Premium

Imagine, If You Will, An Ordinary Industry

A month before Lufthansa Group will add 16 euro to fares booked through GDSs, many think the company is bluffing. They expect the parties to settle on terms and return the status quo. But what if they’re wrong and an alternate universe awaits? First of all, after Sept. 1 Lufthansa’s airlines will be that much less price-competitive for 70 percent of its customers….

Study Shows ROI On Travel Illness Prevention Programs

When moral or legal obligations aren’t enough, proving the ROI of risk management isn’t easy. A new study offers travel pros some data to make the case for a “return on prevention.” The research finds that measures like pre-travel medical checks and malaria prevention pay back. Belgium-based research and consulting firm Prevent in January released the study, sponsored by the International SOS…

Grasping At Remedies For The Hotel Data Normalization Headache

Hotel data normalization. Sounds deadly boring, right? Mention the concept to corporate travel people, and the feeling is more like frustration. Grasp Technologies is testing a remedy that executives claim could actually make the process a snap. They’re not the only ones. Cornerstone Information Systems also has something up its sleeve. Hotel booking data tends…

Visa, United Add Key Piece To Ancillary Reporting Puzzle

It was a long time coming, but standardized, global credit card reporting on ancillary airline spending is finally in place — at least for United Airlines’ corporate accounts using Visa cards. The airline in April began sending data through Visa using defined category formats that identify things like bag fees, upgrades and inflight WiFi. Using…

Virtual Payment Attracts Competition In Cindy Allen’s PayForTrip

[UPDATE, Feb 3, 2017: We published new information related to this article here.] Late of Concur, Cindy Allen and Kathy Burns are looking to cash in on growing interest in the benefits of virtual cards. Their newly unveiled firm, PayForTrip, is the first startup from Allen’s Team Catalyst Holdings. Burns is PayForTrip’s chief commercial officer. PayForTrip will…

Price Assurance Firms Go Global, Add Features

Price assurance remains an active area of development for corporate travel. Madrid-based Trappit now is challenging Yapta on the global stage for airfares. It’s got a hotel product in the works, too. Hotel-only provider TripBam, meanwhile, rolled out some significant enhancements during the past few weeks. The basic idea is to continually check already-purchased seats or rooms against newly published rates, and cancel/rebook if…

What To Know About The Chip Card Shift

A liability shift in October will transfer responsibility for covering U.S. card payment fraud to the party with less secure payment technology. Cards with chips are considered safer because they generate a unique code for each transaction, making counterfeiting seemingly impossible. Merchant locations without terminals capable of reading chip cards will be on the hook…

End of content

End of content