New Distribution Capability

Change In The Air (RFP)

Chicago — There are lots of tactics for bypassing the hated corporate hotel request for proposals. Mauro Ruggiero hopes the same is happening in airline sourcing. The director of global travel management at Finastra spoke here this month at the GBTA convention about his company’s move to ditch what he described as an inefficient process….

American Express Global Business Travel Execs: Global Corporate Clients Are Increasingly Concerned About Lufthansa’s Intransigence

Chicago — The largest travel management company is not acquiescing to Lufthansa Group’s distribution strategy. According to American Express Global Business Travel executives, the airline company refuses to support what corporate customers need, particularly comparison shopping. That sets it apart from other airlines which, while pushing forward on new means of distribution, took actions to…

Op Ed: Tony O’Connor On Earth-Shifting Moves For Qantas That Could Make The Big Bigger

On Thursday, Qantas will go live with a new distribution strategy that surcharges bookings using channels the Sydney-based carrier disfavors. Like other big airlines, in a stated effort to personalize shopping it’s pushing direct channels and those that use XML connectivity based on the NDC standard. Qantas in February said “a majority” of key agency…

Op Ed: Vanessa Zeiher-Kaya On What To Consider When Choosing A Travel Technology Partner

Vanessa Zeiher-Kaya is the global principal corporations segment marketing manager for Sabre. In this guest post, she reviews the key points travel managers should keep in mind as they seek out the right travel tech partners. There are dozens of technology providers, which often makes the process of finding the right one drawn out and…

The U.K. BTA Is Neither The Global BTA Nor Your Local BTA

[UPDATE, July 31, 2019: The BTA appointed as CEO Clive Wratten, the former CEO of U.K. TMC Amber Road.] The United States doesn’t have a professional association like the one formerly known as the Guild of Travel Management Companies. Formed in 1967, the United Kingdom’s association for corporate travel agencies this month renamed itself the…

Op Ed: Rajiv Rajian On What ‘End To End’ Really Means

The “end-to-end” experience has been part of travel management vernacular for many years. Understanding what it entails, much less actually achieving it, may not be as straightforward as it seems. Rajiv Rajian, Amadeus executive vice president, global business travel and travel channels, Americas, walks through how such a process should benefit travelers, travel managers, TMCs…

Discovery Inc. Saves With SAP Concur’s TripLink, Sans TMC Support

Since its inception, SAP Concur’s TripLink program has drawn concern from policy compliance-minded travel managers. They were well aware that lacking inventory in preferred travel management companies or online booking tools created program integrity issues. With some content, especially conference hotel rates, simply not in those channels, many said yes to the TripIt-style email parsing…

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