Anvil's travel risk management system now gives travel
programs the option to approve, reject or request changes to itineraries that
take travelers to dangerous destinations. The approval process occurs
post-booking.
Anvil receives passenger name records via direct data feeds
from all the major global distribution operators, then cross-references those
bookings against its destination risk ratings, which clients can adjust to suit
their businesses. Trips to lower-risk areas proceed through the approval
process automatically. The system prompts designated managers to approve trips to
high-risk areas.
If the manager approves a high-risk trip, the system enables
template responses to continue the conversation. The system could link
travelers to standard travel precautions hosted on their employers' intranet,
for example, or could direct a traveler to a pre-trip training course.
Why Post-Booking?
"Pre-booking authorization is notoriously
painful for the traveler and laborious for the travel manager," the
spokesperson told BTN. Anvil weighed the amount of traveler and manager time
absorbed by a pre-booking system versus the cost of canceled flights that comes
with a post-booking system and deemed post-booking approval as best for the
bottom line. "There is a chance they'll incur some cancellation costs, but
we've had clients do cost studies on this to demonstrate the benefit."