Malaysia Airlines Berhad has rolled out MHPay, the national carrier’s own alternative digital payment platform to purchase flight tickets, ancillary products, and other services offered. Available via its website and mobile app, the platform aims to provide its customers with access to all available payment options through a single integration point, including interest-free instalments and buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) options. 

According to Malaysia Airlines, customers who tap into MHPay can expect to enjoy highly secure and seamless real-time payment transfers, which are facilitated by the International Air Transport Association (IATA). Specifically, MHPay adopts the technology employed by IATA’s own IATA Pay – which is described as an alternative method to pay for flight tickets purchased online by directly debiting customers’ bank account. This makes Malaysia the first Southeast Asian country to adopt IATA Pay. On top of that, MHPay is also launched in collaboration with several major financial institutions, and is powered by full-suite payments platform 2C2P. 

With this, customers who choose to use MHPay when booking their flights will be redirected to IATA’s secure site to transfer funds from their bank account to the national airline. The funds will be transferred through IATA, which manages the payments on behalf of Malaysia Airlines. Upon payment completion, customers will then be redirected back to Malaysia Airlines’ site for their booking details, before receiving their e-tickets via email. 

Additionally, MHPay is also said to have a quick transaction time of less than one minute – although this also depends on your connectivity. This, in turn, will help to enhance payment security and reduce the potential of payment fraud. 

Malaysia Airlines further shared that the rollout of MHPay is set to be done in phases, although surprisingly, it seems that no specific launch date has been arranged for Malaysia yet. During the first phase, MHPay will only be made available to customers in four countries, namely the United Kingdom, Europe, India, and Hong Kong. 

“We are thrilled to launch MHPay as a testimony to our digitisation initiatives while we continue innovating to fulfil evolving business and customer needs and respond to the rise of digitally savvy consumers. Customers will benefit from MHPay as it offers a fast and secure way to purchase real-time airline tickets online as well as through our mobile app, with no additional service fees,” said the group chief marketing and customers experience of Malaysia Airlines, Lau Yin May. 

Lau also said that MHPay is a sign of Malaysia Airlines’ commitment in enhancing its customer experience, especially as travel demand starts to soar once more.

Aside from launching the MHPay platform, Malaysia Airlines also took the opportunity to introduce a new buy-now-pay-later payment (BNPL) payment option, in collaboration with ShopBack PayLater. Customers are allowed to spread their purchases into three instalment at zero interest. To note, MAS had previously signed on with BNPL service provider hoolah to offer this option, but hoolah was eventually acquired by Shopback to be rebranded as ShopBack PayLater.

Alternatively, MAS customers paying using credit cards can also spread their payments into six-month or twelve-month instalments, for purchases for over RM500 and RM1,000, respectively. Zero interest applies for these instalments. These instalment payment plans are currently offered via Maybank, Public Bank, CIMB Bank and Hong Leong Bank.

(Sources: The Edge Markets, Aviationscoop, ETTravelWorld.com)

• TAGS:
• 2C2P
• IATA
• IATA Pay
• International Air Transport Association
• Lau Yin May
• Malaysia Airlines
• MAS
• MHPay