Universal Air Travel Plan Basics
UATP Airline Payment Plans Offer Centralized Billing, Convenience
Mar 31, 2009
The Universal Air Travel Plan (UATP) offers companies a business travel payment plan to manage corporate travel. Established in 1936, the UATP card provides businesses with a (mostly) free universal corporate travel central billing plan to simplify travel expenses.
UATP Overview
Airlines offer the UATP corporate travel central billing system to business customers regardless of size. Individual business travelers, travel agents and corporate travel agencies can use the UATP to pay for airline and train travel. The airlines payment plan doesn’t charge per-card charges or annual fees and no deposit is required to use the program. More than 200 airlines accept the UATP corporate travel payment plan, including American Airlines, British Airways, Continental, Delta, Northwest, United and US Airways. Companies who wish to use the UATP corporate travel payment plan must first fill out a credit application and submit a recent audited financial statement for consideration.
Business Travel Payment Plan Insurance
Tickets purchased on American Airlines, Continental Airlines, Delta Air Lines, US Airways or United Airlines using the business travel payment plan automatically receive minimum travel insurance coverage on covered travel. In addition, business travelers may choose to purchase additional trip insurance for additional protection.Insurance offered with the business travel payment plan varies by airline and may include travel accident insurance, Accidental Death & Dismemberment, emergency medical evacuation and repatriation, coverage for lost or stolen baggage, primary rental car loss damage waiver and 24-hour worldwide emergency assistance. Additional layers of travel insurance are also available for purchase.
Airplane Payment Plan Options
Most business travelers using the airline payment plan have a cardless account. Instead, employees are issued a UATP account number to use when booking travel through a corporate travel agency. Corporate travel agencies might also choose to obtain cards for frequent business travelers. The airline payment plan lets customers pay for corporate travel through Bill Me Later Inc., Moneta Corp., PayPal, Acculynk Inc. and HomeATM. In addition, the UATP allows travelers to pay for business airline travel using Ceridian Corp. prepaid cards.
UATP Management Reports
Using a corporate travel central billing system helps companies ensure their travel expenses are kept separate from other types of business expenses. The Universal Air Travel Plan provides corporate travel agencies and business travelers with extensive reports that provide details for travel expense forecasting. The UATP reports include the individual traveler name, class of service, origin, destination, travel date and the cost of the ticket. The corporate travel central billing reports can be sliced and diced according to department, cost center, employee or other categories. The UATP reports are available in cassette, reel tape, disk or print format.
According to a recent press release, the Universal Air Travel Plan is looking into extending the airline payment plan to hotels and leisure travel.
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