Providing corporations a payment mechanism for employee travel and lodging expenses has been the business of AirPlus, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Lufthansa Airlines, since 1989. AirPlus credit card accounts generated $14.35 billion (€12.7 billion) in purchase volume last year — 80% of that spending was billed to a lodge or “ghost” account for which there is no plastic card. That spending is cleared over the payment network owned by UATP. Payment cards are issued by 21 airlines worldwide for use on the UATP network. A total of 260 airlines worldwide accept UATP cards for payment. AirPl...