Articles tagged “uplift”

As with lots of cash and stock deals, the ultimate outcome will depend on Upgrade's eventual exit, and how that turns out. On the face of it, though, this deal looks underwhelming for Uplift.

Deferred payment models are nothing new, but as travel recovers, airlines and others in travel need to find innovative ways to accept payments. It's far from certain that this payment model will help speed up a recovery, or prove to be another huge burden for customers.

With this investment, PayPal co-founder Max Levchin has raised $800 million to grow Affirm, which lets consumers pre-qualify for loans to buy flights, hotels, rental cars, seat upgrades, and non-travel products. Who said payments aren't sexy?

The old idea of payments in monthly installments is seeing new life in the U.S. online travel sector. Uplift is one of the leading tech vendors powering loans to travelers for buying from airlines such as Spirit and search sites like Kayak. Expect a lot of marketing around this in 2019.

Companies ought to carry out adequate checks on the ability of borrowers to repay travel loans on time. Otherwise, a surprise disruption such as an Icelandic volcano or an economic downturn could prompt defaults.

In the past nine months, a group of relatively low-profile startups began signing up brands like Expedia and United Vacations to the concept of layaway plans for buying travel.