When Lufthansa Group in mid-2015 informed the market of a new distribution strategy, one stated objective was to lower associated costs. The company expects to prove wrong the skeptics and start achieving that by the end of 2018. Lufthansa’s financial reporting does not offer enough detail to completely validate progress, but there are indicators of short-term pain for… Read More »
“60 Minutes” on Sunday ran a segment about “persistent” safety issues and “an alarming number” of mechanical incidents at Allegiant Air, the ultra-low-cost carrier based in Las Vegas. “Between Jan. 1, 2016, and the end of last October, we found more than 100 serious mechanical incidents, including mid-air engine failures, smoke and fumes in the cabin, rapid descents, flight… Read More »
Travel tech firm Serko hired Tony D’Astolfo as SVP North America. The industry veteran is tasked with expanding the company’s operations in the region, particularly the Zeno self-booking tool. Headquartered in New Zealand and active throughout Australasia, Serko intends to run Zeno beta tests this spring in North America. In October 2017, it hired former American Express and… Read More »
Big travel management companies are seeking new sources of data even as they work to improve the quality of info from more traditional inputs. American Express Global Business Travel on a “case by case” basis works with clients to incorporate data on sales performance and employee attrition. After completing an upgrade last year of its AnalytIQs platform, Carlson Wagonlit Travel… Read More »
BCD Travel last month alerted clients to a formalized program that charges them extra for supplier bookings which are more costly to support, joining rivals American Express Global Business Travel and Carlson Wagonlit Travel. According to multiple sources, BCD Travel identifies such reservations as including those that must be booked or serviced outside global distribution systems. Also covered by the… Read More »
Corporate online booking and expense management market leader SAP Concur will take North America-hosted systems offline this Saturday to upgrade its network infrastructure, the company informed clients. Concur estimated that the work, beginning April 7 at 12 p.m. PDT, would last 10 hours. It said customers using Concur’s EMEA or China data centers would not be affected. The upgrade… Read More »
Three unidentified travel management companies have enlisted 30SecondsToFly’s Claire chatbot, according to co-founder Felicia Schneiderhan. Claire’s parent is de-emphasizing direct client servicing in favor of powering other business travel entities due to the cost and limited return of maintaining small-business accounts. Claire uses the Facebook, Skype, Slack, SMS and web platforms to communicate with users about their bookings. “All… Read More »