US-based chat commerce company Clickatell has rolled out Chat 2 Pay, enabling airline FlySafair ’s customers to pay for luggage on the latter’s Whatsapp channel. Clickatell has gone live with its Chat 2 Pay feature with FlySafair, one of South Africa's low-cost airline.

FlySafair is one of the first airlines to deploy Chat 2 Pay with a pay-by-link capability that allows its customers the convenience of effortless mobile payments via FlySafair's WhatsApp channel. The airline’s officials said that they are always looking for ways to improve customer experience and are therefore happy that customers can now pay for their luggage with a payment link shared to their mobile phones via WhatsApp. There is no need any more for their customers to go stand in a queue at the airport to pay for luggage.

How to use the feature FlySafair customers can access the WhatsApp service by sending ‘Hi’ to the FlySafair business account at the indicated phone number. Once in the WhatsApp channel customers can select ‘My Booking’ and then ‘Buy a Bag’ and follow the prompts on the secure payment link to make a purchase on WhatsApp. Customers can also scan a QR code at the check-in counters to receive the secure payment link.

FlySafair is bucking the trend of airlines using mobile apps to address consumers' needs by using WhatsApp as a convenient, instantaneous, and optimal customer service and transaction channel for its customers. By adding Chat 2 Pay, FlySafair helps its customers to save time and safely make payments further by clicking on the Chat 2 Pay link delivered in a message in WhatsApp without requiring them to expose their personal payment information to a call centre agent or by reading the payment card details out over the phone. The utility of using mobile features Interacting and transacting with airlines using mobile messaging has already been welcomed by travellers.

Clickatell's Chat Commerce Trends Report: Travel Edition 2022, found that 89% of consumers would like to use mobile messaging to interact with airlines and 77% said they are willing to use a mobile payment link with travel brands. Commerce within mobile messaging is becoming the preferred way for consumers to transact, accounting for 71% of retail traffic and generating 61% of online shopping orders. Commenting on the partnership, representatives from Clickatell said they are happy to work with FlySafair to transform its customers' experience by making it possible to make payments using their mobile phones.

No one has time to stand in queues anymore, and almost every adult on the planet has a mobile phone. There is a major opportunity for airlines across the globe to enhance their customers' travel experience by making it possible to browse, book and pay for, as well as manage their travel bookings on their mobile phones. In 2022, FlySafair expanded its customer service by offering the popular WhatsApp channel through the Clickatell Platform.

The FlySafair WhatsApp channel hosts key information about customer bookings, flight status, general flight information, an option to check-in and receive boarding passes on WhatsApp, the option to chat with a live agent, and now the option to make payments for extra products and services. .