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United Airlines courts more Chinese customers with Alipay partnership
Saturday, 18 Jan, 2016
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United Airlines aims to woo more Chinese flyers after agreeing a deal to offer Alipay online payments on its Chinese language website.
United has partnered with Ant Financial, the Alibaba unit which operates the Alipay platform, giving United access to more than 400 million registered Alipay users.
Users on the United website can click the ‘Pay with Alipay,’ button which connects to a user’s debit card, credit card or a cash balance on their account.
"This exciting new partnership with Ant Financial’s Alipay is another good example of our strong commitment as we prepare to celebrate 30 years of doing business in China in 2016," said Walter Dias, United’s managing director for sales in Greater China and Korea.
"I am confident that this service enhancement will offer more Chinese consumers the chance to travel to the U.S. along with our convenient China-U.S. flight schedules and Chinese services, both on the ground and in the air."
More than 2.5 million Chinese visitors came to the US in 2015 and that figure is set to rise significantly this year, especially as 2016 has been designated ‘2016 China-US Tourism Year.’
This is a joint effort by the two governments to encourage more travel between the US and China, supported by the recent easing of visa restrictions.
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Editor for TravelMole North America and Asia pacific regions. Ray is a highly experienced (15+ years) skilled journalist and editor predominantly in travel, hospitality and lifestyle working with a huge number of major market-leading brands. He has also cover in-depth news, interviews and features in general business, finance, tech and geopolitical issues for a select few major news outlets and publishers.
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