Back in 2007, a simple mobile money transfer service ‘Mpesa’ was introduced in Kenya on a trial basis with little knowledge that later on, Mpesa would culminate into a solid credible money transfer option accessible by the majority from their mobile phones.
As of now, Mpesa has gained a global recognition prompting other mobile service providers to introduce their own versions of money transfer system in an effort to counter Safaricom and Vodafone.
Big corporations have so far adopted Mpesa as one of their payment systems joining Visa and MasterCard; Virgin Atlantic and British Airways are the most recent joining a handful of organizations that use Mpesa system.
There are four main mobile service providers in Kenya; Orange Telkom, Safaricom, Airtel and Yu each with its own money transfer service; however, Safaricom enjoys a considerable market share with Mpesa recording a wider adoption among various businesses.
Both Virgin Atlantic and British Airways are foreign organizations that enjoy a considerable share of the overall global air travel industry.
Its anticipated their bold move to incorporate Mpesa payment solution alongside other payment systems was intended at increasing their customer base in the region as well as diluting Kenya Airways grip within East Africa.
Despite Mpesa gaining a wider adoption as a payment solution for various organizations in East Africa, the system still faces major challenges such as currency; most airline carriers quote their tickets in US Dollars, Mpesa only accepts Kenyan Shillings.
The only prudent way for these organizations to continue valuing their air tickets in US Dollars is by equating the days’ exchange rate between the dollar and local shilling to determine the amount a customer has to pay using Mpesa; it could have been much easier if Mpesa users were allowed to create accounts handling major foreign currencies such as US Dollar and the Euro.
How to pay for British Airways Air Ticket using Mpesa;
- You must have an active Mpesa account with enough funds equivalent to the respective currency to use this service. Customers are required to call British Airways Contact center to be advised on the amount payable i.e. exchange rate
- Navigate to Mpesa from the services (varies depending on the phone model) icon on your Phone and Input the British Airways Mpesa Business number which is 380380.
- Enter your PNR Reference on account number field.
- Enter the full amount as quoted by CBA (contact center) then press OK,
- Input your Mpesa Pin and wait for a confirmation text message.
How to pay for Virgin Atlantic’s Air Ticket using Mpesa;
- Go to Mpesa from the services icon on your Phone and Input the Virgin Atlantic Mpesa Business number which is 672672.
- Enter your account number, which is the 6digit booking reference that comes with every ticket.
- Enter the full amount then press OK,
- Input your Mpesa Pin and wait for a confirmation text message.
Source: http://www.tuvuti.com/2011/11/virgin-atlantic-and-british-airways-now.html
MPesa goes Global-Virgin Atlantic, British Airways now Accept it
