routes.
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Jonathan Bennett, Head of Corporate Outsourcing at Travelex added:
“Being a global foreign exchange business means we are perfectly aligned to provide airlines with Crew Allowances and passenger compensation products. Working with and understanding the airline industry has helped to develop our products to ensure synergy with their working practices. It is great to have Virgin Atlantic on board.”
