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Travel & Ticketing

High-ticket bookings —
confirm funds at the bank before you ticket.

OTAs and ticketing platforms fight card limits, 3DS friction, and chargebacks on cancelled itineraries. StixBNK lets travellers Pay by bank with SCA — you fulfil on authorised or settled states, not on card auths that may never capture. Settlement in fiat or USDC on T+5.

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High € A2A without card velocity limits on many banks
< 10s Target confirmation on instant rails
No CB Bank rails — not travel chargebacks on A2A
1 stack Checkout + invoice links share routing

The problem

Why travel & ticketing merchants leave card rails.

01

Card declines on €2k+ baskets

Family package holidays and multi-city itineraries exceed issuer daily limits. Customers abandon €3,000+ carts after 3DS failures — OTAs lose high-margin bookings.

02

Ticketing before funds are committed

Card authorisations expire or fail capture after tickets are issued. Inventory is gone; revenue is not — chargebacks follow when travellers dispute.

03

Interchange compounds on high tickets

Premium card interchange on a €1,800 flight booking can run €45–€54. At 500 bookings/day, that is €22k+ daily in scheme costs that A2A pricing avoids.

Payment flow

How StixBNK handles travel & ticketing checkout

  1. 01

    Traveller selects Pay by bank

    OTA checkout or agency payment link creates collection with booking reference (e.g. BKG-2026-8841), total amount, and passenger metadata in your backend.

  2. 02

    Bank and amount shown pre-SCA

    Hosted checkout lists banks for traveller's country. Payer sees exact amount, beneficiary, and booking ref in their banking app before authorising.

  3. 03

    SCA and instant confirmation

    Traveller completes PSD2 SCA or SEPA Instant. Status webhook fires on authorised — typically under 10 seconds on supported instant rails.

  4. 04

    Ticket on confirmed funds

    GDS or ticketing API gates issuance on webhook status. No ticket without bank-confirmed payment — configurable rules for authorised vs. settled.

  5. 05

    Agency settlement T+5

    OTA or agency receives payout in EUR, GBP, or USDC on T+5. Booking reference flows through to reconciliation — one line per collection.

OTA package holiday

Family booking — €3,840 Mallorca package

A German OTA sells package holidays averaging €2,200. Card declines spike at €2,500+; 18% abandonment on high baskets last quarter.

  1. Customer selects Pay by bank at checkout; collection BKG-DE-9921 for €3,840 created.
  2. Sparkasse customer authorises via app; SCA shows hotel, dates, and booking ref.
  3. Webhook authorised in 6s → GDS holds seats, tickets issued, confirmation email sent.
  4. No 3DS step-up failure — bank limit typically higher than card daily cap for travel.

Outcome: High-basket completion rises 22% on bank-first cohort. Tickets issued only after funds confirmed — zero inventory loss on expired card auths.

Event ticketing

Stadium drop — 2,000 tickets at €89 in 90 seconds

A ticket platform runs timed on-sales. Card auth/capture lag causes overselling — 3% of orders last drop were fulfilled without captured funds.

  1. Drop goes live; fans choose Pay by bank for €89 × quantity.
  2. Each collection carries unique order ref; instant rail confirms per transaction.
  3. Fulfilment API gates QR issuance on authorised webhook — no ticket without payment.
  4. Finance reconciles 2,000 lines with refs; T+5 settlement in EUR fiat.

Outcome: Oversell rate drops to zero on bank-paid orders. Chargeback exposure removed on A2A volume — no "event cancelled" scheme disputes.

Stack

Products travel & ticketing teams run on

01

Open banking routing

High-ticket checkout with instant SEPA/PSD2 confirmation — gate ticketing on bank-authorised funds, not card auths.
02

Invoicing & payment links

Corporate travel and agency billing with hosted pay links — finance teams pay from business accounts with VAT-ready refs.
03

Mobile SCA

Optimised bank-app redirect flows for mobile travellers — where most OTA checkout sessions start.

FAQ

Common questions from travel & ticketing operators

Should we ticket on authorised or settled status?

Configurable. Instant rails often confirm in seconds on authorised — most OTAs ticket then. Conservative policies can wait for settled; webhooks support both rules.

Do travellers still pay with cards?

Yes — Pay by bank is an additional option. Market it for high baskets and bank-first demographics; keep cards for low-ticket add-ons and markets without coverage.

How does this affect travel chargebacks?

Bank-initiated payments are not subject to Visa/Mastercard chargeback rules. Itinerary disputes on A2A follow banking dispute processes — a different cost and outcome profile.

Add Pay by bank to your travel checkout with StixBNK.

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