Visa Partners With Hilton On E-FolioVisa last month announced a partnership with Hilton Hotels Corp. to electronically transmit hotel folio data to corporate clients. In conjunction with its member banks and more than 2,000 Hilton properties, Visa said the partnership would enable the automated transmission of level-three or line-item data on hotel transactions, breaking out taxes, telephone/in-room charges and room service, among other ancillary expenses, rather than simply the total transaction amount. This means Visa cardholders no longer have to enter such items manually into their expense management software, since the data is prepopulated from Visa. Visa officials said they still are working to determine which expense reporting systems can accept this level of data, but that Extensity and Concur tools have these capabilities. As Visa's member banks are at "different levels of implementation," Visa and Hilton have yet to sign corporate clients who will be accessing the data, but both companies expect strides within the next couple of months. "Our clients tell us this remains a high priority for them, so we expect a high level of response and expect to have a beta test underway by the end of the quarter," said Steve Armitage, Hilton senior vice president of sales. Mike Dreyer, Visa senior vice president of commercial solutions, added that this level of data would enable a more streamlined expense reporting process for travelers and managers, as well as better data for negotiations and a stronger check on traveler compliance. "From a technical and systemic basis, it works," Dreyer said. "Now it's just a matter of putting the information through the pipeline and getting it to corporate clients so they can take the next steps." The Visa/Hilton initiative follows e-folio's slow evolution despite strong interest among corporate travel managers in attaining more sophisticated levels of hotel data
(BTN, Oct. 7, 2002). MasterCard International indicated that it also has a hotel folio initiative in the works but was not ready to make an announcement.
Concur Teams W/ Cognos To Provide Biz IntelligenceConcur Technologies last month announced a partnership with Ottawa, Canada-based business intelligence software provider Cognos Inc. to launch three cost-management software products. Concur said that among other features the software simplifies ad hoc and custom data queries and notifies users when the company reaches defined spending thresholds. Concur expects to ship the new software to customers later this quarter. With some exceptions, "customers are not yet taking advantage of the data they have," Concur CEO Steve Singh told BTN. "With business intelligence, someone can analyze that data, benchmark it and, in general, help clients with it."
Amex Reconfigures Traveler Insurance CoverageAmerican Express on March 1 changed its business travel accident insurance policy for corporate cardholders by restoring its former door-to-door coverage while maintaining the level of coverage. Amex last year replaced its door-to-door policy, which provides coverage for any accident that a traveler may face in the course of a business trip, with a less-inclusive common carrier policy, which covers only those accidents that take place on such scheduled modes of transport as airplane, train or bus
(BTN, Feb. 11, 2002). "Last year, because of rising premiums, we had the choice of raising the coverage amount or maintaining the door-to-door coverage," an Amex spokesperson said. "So we chose to increase the level of coverage from $200,000 to $350,000, but we had to drop the door-to-door aspect and go to common carrier accident insurance." The policy, underwritten by Federal Insurance Co., replaces the former policy, which previously was underwritten by AMEX Assurance Co.
UATP Pilots Payment With Travel Mgmt. Cos. Universal Air Travel Plan recently announced it is launching the Travel Agent Pilot Program with a handful of travel agencies, through which UATP would become an acceptable payment option among travel management companies. Ottawa, Canada-based Algonquin Travel was among the first agencies to begin accepting and processing transactions through the UATP pilot program. UATP is in discussions with other agencies in the United States and the Asia/Pacific region, and the initiative will remain in pilot status until June, upon which the company plans a worldwide expansion. A spokesperson at Algonquin Travel said a limited number of transactions have been made thus far through the UATP program, as traditional payment options still prevail. Meanwhile, UATP on Feb. 24 elected Marc Sullivan, managing director of corporate receivables at American Airlines, to the UATP board of directors. He replaces Glenn Schultz, who accepted a new role within the airline that is less related to corporate travel.