Mooncard, Flying Blue Team Up For New Corporate Travel Benefits

Mooncard, which works in smart corporate cards, is rolling out a new strategic partnership with loyalty program Flying Blue, a press release says.

Flying Blue is the loyalty program for the Air France-KLM group, the release says.

Because of that, Mooncard is now the first corporate card program from France to allow companies and employees to accumulate miles for personal use through paying with a Mooncard product.

Mooncard will be accepted in 100 percent of French and international businesses through a partnership with Visa. The company also takes a low commission from merchants, the release says.

With the partnership between a small startup and a larger aeronautical group, people who regularly incur professional expenses, including transport, catering, buying software or equipment and more, will be able to reap the benefits.

In addition, there will be perks along with the partnership, the release says. The miles accumulated will let people access free award tickets on Skyteam companies, airport lounge access, payment for stays in large hotels like the Accor chain, and purchases for gifts or products.

The company is adding this partnership to its other innovations, including the elimination of manual expense reports as they’ll be done automatically instead.

But how often these benefits will be used in the near future is anyone’s guess, with the COVID-19 pandemic still ongoing and travel not close to recovered yet. PYMNTS writes that experts say the future of business travel will likely consist of new technologies reflecting the current cost, health and environmental considerations that have come up during the pandemic.

One thing likely to be a staple is “digital health passports,” which will let users document their COVID-19 health status.

In addition, the vaccine rollout will be a big player in how fast travel can recover, with 60 percent of business travelers saying they expect to be traveling regularly within the next six months.