I was invited to an event in Japan. Air France had the best price — $2,800 with seat selection. The company would reimburse me.
I just couldn't complete the payment.
Two cards. Zero payment.
My Brazilian card limit was R$9,000. The ticket was R$13,000.
"Use your Japanese card." I tried. 3DS kicked in. I don't have a Japanese phone number anymore. SMS didn't arrive. Email came late. App notification sometimes works. Sometimes doesn't.
The booking window closed before any of them landed.
Then I found it
Air France accepts Pix — Brazil's instant payment system, used by 160M+ people. Paid in 8 seconds. Trip confirmed.
I checked every major airline flying from São Paulo. US carriers. European carriers. Middle Eastern carriers. Out of all of them, only two accept Pix: Air France and TAP.
That's it.
Brazil doesn't have a demand problem
It has a payment interface problem.
Pix now accounts for 42–45% of Brazilian e-commerce transactions. By 2026, it's projected to surpass credit cards entirely. If your checkout only supports international cards, you're not testing your product in Brazil. You're testing your payment stack. And it's failing.
For SaaS teams targeting global growth
Payment localization isn't a nice-to-have. It's activation.
A user who wants to pay — and can't — isn't a lost lead. They're a design failure.
Add Pix. Or don't expect adoption.