Ninety percent of about 60 travel management company personnel polled in January by GBTA expected their firms to increase staff size in 2023 compared with last year. Forty-six percent said their companies were still smaller than they were before Covid. TMC staffing shortages and resulting service problems are not as widespread as they were several…
American Airlines is retreating from the managed corporate travel market and erasing its tracks. According to a World Travel Inc. newsletter, the airline from April 1 will stop providing discounts to companies with less than $1.5 million in annual AA spending. Also as of that date, AA’s corporate accounts “will be provided with points for…
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…
Before the pandemic, American Airlines crowed about adding to its sales force and growing market share in corporate travel. Conditions have changed. Both corporate travel and airline capacity growth are depressed. Improving profitability and paying down debt are top priorities. After cutting back last year on customer benefits including perks and discounts, now AA is saying goodbye to its…
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…
Traveler tracking and TMC reporting systems couldn’t handle the crush of cancellations as SARS-CoV-2 raced around the globe almost three years ago. Inaccurate reports on traveler locations had companies spinning wheels. Is the industry ready for another large-scale event? In some ways, yes. Mostly no. And evolving airline distribution strategies are complicating everything. Things will…
Researchers again found virtual communication offers “limited” capacity to replace face-to-face meetings. But with support for predicted reductions of between 20 percent and 30 percent in business travel volume due to trends accelerated by the pandemic, they argued that understanding how businesspeople choose between travel and virtual “has become urgent.” Researchers at the University of…
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