Yapta and MasterCard plan to begin a beta in December in which MasterCard consumer and small business cardholders purchasing flights with their cards would be able to receive Yapta's price monitoring and price assurance services.
Yapta pledges that its services get air travelers refunds on the difference when the airfare drops below the price the flight was booked for.
The beta is a prelude to a full-fledged launch of the service with MasterCard in early 2011, Yapta says.
The MasterCard-Yapta partnership punctuates a shift for Yapta, which has been focusing in recent months on supplementing its consumer offering with business to business services.
"This is a significant partnership that will deliver real savings and value to a broader audience of travelers," says Yapta co-founder and CEO Tom Romary. "It's also consistent with our strategy to power travel services for travel management companies, online travel search companies and financial services companies."
The beta will be available to a subset of MasterCard cardholders in December.
Yapta and MasterCard plan to implement a series of collaborative services early next year.