In corporate travel, sourcing is all about negotiating deals with airlines, hotels, car rental companies and other suppliers. Of course, organizations want to get the best value, but travel procurement is about more than price. It’s also about using data to monitor performance on both sides, working with intermediaries, building deeper relationships and exploring new technologies that improve processes.
American Airlines clients wanted negotiated discounts to apply to more of their purchases. The airline is now rolling out a new corporate pricing structure for international routes that does just that. To make it so, AA is basing discounts on fare basis codes rather than booking classes. It’s not a new concept in the industry. AA…
Hotel rates come in lots of flavors. They relate to room and bed types, prepayment, nonrefundability and more. Some corporate rates are static and some are discounted off fluctuating public market rates. All this is not as complicated as airline-style pricing, but it sounds like that’s what Hilton is after. Considering the hurdles, the goal…
Businesses are paying less for some international airline tickets than they have in years, according to corporate travel benchmarks. It’s not because airlines have cut published pricing. Instead, they have kept selling more low-bucket inventory closer to departure. That brings down passenger yield, a proxy for fare paid. Some U.S. routes to London and China are showing sharply reduced…
Our eighth podcast episode features a discussion recorded this month with three procurement experts: former Thomson Reuters VP of sourcing operations Linda Doty, former Guardian Life chief procurement officer Frederic Khalil and ROA Consulting Group managing partner Sharon Tolliver. They spoke with Jay Campbell about how travel relates to procurement, procurement transformation and professional certifications….
New York — Delta Air Lines is offering corporate fare bundles to Boise, Idaho-based Micron Technology through Travelport in the first publicly disclosed realization of a long-held airline hope. Using Travelport’s Smartpoint interface, Micron’s BCD Travel agents next year will begin testing use of a special fare bundle including not only Micron’s Delta rate, but also certain ancillaries. Delta and…
The corporate travel world’s opinion of Marriott is bipolar. Travelers love the loyalty program, but that can work against corporate program compliance. Many industry professionals respect the company’s success but get discouraged when it takes a hard line on various issues. Travel buyers like the idea of a consistent, high-quality product from a world-renowned brand…
[UPDATE, Dec. 19, 2016: Alaska Airlines and Delta Air Lines as of May 1, 2017, no longer will share codes. The carriers also will cease frequent flyer program reciprocity. An interlining deal for ticketing and baggage connectivity will continue.] Alaska Air Lines’ relationship with Delta seems about over as one with American is ramping up….
End of content
End of content
