Jet Airways to allow fliers to buy tickets online using UPI, the first domestic carrier to do so

Private carrier Jet Airways fliers can now buy tickets online, using the industry’s latest payment mechanism, Unified Payments Interface (UPI).

The move makes the city-headquartered airline the only domestic carrier providing its customers with this convenient payment solution. UPI allows money to be transferred instantaneously between any two bank accounts instantly, using a smartphone.

“Our latest payment interface – Unified Payments Interface (UPI), backed by leading banks is yet another smart solution that is simple, convenient and secure,” Jet Airways Chief Commercial Officer Jayaraj Shanmugam said.

Launched by National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), UPI is one of the various measures by the RBI towards a less-cash and a more digital society.

UPI has become Jet Airways’ 21st digital payment option according to a report in The Times of India. In the recent past, Jet Airways has also been introducing customer-focussed features such as ‘Seat Select’, ‘Fare Lock’, ‘JetAdvance’ and ‘Jet Screen’ among others. Jet Screen is Jet Airways’ Wi-Fi enabled streaming solution which will allow passengers to stream in-flight entertainment services on your personal devices.

UPI is a feature that is offered on a majority of banking apps. The objective of UPI was to bring a unified platform that enables P2P money transfer, B2C and M2M transfer, all under one umbrella. Since this is done with the support of the RBI and the Indian Banks Association, it comes across as any standard feature such as NEFT or IMPS. Besides, unlike wallet services such as Paytm, it ends up as a default service on existing banking apps.

What’s interesting with UPI is that you could simply share your identifier, which resembles an email address. For instance if your name is Manoj and you hold an account with HDFC Bank, you could select a unique identifier such as manoj@hdfcbank. That’s all you would ever need to share with anyone who needs to send you money. No hassles around IFSC, Bank account number or any other numbers. Since the sender has selected his/her user ID, it’s authenticated to the account. It’s also easy to remember and convenient.

With inputs from PTI

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from http://tech.firstpost.com/news-analysis/jet-airways-to-allow-fliers-to-buy-tickets-online-using-upi-the-first-domestic-carrier-to-do-so-370203.html