Policies are a hallmark of managed travel programs. They can address booking channels, supplier selection, allowable purchases, risk management processes and many other areas. Some are guidelines that encourage travelers. Others are requirements that employees must follow.
Most organizations favor nonrefundable airline tickets because they’re almost always cheaper than unrestricted options. Industry data suggest corporate travelers use the lower fare classes for around 85 percent of trips. Although corporate managers encourage that booking behavior, airlines charge fees and impose rules for applying the resulting unused credit. Optimal use of nonrefundable airfares requires some diligence. Still, the more…
Concerns about too many executives or employees on a flight date back to well before 9/11, the event that began the travel risk management era. While it’s perhaps the oldest travel risk management policy, the maximum passenger rule isn’t applied as widely as one might expect. A US Airways flight six years ago crash landed on the Hudson River carrying two…
Atlanta – Travel policies range from simple and suggestive to complex and mandated but travel manager Michelle de Costa argued they need a “gray area so people can make the right choices for themselves.” Others try to make gray areas closer to black and white by stratifying polices based on traveler profile. Formerly Sapient’s director…
Under pressure from federal workers, some members of Congress and travel industry groups, the Obama Administration has loosened up a bit on the severe travel spending cuts mandated in 2012. The White House Office of Management and Budget in January formerly relaxed the controls, though only slightly. Federal travel volume growth returned last year after years of reductions, according to Carlson Wagonlit Travel. Advocates are pleased with…
Denying reimbursement when employees violate travel expense policies is an option that some think sensible and others call draconian. But plenty use it. In a September 2014 Global Business Travel Association poll, 45 percent of North American and 31 percent of European travel managers indicated non-reimbursement was a consequence of travel policy violations at their organizations. Non-reimbursement policies…
When crude oil prices in 2008 peaked at around $140 a barrel, then-Continental Airlines president Jeff Smisek said oil and gas clients were “living large and flying all around the world up front and spending money like drunken sailors.” The global financial recession shortly thereafter hit prices hard, but oil rebounded to more than $100…
Well before gamification became a corporate travel buzzword, companies had straightforward ways to reward travelers for booking cheaper flights. Traveler incentive programs that share savings with those who book coach airfare when business class is acceptable are challenging but not uncommon. Now, a variation on the concept appeals to companies without robust travel-management programs and policies. Point-of-sale price benchmarks guide…
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