This week, we saw incredible features from the ride-hailing and car rental sector. Following Saudi Arabia’s grant license to drive to women, Uber launches women-only drivers. Meanwhile, Europcar creates a road trip planning tool to help you embark on an epic adventure.

Singapore Airlines’ seamless payment experience

Singapore Airlines has partnered with payment platform Adyen to ensure a frictionless payments experience for customers when they book online or in-app. Working with Adyen, Singapore Airlines has enjoyed an increase in authorisation rates, flexibility on fraud risk management and richer data insights, resulting in a more seamless payment experience for its customers across the globe.

The partnership will centre on Adyen’s solutions to optimise the payments process. This includes the use of Adyen’s direct credit card acquiring capabilities which eliminates the need to run payments across multiple third-party platforms, increasing Singapore Airlines’ already healthy payment authorisation rate by leveraging Adyen’s RevenueAccelerate.

SIA can identify legitimate customers as the solution taps on Adyen’s global, cross-industry data network to block fraudulent transactions, leaving the genuine travellers unhindered. This unlocks more revenue for Singapore Airlines and creates a frictionless experience for customers.

Warren Hayashi, president of Adyen APAC, “For Singapore Airlines, best-in-class customer service begins with the booking. At Adyen, we have seen that payments data can be the jet fuel that powers global expansion for airlines. Payments data remains a valuable resource for companies who seek to understand their customers better and improve revenue.”

CWT secures Cyber Essentials certification

CWT, the B2B4E travel management platform, has secured a UK Cyber Essentials certification. This UK Government-backed scheme is designed to protect organisations and their data against a wide range of cyber attacks.

“Compliance with this scheme highlights our strong commitment to cybersecurity,” said Harshal Mehta, CWT’s chief information security officer. “Various laws around the world, like the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), mandate tough standards for data security. This certification marks another important milestone for CWT’s security program which already includes PCI DSS and SOC certifications, and it shows our clients how seriously we take our duty to protect their data.”

The UK Government worked with the Information Assurance for Small and Medium Enterprises (IASME) consortium and the Information Security Forum (ISF) to develop Cyber Essentials, a set of basic technical controls to help organizations protect themselves against common online security threats. The full scheme, launched on 5 June 2014, is backed by UK industry bodies, including the Federation of Small Businesses, the CBI and various insurers.

Uber launches “Women Preferred View”

Uber has launched the new “Women Preferred View” feature for women drivers in Saudi Arabia, which provides them with a choice in selecting a preference to be connected to women riders. A global first for Uber, the Women Preferred feature underwent a pilot run last year and thanks to its popularity has now been incorporated as a full-fledged feature exclusive to women drivers in Saudi Arabia.

The launch of this unique feature comes on the back of Uber’s Masaruky initiative that aims to increase women’s participation in the workforce through access to affordable transportation, in addition to increasing women’s access to flexible, part-time economic opportunities through the use of Uber technology.

The newly introduced feature is designed to meet growing interest from Saudi women seeking to benefit from the flexible economic opportunity that Uber provides, and Uber’s ongoing efforts to be mindful of the cultural landscape in Saudi Arabia.

Tino Waked, general manager of Uber Middle East and North Africa, said: “As part of this initiative, this newly introduced feature will open new doors and opportunities for women as Uber driver-partners, while being conscientious of local cultural norms.”

Europcar’s helps you plan your road trips

Europcar has created a road trip planning tool, breaking down the world’s top destinations and most popular routes, with designated places to stop for amazing photo opportunities and surreal experiences.

The tool was created based on in-depth research that analysed a staggering 47 million social media posts to uncover the world’s road trip habits and most favoured travel destinations. Europcar has identified all of the social media posts that are tagged with #roadtrip to determine the greatest road trip destinations and the results are in:

Whilst the USA lands the top spot for the most favoured road trip country in the world with over 7 million #roadtrip posts, the UK takes a respectable seventh place and an impressive third place in Europe. The London to Paris road trip has championed as the most popular route in Europe overall, followed by the Icelandic Golden Circle then the Italian cross country trip from the fashion capital of Milan to the elegant Venice.

The full research findings have been plotted visually in a stunning interactive map which showcases each road trip, destination and the possible routes that travellers can visit across Europe. Highlighting the main points of interests and sights that can be found along the way, the guide is illustrated throughout with real Instagram images so that visitors can take inspiration and craft their own adventures. See the global map here.

TD rounds up travel tech developments every week, send us your stories at tech@traveldailymedia.com. See previous tech news here.