CheapAir.com announced earlier today they will be accepting bitcoin for Amtrak railway services, the latest in a long rollout of additional payment services using the digital currency for California-based booking provider.
CheapAir first made bitcoin payments available for flights in November of this past year, with a network of over 200,000 hotels being added in February according to an article by CoinDesk.
The usage of bitcoin for payments isn’t part of a grander strategy according CEO Jeff Klee, saying in a statement, “Once we saw how well it did with flights, we said we should definitely add this to hotels. Amtrak was a new product, but because bitcoin had done well on flights and hotels, we thought to continue our support for bitcoin.”
Very cool: #bitcoin for Amtrak bookings. http://t.co/qRHKEfMKqD via @coindesk & @ErikVoorhees (cont.)
— Jeff Garzik (@jgarzik) May 6, 2014
This latest adoption for travel options does indeed help promote the usage of bitcoin for additional services, and having a major North American company echo the move of Spanish travel agency Destina.com only helps to further awareness.
CheapAir’s latest addition didn’t come without difficulties however, with Klee stating, “When someone pays by bitcoin, we have to bypass that traditional process, we accept the payment, we process it and then we have to pay the suppliers in some other way.”
The move for adopting bitcoin payment for additional services isn’t a move to satisfy customers, Klee insists, but rather one to round out the options and services provided by CheapAir.
According to Klee, the adoption of bitcoin hasn’t been a bad thing for the previous services offered, but the platform hasn’t seen a steady decline or growth.
