BTN Expert Q&A

United Airlines during the past few months has been at the forefront of some industrywide changes spurred by the Covid-19 pandemic. They beat their competitors to the punch in announcing the end of most domestic change fees in late August—similar competitor announcements came within the next few days—and more recently were... Keep Reading

Hotel Engine, a no-contract, free-to-use corporate travel booking and management platform that raised $16 million in funding last fall, celebrated its fifth anniversary with a doubling of its executive team, the company announced on Thursday. It also relaunched its loyalty program this month, adding the ability for travelers... Keep Reading

Amadeus this month announced a commercial agreement with Air France-KLM in which it will be an aggregator of the airline group's New Distribution Capability content, the first deal of its kind with a major European airline group. Amadeus head of Americas travel content sourcing Robert Buckman spoke recently to BTN... Keep Reading

On the heels of its recent expansion in U.S. locations, Sixt in recent weeks launched a new subscription plan, Sixt Plus, for U.S. customers, in which they can rent vehicles long-term for a monthly fee. Sixt North America CEO Sebastian Birkel spoke recently to BTN transportation editor Michael B. Baker about the new service... Keep Reading

Meetings and events accounted for 30 percent of Hyatt Hotels Corp.'s room revenue in 2019. Covid-19 has all but obliterated that segment for now, but the company is seeing a slow return of face-to-face gatherings. Hyatt SVP of events Steve Enselein last week spoke with BTN senior editor Donna M. Airoldi about how the company... Keep Reading

Midsize regional travel agency Conlin Travel, which in 2019 had total sales of $180.2 million, 88 percent of which was generated by business travel, this month acquired a pair of small leisure-focused agencies. Conlin CEO Chris Conlin last week spoke with BTN managing editor Chris Davis about the ways Covid-19 has altered the... Keep Reading

The smallest of the Big Three Gulf carriers, Etihad Airways had a big start to 2020—on track to double earnings compared with last year, per its most recent earnings report—until, as with all carriers, Covid-19 brought it all to a screeching halt. Now, the carrier is cautiously rebuilding its network, including service from... Keep Reading

Jim Swartz is a partner of law firm Seyfarth Shaw LLC, based in Atlanta. He spoke with BTN editorial director Elizabeth West about the challenges companies have in returning to business travel, liability concerns and practicalities.... Keep Reading

The return to an open and robust air travel industry is dependent on many factors including containment of the virus, development of vaccines, a resumption of corporate travel, strong consumer confidence and the lifting of travel restrictions. Technology can help to facilitate this process by enabling contract tracing that... Keep Reading

Wyndham Hotels & Resorts recently expanded its Count on Us cleanliness initiative, introduced in early May, to its meetings and events business. SVP of global sales Carol Lynch spoke with lodging and meetings editor Donna M. Airoldi about the program as well as how Wyndham is working with its meeting planner and corporate... Keep Reading