Malaysia Airlines now lets you buy flight tickets with interest-free 3 monthly instalments

Malaysia Airlines has announced a partnership with Hoolah to offer a Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) option for online flight bookings. This enables travellers to fly to their destination for vacation before paying the cost of flight tickets in full. You can spread the cost across 3 monthly payments and there’s no interest or hidden charges.

This instalment payment option is made possible with Malaysia Airlines’ partnership with Hoolah, a BNPL platform from Singapore. According to Malaysia Airlines, this payment flexibility is offered to travellers in Malaysia, Singapore, and soon Hong Kong. It’s already available on Malaysia Airlines’ online booking platform as well as their Journify travel and lifestyle platform. On the final payment page, you can select “hoolah” and you’ll be directed to their platform to complete the transaction.

Unlike a credit card payment where you’ll be billed the full amount upfront, Hoola allows you to split your transaction into 3 monthly payments. Similar to Atome, you can link your credit or debit card for repayment. On the day of the transaction, you’ll be charged the first instalment amount and the remaining balance will be charged in the following two months.

Malaysia Airlines Group Chief Marketing and Customer Experience Officer Lau Yin May said, “We are excited to collaborate with Hoolah as it provides another payment option and flexibility for customers to book their flights with Malaysia Airlines and shop on Journify. This marks our first-of-its-kind partnership with a BNPL provider in Asia, and it couldn’t be timelier as we anticipate growing demands for travel with the reopening of our borders soon. Malaysia Airlines is committed to facilitating safe and seamless travels to all our guests, and now, we are taking the worry out of planning a trip, as they’ll be able to book and enjoy their getaway ahead of time, before paying for their trip through interest-free instalments. We invite travellers to take this opportunity to explore new destinations and Fly Confidently with Malaysia Airlines, as we have put in place extensive health and safety measures on-ground and in-flight so travellers can have a fulfilling journey with Malaysian Hospitality.”

Commenting on the collaboration, Hoolah CEO and co-founder, Arvin Singh said “We are thrilled to be partnering with Malaysian Aviation Group in Asia and support their business objectives as we push forward together to accelerate the recovery and growth of the travel and tourism industry. As countries in the region gradually open up their borders, we look forward to making travel more accessible and affordable for travellers, along with the flexibility to pay for their holiday over time.” 

The announcement comes at a time when Malaysia will start its “transition to endemic” phase on 1st April 2022 which marks the reopening of international borders. Fully vaccinated travellers are no longer required to undergo mandatory quarantine but they are still required to take an RT-PCR test 48 hours before departing to Malaysia and an RT-Antigen test without 24 hours upon arrival.

The BNPL option provides greater payment flexibility to consumers without access to a credit card as they can spread the payment across several months with no extra interest. There has been a rise of BNPL schemes in the market which are operating in a grey area. The ease of accessing such payment facilities raises concerns that consumers may spend beyond their means. Bank Negara Malaysia aims to regulate the BNPL schemes later this year

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