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Air Canada Tries To Soften Blow But Surcharges Start In June

With the New Distribution Capability, Air Canada wants to have and eat its cake. During a Tuesday press briefing, executives took pains to distance themselves from the approaches of some other airlines, most recently American, and the resulting criticisms for forcing distribution change. Their words were paradoxical. Air Canada execs want a “smooth transition” that’s…

Berlin-Based Startup Tagtu Resolves To Make Business Trips More Productive

Downtime is nice, but are we getting enough done on trips? In its quest to maximize business travel productivity, one Germany-based startup is pulling from themes in pre-trip approval, return on travel investment and the pandemic- and sustainability-driven emphasis on fewer but longer excursions. Called Tagtu and founded in 2021 by business travelers from outside…

Game On: AA, Buyers Wield Leverage

Some corporate travel programs are blocking American Airlines now that the carrier has removed many fares from traditional third-party distribution channels. Observations like this one from SAP Concur align with anecdotes from several corporate buyers who are reacting to both the distribution move and AA’s overall de-emphasis of the corporate market. But preventing travelers from…

Courts: Travel An ‘Essential’ Function In Certain Corporate Roles

A federal appeals court on March 28 upheld a district court ruling that Molson Coors was not in the wrong when it fired a sales executive who could no longer travel for work due to health issues.  According to court documents, the employee, Melchior George, was responsible for Molson Coors’ largest customer, Buffalo Wild Wings….

Southwest To Take Advantage As American Backs Off, Right? Maybe

Are American and Southwest switching places? No, the low-fare flag bearer isn’t going global, adding business class or assigning seats. But in some critical ways for the corporate market, Southwest is behaving more like its crosstown rival, while that rival is moving in the other direction. As it does for Delta and United, American’s strategy…

Notebook: To Outsource Or Not, A Travel Management Question

When McKinsey in 2020 talked about travel management as a candidate for outsourcing, readers shot back.  “Be curious to hear how the travel management team at McKinsey feels about this,” wrote Alō Index co-founder Leanne Turner, between jobs at the time after a pandemic layoff.  “For McKinsey to say [a] full transformation initiative would save…

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