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Eighty Percent of Consumers Feel They Don’t Get the Best Price on Airfare*; New MasterCard® PriceAssure™ Helps Cardholders Purchase Air Travel with Confidence

Dépèche transmise le 10 mai 2011 par Business Wire

PURCHASE, N.Y. & SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--MasterCard Worldwide and Yapta.com, a leading provider of airfare tracking, today announced a new airfare price assurance program for MasterCard U.S. consumer and small business cardholders who book flights directly with eligible airlines. MasterCard^® PriceAssure^TM helps take the guesswork out of getting the best price on airfare by tracking flight itineraries and offering cardholders specialized customer service to help secure airline credit for savings on future travel, if the same itinerary they’ve purchased with their enrolled MasterCard card later becomes available from that airline at a lower price, minus any airline change fees.

“Now travelers can better focus on enjoying the priceless experiences of their air travel rather than worry about the price of their trip.”

“Finding the best deal on airfare can be one of the biggest frustrations for today’s leisure and business travelers. With MasterCard PriceAssure, cardholders now have peace of mind knowing that when they book directly with an eligible airline using their MasterCard card, they’re getting the most value at that airline on their flight itinerary for their travel dollar,” said Chris Aguas, vice president, New Product Development, MasterCard Worldwide. “Now travelers can better focus on enjoying the priceless experiences of their air travel rather than worry about the price of their trip.”

MasterCard PriceAssure makes it easier for people to save money when booking air travel at a time when most consumers are feeling frustrated and overwhelmed during their search for low-cost flights. A recent MasterCard survey* found that of those who have looked for airfare:

• 70 percent feel it takes them a lot of time to find low cost flights
• 77 percent worry about timing their flight purchases to get the lowest fare
• 79 percent say they will go to great lengths to save money on flights

To participate in MasterCard PriceAssure, MasterCard U.S. consumer and small business cardholders must simply:

• Enroll without additional charge with their MasterCard card at mastercard.com/priceassure
• Purchase an itinerary from an eligible carrier using their enrolled MasterCard card
• Log their flight details on to the site and opt-in to receive price drop alerts, which continually track fares up until shortly before the time of departure and notify cardholders if an equivalent seat class becomes available at a lower price from that airline
• After receiving a price drop alert, pursue an airline credit on their own or choose the hassle-free option to have MasterCard PriceAssure do the necessary work to claim the credit on their behalf for a fee of $19.95 per itinerary, which is currently waived for World Elite MasterCard cardholders.

“The new MasterCard PriceAssure presents an excellent opportunity for people to capture savings on what is often their single, biggest travel expense,” said Tom Romary, co-founder and CEO, Yapta. “Far too many travelers pay too much for airfare and forget to follow the price of their flight after they book their itinerary. The new MasterCard PriceAssure program alerts MasterCard cardholders when flights they purchase with their enrolled MasterCard card on eligible airlines drop in price, and with MasterCard PriceAssure customer service, we can help them retrieve airline credit that’s good towards a future flight with that airline.”

For more details on MasterCard PriceAssure, including eligible airlines and additional terms and conditions, visit mastercard.com/priceassure.

Enroll and Track your Itinerary and Snag a Priceless Travel Experience

To support the launch of MasterCard PriceAssure, MasterCard cardholders who enroll in the program and track a purchased flight itinerary between now and June 10, 2011 will be automatically entered for a chance to win a $2,500 MasterCard prepaid card that can be applied towards a future travel experience.**

For official rules and additional terms and conditions, visit mastercard.com/priceassure.

*About the MasterCard Survey

The survey was conducted for MasterCard by Harris Interactive. From March 11, 2011 through March 15, 2011, Harris Interactive conducted a Harris Poll QuickQuery^SM online omnibus service, interviewing a nationwide sample of 2,526 U.S. adults aged 18 years and older. The data have been weighted to reflect the composition of the U.S. adult population.

About MasterCard Worldwide

As a leading global payments company, MasterCard Worldwide prides itself on being at the heart of commerce, helping to make life easier and more efficient for everyone, everywhere. MasterCard serves as a franchisor, processor and advisor to the payments industry, and makes commerce happen by providing a critical economic link among financial institutions, governments, businesses, merchants, and cardholders worldwide. In 2010, $2.7 trillion in gross dollar volume was generated on its products by consumers around the world. Powered by the MasterCard Worldwide Network – the fastest payment processing network in the world – MasterCard processes over 23 billion transactions each year and has the capacity to handle 160 million transactions per hour, with an average network response time of 130 milliseconds and with 99.99 percent reliability. MasterCard advances global commerce through its family of brands, including MasterCard®, Maestro®, and Cirrus®; its suite of core products such as credit, debit, and prepaid; and its innovative platforms and functionalities, such as MasterCard PayPass™ and MasterCard inControl®. MasterCard serves consumers, governments, and businesses in more than 210 countries and territories. For more information, please visit us at www.mastercard.com. Follow us on Twitter: @mastercardnews.

About Yapta.com

Yapta helps travelers get the most value from their travel spending by providing easy-to-use tools, information and intelligence on air and hotel pricing. The company offers a range of travel price monitoring solutions that serve both the individual leisure and business traveler -- as well as larger travel organizations looking to provide additional value to their customers. For more information, visit www.yapta.com.

** NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Void where prohibited. Starts 5/10/11. Ends 6/10/11. Restrictions apply. Click here for Official Rules & complete details.