Egencia has rolled out a booking
tool feature that allows business travelers to exchange airline tickets in a
self-serve environment. Available on both mobile and desktop iterations, a traveler
can display his or her bookings and initiate a change to an eligible booking;
nonrefundable, nonchangeable fares are not eligible. Once the traveler initiates
a change, the tool will display flight options within the same cabin class, as
well as the total cost to change the ticket, including additional fare and/or
associated change fees. The form of payment and seat preferences associated
with the original ticket automatically apply to the new booking.
Egencia developed the feature
after its annual Business Travel and Technology Survey showed that half the
company's business traveler population would prefer to use a self-serve
environment for post-ticketing air exchanges. Egencia worked with global
distribution system providers to enable the feature and claims to be the only travel
management company to offer self-serve, post-ticketing exchanges to travelers
on a global basis. At the Business Travel Show in London, a spokesperson
speculated that most TMCs rely on third-party technology providers for booking
tools, making it difficult to implement iterative tool enhancements based on
customer feedback. The spokesperson noted Egencia's mission always to put the
traveler first in the business travel equation.
But travel programs may
benefit from such capabilities, as well. The ability to access existing tickets
for changes could cut down on unused tickets that may go untracked. The
capability also could reduce "touch" fees incurred by travelers who call Egencia agents to make ticket changes and even by those who call to inquire about
the price to change tickets but don't end up making the changes. One concern,
however, revolves around ticket changes that are eligible for fee waivers and
other considerations per a direct buyer-supplier relationship, as those are not
accessible via the Egencia tools.
Egencia's spokesperson said
travelers can expect similar functionality for hotel and even rail tickets in
the near future.