MasterCard & Travel Agencies

Most travel agencies act as an "agent" for a travel vendor, and thereby typically have a "third party" role in the credit card transaction process. It's the vendor (airline, hotel, etc.) who maintains the direct relationship with a MasterCard Worldwide member service provider, receives payment, and then pays a commission to the travel agent.

There are exceptions. For example, the travel agent might be selling their own package holiday or have other business that requires them to accept cards, obtain their own authorisations and maintain a direct relationship with an acquiring bank. For the purposes of this discussion, we'll assume that the travel agent is acting as "agent" for the travel vendor.

Other participants in the transaction process include:

• Travel Vendor
  The travel vendor may be an airline, cruise line, hotel or any entity that travel agents commonly represent. Each has its own systems for processing reservations, payments and cancellations.
• Member Service Provider
  The member service provider known as "the acquiring bank" maintains a contractual relationship with the travel vendor to provide card processing services. The acquiring bank receives the card transaction and sends a request for payment through the MasterCard global financial settlement system.
• Issuing Bank
  The MasterCard settlement network forwards the request for payment to the issuing bank – that issued the card to the customer. The issuing bank posts the charge to the cardholder's account and remits payment to the acquiring bank through the MasterCard financial settlement system.