The Changing Nature of Business Travel Management
When I first entered the world of Business Travel it was as a United Airlines sales rep fresh out of college. Those were the pre-deregulation days when airlines competed on the basis of service since airfares were regulated by the CAB. American Airlines had piano lounges in the first-class sections of their DC-10s and United had Ocean to Ocean service on their transcons with open buffets. Even in coach you could cross your legs and put your briefcase on the empty seat next to you. Airfares changed twice a year and tickets were handwritten and validated and you chose your seat from a seat chart at the gate. You simply pointed to the seat that you wanted from the chart, the agent would peel the seat number off and stick it on your ticket and voila…boarding pass.
At United, our elite passengers were members of the 100,000 mile club which gained you entrance into the Red Carpet Lounge. There was no buy-in back then. In order to join you had to fly the miles and it was, honestly, a fairly exclusive group.
There were only a few fares back then; First Class, Coach, DA-30 (Discover America excursion fare that had to be purchased 30 days in advance), Military and Youth Standby and family plan.
It was wonderful.
I was handling some of our larger corporate travel agencies and commercial accounts in the New York area and our business travelers were treated a bit differently then. When an important business traveler (or celebrity) checked in at the ticket counter they were often personally escorted to the Red Carpet club. Of course, there was no security back then so there was no hurry. Plenty of time to have a cigarette by the gate prior to boarding. Notice I didn’t say “last cigarette” since there were still smoking sections on the planes.
But wait, it gets better (or worse). United used to have certain nonstop flights from New York to Chicago on their Caravelle aircraft, which were all first-class configuration where the passengers were given cigars and watched sports shorts on the movie screens. Our business travelers really liked those flights and they were always full.
Some of our larger corporate accounts like Bell Telephone Laboratories were provided with “write your own” tickets whereby the traveler would bypass the ticket counter and tear out a ticket form from their pad of blank tickets and fill it out right at the boarding gate prior to departure.
Much has changed for the business traveler since then. The Red Carpet Club is filled with children and families. The modern first-class seat is about the size of a coach seat was in those halcyon days and no flight attendant is slicing a prime rib in the aisle.
Aside from the change in the flying experience is the movement from managed business travel programs to just, well, business travel. I’m still working with agencies that support their own business travel accounts and the movement away from a strictly managed program to individual choice is becoming quite prevalent.
There was a time when companies had iron clad travel policies that required their employees to travel within the confines of that policy and to use the agency of record. The basic rule was to use the company’s agency and observe policy or risk not being reimbursed for expenses incurred.
The agencies loved it since they could count on a reliable amount of business and could staff accordingly.
The internet changed all that. Now, everybody thinks that they’re travel advisors and business travelers waste hours searching for their own hotels and airfares even though, in most cases, the agency will do a better job of finding the best accommodation for the traveler. Throw in the fact that some companies have their own negotiated rates that are volume related and that well-meaning employee may be subverting the efforts of the travel manager or agency.
Add in the specter of loyalty programs and the managed travel program becomes nothing more than a guide as opposed to a bible.
There are things that we, as travel advisors, can do to stop the “leakage.” Nothing can take the place of customer service and we all love it when a customer calls and wants to speak specifically to one of our advisors by name because of the excellent level of service provided with past trips.
Priceless.
Add-on services like agent24 after hours staff, which is something the online booker does not have access to and it becomes invaluable during irregular operations. Technology also plays a role in helping us get our arms around these out-of-policy bookings that bypass the agency. Companies like Traxo have a program that resides on the company’s email server and captures bookings that travelers make outside of the agency of record, and they feed that back to the agency for auditing and data capture.
I know that we will never return to those days when business travel was more comfortable and better managed but recent Global Business Travel Association data indicates that business travel continues to grow so it remains an opportunity for all of us.
For now, I just wish I could recline my seat, unfold the Wall Street Journal, and languish in the moment, confidently knowing that my agency has everything all arranged beautifully.
Mark Altman
Forte Business Travel Solutions
516-624-0500 x5072
maltman@travelsavers.com
