By Kate Voehl, Product Manager at AirTreks
In 2010, developer Laszlo Hanyecz made crypto-history when he became the first person to make a documented purchase with Bitcoin (he bought two pizzas).
Fast forward 8 years, and we are wondering who will become the first person to use Bitcoin to book an around-the-world trip.
Yes, you have read that right! We are now accepting Bitcoin as payment for your next international, multi-stop journey. Ready to make your dream of traveling the world a reality?
Step One: Build your trip
If you haven’t already, make your way over to our Trip Planning tool. Here you can add your dream destinations and see a map created in real time. Once you have your initial route planned, you’ll be given a price estimate in the currency of your choice. Click “Bring Your Trip To Life” and send over your information to our travel team.
One of our expert Travel Planners will review your route and contact you within 24 hours to collect a few more details about your trip and learn how they can best help you turn your idea into reality. With this additional information, they will be able to offer suggestions on how to optimize your trip and maximize value.
Step Two: Finalize your flights
Work with your Travel Planner to pick out the perfect flights. Looking for additional stopovers? No problem. Prefer the shortest travel time? They can do that too.
Once you are 100% satisfied with the details of your trip, it’s time to go! Contact your Travel Planner via email or phone to let them know you plan to pay with Bitcoin.
Step Three: Pay with Bitcoin
Watch your email for an online bill from BitPay. Opening the email you will bring you to this screen, and you can click on the blue button to bring up the payment details.
The bill itself will be in USD, but once you open the payment portal you will see a button on the the right that reads “Bitcoin Checkout Now.” Clicking that button will take you to your personal QR code for payment. In order to complete a payment, you must have one of the Payment Protocol compatible Bitcoin wallets such as:
Scan the QR code to open the payment in your smartphone wallet. The address and amount should be automatically loaded. Then you can go ahead to process the payment.
To pay manually, copy the URL (beginning with bitcoin:?r=https://) from the invoice and paste it into your wallet’s “Send” screen.
You’re done! You’ll see the payment reflected on the invoice when you hit “Send”.
Remember to send your payment during the 15-minute payment window. You are only guaranteed a fixed Bitcoin price for this time period.
Any other questions? Head over to BitPay’s help desk to find answers, or contact us!
Update! History was made when Simon Roca became the first person to ever book an AirTrek with Bitcoin.
