The travel industry relies on highly interconnected payment data flows, where transactions move between airlines, OTAs, travel tech companies, and service providers—each with different payment systems and security requirements. Without the right infrastructure, businesses face security risks, data breaches, and compliance failures.
Many still depend on fragmented, outdated security systems that struggle to keep up with evolving threats, increasing costs, reducing flexibility, and exposing businesses and customers to security risks.
When payment data is stored in unsecured systems, businesses lose control over how and where transactions are processed. The consequences are severe —British Airways faced a £180 million fine for a data breach that exposed sensitive customer information, later reduced to £20 million. Marriott International paid $52 million after a comparable incident.
These cases highlight a stark reality: without a secure, flexible and compliant platform, sensitive data remains at risk, and businesses are constrained by inflexible payment setups.
OTAs, travel technology companies, and airlines face two primary challenges today:
- Complying with stringent data security regulations
- Managing payment data securely across multiple partners while maintaining control over their payment flows and reducing provider dependencies
That’s where agnostic token vaults come in.
How token vaults transform payment processing in travel
Tokens replace sensitive card information with a unique, non-sensitive value (a “token”), ensuring that actual payment data is never exposed during transactions or storage.
For example, if a customer books a flight on British Airways, their card number (e.g., 4242 4242 4242 4242) is replaced with a secure token like TKN-98765. In case of a breach, attackers cannot use the tokenized value—keeping payment data protected.
Unlike PSP-tied token solutions, a standalone token vault with a secure proxy layer gives businesses more control over their payment flows. By storing tokens centrally, businesses can decide where and how to process payments, ensuring flexibility across different acquirers, PSPs, and alternative payment methods.
Because the proxy tokenizes data before it reaches a merchant’s internal system and detokenizes it when sent to external parties, businesses can minimize compliance burdens while ensuring seamless and secure payment processing.
How token vaults & 3DS solve payment complexity
Token vaults provide security and flexibility for travel businesses by replacing sensitive card details with vendor-agnostic tokens. This ensures payment data remains protected throughout the transaction lifecycle while reducing compliance burdens.
By using a standalone token vault, businesses can securely store, manage, and share payment data across multiple partners, minimizing provider dependencies and increasing operational flexibility.
When combined with 3D Secure (3DS), businesses can further strengthen security while ensuring seamless transactions:
- Token vaults protect cardholder data by securely storing and sharing payment credentials across partners.
- 3DS verifies the payer’s identity, reducing fraud and unauthorized transactions.
In travel, where payments often involve multiple stakeholders—OTAs, airlines, and service providers—this combination ensures both secure data handling and strong authentication. The token vault keeps payment data protected and shareable, while 3DS confirms transaction legitimacy before processing.
Together, these solutions enhance payment security, improve approval rates, and maintain compliance—without adding friction.
But security is just one part of the challenge—travel businesses must also navigate an increasingly complex regulatory landscape.
Next, let’s explore how evolving data security regulations impact payment processing in the travel industry.
The challenges of data security compliance in travel
OTAs, travel technology companies, and airlines must comply with evolving regulations to ensure secure payment processing.
In the European Economic Area (EEA), the Payment Services Directive 2 (PSD2) mandates 3D Secure authentication for online transactions to enhance fraud prevention and consumer protection. However, travel businesses operate in a complex ecosystem—where a single booking may involve an OTA, an airline, and a hotel.
In this setup, the first party in the transaction flow (typically the OTA) is responsible for verifying 3DS authentication before securely passing payment data to other partners. Token vaults simplify this process by enabling businesses to store, manage, and exchange payment credentials while maintaining compliance with PSD2 and PCI DSS. Returning customers can authenticate seamlessly, ensuring secure transactions without added friction.
The challenges of handling payment information
Unlike traditional merchant-customer transactions, travel payments involve multiple partners, security protocols, and compliance standards. Many travel businesses still rely on legacy systems that make it difficult to process payment data securely, leading to:
- Higher security risks due to fragmented integrations.
- Increased operational overhead for PCI DSS compliance
- A complex payment flow where multiple partners need access to the same payment data but cannot expose raw card details.
Additionally, payments in travel don’t stop at checkout. Customers frequently modify bookings, request refunds, or add services—requiring secure storage and retrieval of payment details.
A secure proxy ensures that sensitive data is tokenized before it enters a company’s system and detokenized only when needed. This reduces compliance scope and minimizes security risks, allowing travel businesses to operate efficiently without handling raw card data.
Key benefits of token vaults for the travel industry
1. Stronger security & PCI compliance
- Eliminates the need to store raw card data, reducing PCI DSS scope and compliance costs.
- Protects sensitive payment information by tokenizing data before it reaches merchants.
2. Seamless, secure transactions with 3DS
- Token vaults enhance transaction success by securely storing and retrieving payment credentials for returning customers.
- When combined with 3D Secure (3DS), businesses can reduce fraud by verifying the payer’s identity during checkout.
3. Faster, frictionless payments
- Enables one-click checkouts by safely storing tokenized payment credentials.
- Supports seamless multi-partner payment flows critical for OTAs and travel marketplaces.
Third-party vaults, like the Payrails’ standalone Token vault, are level 1 PCI-compliant, ensuring top-tier security and compliance for travel businesses.
Payrails in action: How we simplify payment compliance for travel businesses
Managing payment security and compliance is challenging—especially in the travel industry, where transactions involve multiple parties, global PSPs, and various regulatory frameworks.
Example: How an OTA uses Payrails for secure Payment processing
1. A customer books a flight on an OTA’s platform
- Their credit card details are securely collected via Payrails’ SDK.
- The tokenized card details are returned to the OTA for processing while keeping sensitive data protected.
2. The OTA processes the transaction using the tokenized payment data
- The tokenized card details are returned to the OTA for processing while keeping sensitive data protected.
3. Payment data is exchanged with a hotel distributor, ensuring end-to-end security
- Once the OTA confirms the booking, the token is detokenized and securely forwarded to the next party, such as a hotel distributor or travel partner.
4. Seamless, frictionless checkout for returning customers.
- When the customer returns to upgrade their booking, their saved payment details are retrieved from the token vault, enabling a one-click checkout experience.
Why this matters
By integrating with Payrails' Token vault, travel businesses can:
✔️ Achieve PCI compliance instantly, eliminating the need for costly internal security measures.
✔️ Reduce the risk of payment data exposure by keeping sensitive details tokenized until needed for processing.
✔️ Ensure seamless transactions across partners.
Streamline complex payment processes with Payrails
Payrails’ standalone Token vault empowers businesses to store, share, and manage sensitive data across partners while ensuring the highest levels of security and compliance.
The configurable proxy and flexible UI support diverse APIs, protocols, and transfer methods to streamline payment processes—all through an intuitive and efficient setup. This ensures businesses can securely store and exchange payment data across multiple partners.
Payrails partners with OTAs, travel technology companies, and airlines to design bespoke payment infrastructures that integrate effortlessly into existing systems. Contact our team today to discover how a token vault and a tailored payment operations system can transform your payment processes.
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