How Alternative Airlines saved over £75K in 9 months with Wise

Say hi to Alternative Airlines

Recognised as one of the UK’s top 100 tech companies, online flight search and booking company Alternative Airlines' revenue has grown from £3 million to over £19 million in just three years. Because of their rapid international expansion, relentless focus on customer experience, variety of routes and airlines, and ample payment options, it’s only up from here.

And with an influx of volume — and customers from over 80 countries — they’ve turned to Wise to access the best exchange rates and save on costs related to moving money.

Exchange rates from local banks no longer fly

Alternative Airlines customers are able to pay for flights in over 160 currencies. But the airlines are always paid in pounds.

Early on, managing director Sam Argyle and his team prioritised building the easiest way to book a flight. And the ease of using a local bank to convert the money outweighed the cost of searching for a provider that also had better exchange rates.
But as Alternative Airlines grew, Sam could no longer ignore that of the 70% of the revenue coming out of the US, 100% had to be transferred to pounds.

The launch of the Wise API — with its ability to process high volume transfers — was the clear way that Alternative Airlines could access better rates while still prioritising their customers' experience.

The savings have really taken off

“Selling flights is very much a high volume, low margin business. The erosion that we were seeing was very, very big. We needed to address that and did so through Wise.”
—Sam Argyle, Managing Director of Alternative Airlines

Sam is grateful for Wise — Alternative Airlines has already seen dramatic savings and is on its way to recoup the losses from years of overpaying for lousy rates. In the nine months since partnering with Wise, they’ve saved over £75,000.

Their finance team has also found Wise incredibly easy to use — regardless of the increase in volume, their time and effort to make the transfers hasn’t changed.

Sunny skies ahead

The future is bright for Alternative Airlines. They have plans to continue expanding into new markets by adding languages and increasing the amount of airline and local payment method options on the site.

They’re now looking to tap into other solutions offered by the Wise API, like receiving directly into the Wise multi-currency account to save even more on fees.

So if you’re hoping to go anywhere any time soon, check out their website. Your future trip awaits!