Travel Payments: From Pandemic Recovery to Multi-Acquiring Strategies
The travel payments landscape has undergone dramatic transformation over the past five years, with companies shifting from basic optimization to complex multi-acquiring strategies and payment orchestration. In a recent webinar, travel payment consultant Paul Van Alfen and Eliska Hruba from Kiwi.com shared insights on how the industry has evolved and where it's heading.
Pre-Pandemic to Crisis: A Wake-Up Call
Paul Van Alfen, who brings over 20 years of vendor-side experience working with airlines and online travel agencies globally, outlined the industry's journey. Before the pandemic, companies focused on "business as usual, conversion, cost optimization, new channels, new geographies." When COVID hit, everything reversed, creating enormous pressure on partner relationships and back-office operations, particularly around refunding and business continuity.
The pandemic exposed critical weaknesses in payment infrastructure. As Paul explained, it revealed a "don't fix what ain't broken" mindset that left many unprepared. "A lot of things broke actually in the process and were exposed," he noted, particularly highlighting how travel agencies' dependence on airlines for refunds led to "very long cycles for refund processing."
Kiwi.com's Strategic Response
Eliska, who has been with Kiwi.com for over nine years and now works within a fintech department of around 50 people, described their unique pandemic approach. The company avoided major layoffs, with management supporting continued optimization work despite the risks. "We got very lucky having our management behind our back saying, you know, we know it's risky, but you guys focus on optimizations," she shared.
This period forced Kiwi.com to rethink its acquiring strategy fundamentally. COVID "made us realize that it is not just about acquirers, but it's about having the right and strategic partners on your side," Eliska explained. The stress of the pandemic revealed which partners truly understood their business model, versus those who simply required "huge reserves" without grasping their risk mitigation approaches.
The Orchestration Layer Implementation
Kiwi.com's journey to implementing an orchestration layer while migrating acquiring partners took two years to complete. The company developed what Eliska described as an "agnostic setup" with backup providers for every step in their payment flow, including prevention, tokenization, and processing.
The complexity of this undertaking became clear when Eliska explained they needed to test processing performance across two different layers simultaneously—the gateway itself and the new providers. "We kind of needed to handle all of this at the same time," she noted, describing the challenge of onboarding new partners while migrating to another gateway.
The orchestration layer serves a critical function in their multi-acquiring strategy. As Eliska emphasized, "We can't overload our engineers with just building routing rules. You want them to do more important stuff to actually earn money."
Understanding Travel Payment Complexity
Paul highlighted a fundamental challenge unique to travel payments: deferred delivery. "The payment is taken at the time of booking, but the service is delivered over time, three, six, nine months later," creating significant liability and credit risk assessment challenges for acquirers.
He stressed that only a handful of acquirers in Europe truly understand the complexities of online travel agency operations. This includes understanding what exactly has been sold, when the supplier is paid, how the supplier is paid, and what kind of securities exist to protect consumers.
Alternative Payment Methods: Promise vs. Reality
Despite the potential for cost savings through alternative payment methods (APMs), adoption remains challenging. Eliska revealed that customers show caution with high-value travel purchases: "They're actually quite careful when it comes to purchases of their airline tickets. They want the coverage in case something happens."
Paul emphasized the importance of regional payment cultures, noting that "even within Europe, there's a huge difference between credit and debit." He stressed that successful APM implementation requires understanding "what drives adoption" and ensuring "a proper value exchange between the customer and the merchant so they both win."
The Evolution Continues
The travel payments sector has evolved from what Paul describes as a "back office function to a sales enabler." This shift was evident at IATA's annual general meeting in Delhi, where airline executives discussed payments at length—something Paul notes "would have never happened like five or 10 years ago."
Looking ahead, both speakers identified emerging technologies like stablecoins and generative AI as areas to watch. However, Eliska cautioned against rushing to adopt every new trend: "It's more about making sure that you're delivering what the customers actually need and require and desire."
The conversation around travel payments has clearly shifted from survival to strategy. As companies like Kiwi.com demonstrate, resilience now depends on building flexible, data-driven payment ecosystems that can adapt to disruption and scale globally. Multi-acquiring, orchestration, and smarter partnerships are no longer optional—they’re the foundation for delivering seamless customer experiences and sustaining growth in an increasingly complex travel economy. The next chapter of travel payments will belong to those who treat payments not as a cost center, but as a catalyst for innovation and competitive advantage.
Want to see the whole webinar? Check out the replay, along with our new whitepaper, “The Travel Payments Playbook: Building a Scalable, Resilient Infrastructure.”