airfare

Corporate Travel Data Trio: Domestic Airfares Keep Falling

U.S. government domestic airfare data published a few weeks ago showed a deepening downward trend. A few Wall Street analysts and Delta CEO Ed Bastian said that information did not reflect market realities. But data from several other airfare benchmarking sources, including a trio of corporate travel data handlers, formed a consensus: despite solid demand…

Emburse Buys Tripbam

[UPDATE, July 19, 2023: The CEOs of both companies offered some additional details here.”] Spend management provider Emburse on Tuesday agreed to acquire Tripbam, the Dallas-based firm best known for hotel rate assurance. Terms were not disclosed. Founded by corporate travel veteran Steve Reynolds a decade ago, Tripbam also offers airfare reshopping, sourcing services for…

Judge Nixes JetBlue Claim It Needed AA To Compete In Corporate

[UPDATE, May 31, 2023: American Airlines and JetBlue Airways will appeal the judicial decision requiring them to disassemble their Northeast alliance.] In mid-2020, JetBlue CEO Robin Hayes told Wall Street analysts that lacking a global network made it hard to compete for corporate accounts, and that a new partnership with American Airlines would remedy that….

What To Do About Sky-High International Fares

Domestic U.S. airfare growth has moderated and there’s potential for the same in some long-haul international markets. Any company with an appreciable volume of international air travel should see it as a high-value area for spend management. According to Advito, January bookings as of last week for business class tickets to and from North America…

Sabre, TMCs Advance AA NDC Testing

After some initial tests of basic functionality late last year, Sabre and several travel management companies last week started an “expanded pilot” to support fares coming through American Airlines’ NDC-compliant application programming interface. Corporate travel buyers are keen to see progress as they contemplate potentially unwelcome consequences of American’s plan in nine weeks to pull…

American Express Global Business Travel To Surcharge Qantas Tickets Bought In Australia

One consequence of airlines externalizing the cost of distribution is that it’s pushed to corporate customers. American Express Global Business Travel as of Feb. 20 will invoice clients an extra 3 percent of the ticket price (excluding taxes and airport fees) on all bookings with Qantas purchased in Australia.  According to a copy of a…

Explainer: Personalization And Airline Retailing

In light of American Airlines’ plan to move upwards of 40 percent of its fares to direct or NDC-enabled channels as of April, it’s worth re-examining one of the primary motivations: better tailoring products and services for flyers. As described by its developer, the International Air Transport Association, the NDC program enables “personalized service based…

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