BCD Seeks Global Card Partner, Inks Diners Deal

BCD Travel last week confirmed to Business Travel News its intention to establish a global card partnership before year-end. Meanwhile, BCD also confirmed it has inked a partnership with Citicorp Diners Club through which the mega travel management company will power the Diners Club portal.

"Independent of the portal agreement with Diners Club, we're also looking at global card solutions and considering options now for a global card program," said Sherry Hibbs, vice president of consulting services and strategic alliances at the mega travel management company. "It may involve one or more providers, and whichever direction BCD Travel goes in, it will be because the program or programs allow us to streamline or simplify the process for the customer."

"The objective, in a perfect world," said BCD Travel CEO Mike Buckman, "would be to get to a relationship that is global that we could offer consistently to customers throughout the world. It may take phases to get there."

Hibbs said such a partnership is propelled by strong customer demand. "There are a handful of players that truly can offer what we would consider a commercial card environment, meaning they have the infrastructure to support a corporate card," she said. "There are probably around 17,000 to 18,000 banks that issue cards in general, but they do not all have the infrastructure to support commercial payment solutions. We're looking at all of our options."

Meanwhile, John Snyder, BCD Travel president and COO of the Americas, said, "We just signed a significant deal with Diners to offer a portal arrangement for their small to midmarket customers that we'll be pretty aggressively marketing in conjunction with Diners Club, because as you can imagine they've got a huge base of small to midmarket customers that are looking for service like that. We put a program in place that will be launched as we speak to service that small to midmarket customer for Diners Club. As it sits, it's our TravelAgent.com portal integrated with their card program."

BCD's agreement to specially design a portal for Diners Club has led many industry experts to believe the travel management company ultimately will partner with Diners Club for its impending card program.

"If you're partnering with Diners on one platform, what are you going to do in terms of selecting your preferred—are you not going to partner with the same partner?" asked Carol Ann Salcito, president of Norwalk, Conn.-based Management Alternatives. "There are more questions and we're asking those questions. They need to get out to the market exactly what their plan is. We have our clients calling and asking, 'What's happening here?' "

So far, however, Diners Club only released to BTN a statement that, "BCD Travel is one of the many travel agency partners with which Diners Club has a relationship. Working with BCD means expanded distribution potential for Diners Club's payment products and services and an opportunity to provide an end-to-end travel and payment solution."

Observers are divided on the impact of BCD offering many of the same services as it's biggest competitor, American Express. Salcito said BCD linking its agency and card products together would make the TMC very powerful. David Hillman, principal of Consulting Strategies, headquartered in Deerfield, Ill., agreed. "Diners Club has always been associated with the travel side of cards and with the addition of the MasterCard payment system, they addressed the one big issue they've always had, which is acceptance," he said. "They would be very attractive to a mega agency that wants to offer the same kinds of products as their major competitor."

However, Bob Lichtman, partner of The Corporate Solutions Group in Menlo Park, Calif., said the move only lessens competition. "I don't think it will give travel managers the two different view points of data that a travel manager needs," he said, "in order to really review their spend in their internal systems."