Similar to the traditional soft dollars made available for consulting support and the like, travel management company “tech credits” help clients adopt new technologies, customize products and services, and connect with third-party providers. They let TMCs tailor proposals, compete without offering significant rebates and strengthen client ties. Industry consultants questioned how transparently TMCs establish and…
Travel management is always all about data, but what does it say? Benchmarks can provide many answers, putting a program’s effectiveness into context, but obtaining good ones and using them effectively may be harder than it seems. The Company Dime asked more than a dozen travel managers and industry consultants to discuss the best practices….
Southwest Airlines has always done things differently, but lately, it’s been embracing industry norms in the corporate market. It’s participating in more distribution channels and fielding a bigger sales team. It offers a basket of options for corporate dealmaking, including at least one throwback idea: back-end rebates. Those may be instead of or in addition…
Consulting services for corporate travel program management are popping up everywhere. Even suppliers like Delta Air Lines and Mastercard are ready to help. Incumbents include special divisions of travel management companies, individuals, boutique firms and some of the world’s largest consultancies. How does an organization choose? Primarily, it’s about how well the consultant’s subject matter…
Brandon Strauss of CapTrav and KesselRun Corporate Travel Solutions explains why he’s in “watch and learn” mode when it comes to generative artificial intelligence. Claude Shannon, a computer scientist and founder of information theory, published “A Mathematical Theory of Communication” in 1948, which defined how messages are carried from sender to receiver. This theory became…
Major carriers face ongoing pilot shortages, air traffic control deficiencies, aircraft supply chain and engine troubles, and softer domestic demand. Where they are adding capacity, it’s in their strength markets, primarily with bigger planes and denser seat configurations. Southwest’s growth in major markets notwithstanding, the big carriers are staying out of each other’s way. American,…
While the latest sales reorg at American Airlines appears to dim any hopes for the carrier reversing its shift away from managed corporate travel, an important entity won’t rule out the notion: American Airlines. “If managed corporate travel becomes a bigger share of the pie, we will quickly add back resources to support that growth,”…
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