The Polish airlines, LOT, has recently integrated bitcoin as one of its online payment methods alongside payment methods including American Express, PayPal, MasterCard and Visa.The airline announced that as the popularity of digital currency increases, the number of places where it can be used a method for payment is constantly on rise too.Air Baltic, the Latvian flag carrier was the first airline to accept bitcoin as a payment method on 2014. The airline company partnered with BitPay that will handle the conversion into Euros.Jiri Marek, the Sales and Distribution Executive Director of LOT stated, “We are open for every single client. We go for innovations thanks to which their journey is even more comfortable and pleasant not only on board, but also much earlier – at the stage of buying the ticket.
Many of them do the shopping online, including plane tickets. It’s just the matter of time when payments with the online currency will become as popular as using credit cards today.We notice this potential, which is why we are one of the first airlines in the world to give its passengers the possibility of paying with Bitcoins as early as today.”Just like Air Baltic, it has also partnered with BitPay and also with OpenPay, the Mexico- based payment service provider.LOT is based in Warsaw and was established in 1929, thus making it one of the world’s oldest airlines that is still in operation.
LOT operates a complex network to 60 destinations in Europe, the Middle East, North America, and Asia by using a fleet of approximately 45 aircrafts.The airlines explained that all the transactions are handled by PSP, which is one of the most reputable and popular platforms that handles payment with the online currency.The prices of the ticket will be calculated according to the standard currency that will be selected by the passenger. At the final stage of the booking process, which is actually the payment stage, the PSP platform will convert the purchase into bitcoins.The client then has to click the “purchase” button and will be redirected to the Bitcoin wallet, and the transactions will be finalized. The client will be all the time on the PSP platform.According to the statement of the airlines company, the new payment method is for them who has a bitcoin wallet and is an active user of digital currency when doing the shopping.TAR Aerolineas, a Mexican airline was the first Latin American airline to accept bitcoin payments in 2015.
