Qantas is letting Australian passengers ‘buy now, pay later’ for flights in a new partnership with payment services provider Zip. Australia has one of the most saturated BNPL markets in the world with many businesses offering consumers ways to spread the cost of their purchases through interest-free payments so perhaps it was only a matter of time before the service was offered for flights.
According to Zip, their research has unsurprisingly shown that consumers who can ‘buy now, pay later’ are more likely to buy a flight in the next 12-months compared to potential travellers who have to pay the total flight price in one go.
“We are giving freedom and choice back to customers by giving them the option to pay for their trip before they go, or when they get back,” commented Cynthia Scott, ZIP’s managing director for Australia and New Zealand.
“Giving customers access to Zip’s fair, flexible and transparent payment solutions, travellers can sit back and enjoy their trip knowing they’re in control of their finances when they get home,” Scott continued.
As an additional incentive, travellers will be able to collect Qantas frequent flyer points when paying for flights with Zip and will even be able to earn Qantas Points on all other purchases bought with Zip through the Zip Rewards programme.
Along with other BNPL providers, Zip isn’t, however, without some amount of controversy. Critics claim BNPL services encourage overspending and could, in extreme situations, have a negative impact on the credit scores of users.
Zip managed to beat 11 BNPL providers who are operating in Australia to the Qantas deal but will it help the company make a profit? Last year, Zip reported a A$652 million loss. Zip has 3.1 million customers and is in merger talks with U.S. BNPL provider Sezzle.
Qantas is offering Zip as a payment option for both domestic and international flights, and is offering a bonus of 3,000 Qantas points when passengers sign up and link their Zip account and also complete their first transaction.
