AirAsia Partners UnionPay

AirAsia has partnered UnionPay International so it can optimize the travel experience for UnionPay bank cardholders around the world through the entire AirAsia ecosystem which includes flights, hotels and other related transactions.

Guests from China will now be able to book flights on airasia.com in RMB using their UnionPay cards. Tune Money, AirAsia’s pre-paid card partner will also issue a multi-currency prepaid card in collaboration with UnionPay, which will be available in CNY, THB and HKD.

With this partnership, UnionPay will also support AirAsia’s loyalty programme with auto points conversion targeted for the fourth quarter of this year.

The AirAsia BIG Loyalty Programme enables members to earn points via all companies under the Tune Group such as AirAsia, Tune Hotels and Tune Talk in addition to over 100 BIG Loyalty Partners across the region. Members will be able to get points for every UnionPay transaction and redeem points for AirAsia flights. BIG and UnionPay are also planning to issue a cobrand card targeted for the third quarter of this year.

Tan Sri Tony Fernandes, Group CEO of AirAsia, said, “The partnership represents our commitment to the Chinese market that will allow more people in China to fly, boosting tourism between China and Southeast Asia and beyond. We are always looking for ways to make travel more accessible to the masses and there is no better partner than UnionPay in China. Through this partnership not only will UnionPay cardholders be able to transact in their own currency, they will also be able to collect BIG points they can use towards future travel.”

Today, AirAsia operates 34 routes to over 16 destinations in Greater China, with 352 weekly frequencies.