Despite some anecdotal evidence that airlines are becoming more accommodating to group negotiations, almost half of responding companies in a new Meetings Today survey do not receive any discount on group airfare, and only 9 percent said are receiving larger group air discounts than they did in 2006.
According to the exclusive Meetings Monitor survey of 150 corporate meeting buyers, 47 percent said that they received no discounts or perks on group air tickets and 22 percent are receiving smaller discounts. Flat discounts and zone fares were the most frequently received concessions, received by 32 percent and 19 percent of respondents, respectively. Free upgrades and earned tickets were each received by 16 percent of those surveyed. Nearly three-quarters of the respondents, 73 percent, said that they had not developed preferred vendor arrangements specifically for meetings.
Despite most airlines' maintenance of corporate meeting offerings, including JetBlue's recently introduced CompanyBlue program
(Meetings Today, April 23), many corporate meeting buyers see negotiating such group deals as too much of a hassle.
"The ability to negotiate effectively for meetings is gone," said Patricia Carlin, purchasing manager of the global card and travel program for Dublin, Calif.-based technology company Sybase.
Carlin said she arranges airfare for two large events, one internal and the other client-facing, and several smaller meetings.
"In 2005, I could get contracts for the types of things that I needed. This year, I didn't even bother looking. Anything that I'm bringing in a group of people for, I would attempt to get some group rate, but that was the old days and I just don't bother anymore. If I can't get it for my big numbers, I'm certainly not going to get it for my group of 100 or 50," she said.
Now, Sybase employees who are traveling to meetings book as transient travelers, so they still utilize the company's transient air discounts.
When a company is located in second-tier or smaller cities not serviced by many airlines, the negotiation process for group airfare becomes even more complicated.
"We do try to use the group booking department, but because we go into so many small cities, it becomes difficult. With our secondary and third-tier markets, it's difficult," said Debbie Douglas, meeting planner for travel services for Klamath Falls, Ore.-based window and door manufacturer Jeld-Wen.
Jeld-Wen's group travelers book transient air travel through the company's agency but input a special code that marks them as meeting travel when they book.
"We have the numbers of how many go to these meetings and where they're going, so we can track it, but we can't capitalize on it," Douglas said.
While most airlines offer some sort of corporate group discount program, some airlines have cut their programs, most notably Southwest Airlines in 2003
(Meetings Today, Dec. 8, 2003) and Delta Air Lines in 2005
(Meetings Today, Jan. 17, 2005). A changing climate in the airline industry, with the emergence of Northwest Airlines and Delta Air Lines from bankruptcy
(BTN, June 11), has prompted some in the industry to say that airlines are more willing to negotiate group deals.
"It's cyclical, it just comes back. Relationships are warmer," said Yvonne Long, senior vice president of third-party group air provider Air Fulfillment Services, adding that the emergence of all U.S. carriers from bankruptcy has given airlines more hope of turning a profit.
"It just depends on how bad they want the business, but there is more flexibility creeping up into it," Long said.
Some travel management companies also are seeing a better negotiating climate for group air travel.
"We're dealing with today's rates for airlines and then, based on number of attendees, trying to lock in those rates through contracts or through a block-seat program, where we have to put a deposit down on each seat in order to ensure that that seat is available next year," said Paul Salvatore, president of events and meeting management and loyalty programs at HRG North America. "Are airlines more willing to negotiate? I think yes. On a block of seats they're willing to negotiate, so long as we can guarantee them."
Scott Graf, president of BCD Meetings & Incentives, also said deals could be found. "We see the airlines being more willing to engage in dialogue and being more willing to negotiate," he said.
Even without the benefit of group air discounts, some corporate buyers are getting better deals by being flexible in their meeting locations. Douglas' department at Jeld-Wen recently moved a meeting originally scheduled to take place in Madison, Wis., to Minneapolis.
"By moving it to Minneapolis, now we have a large hub and we have more carriers going in there. It's easier and if we can try to move business to a city where we can make use of that, we do," Douglas said.
"It does affect the destination. The destination selected is generally based first on what is the airfare," HRG's Salvatore said.