<B> Inside Track</B>
<B>Eastman Kodak Gets Flat Fares</B>
Eastman Kodak negotiated flat airfares on specific city pairs with two of its three preferred airlines, a source said. The rates provide the airlines with some opportunity to increase fares, but only to a certain point. In the past, price increases wiped out any increased discounts the company got for moving market share. The idea of flat fares seems to be picking up steam in the months following the last commission cap (<I>BTN,</I> Feb. 22).
<a name="2"><B>United Brings Beds, Desks To First Class</B>
United Airlines by year-end will install "lie flat beds" on 20 of its international Boeing 777 and 747-400 aircraft. United First Suite, the combination seat and office work space, reclines 180 degrees into a bed over six feet long. United's international first class cabins will contain 12 of the new Suites on 777 aircraft and 14 on 747-400 aircraft. "Customer research tells us that the future of international first class rests on an airline's ability to provide a lie-flat bed product," said United's senior vice president of marketing, David Coltman. Several major foreign airlines, including Air France and British Airways, have had such beds in place for years. The new United product comes shortly after Delta Air Lines announced it would drop first class altogether (<I>BTN,</I> Oct. 5, 1998).
<a name="3"><B>Carlson Wagonlit Customers To Pilot POS System</B>
Carlson Wagonlit Travel in two weeks will begin testing its new point-of-sale technology system with seven to 15 large, medium and small corporate customers. It also will roll out new virtual call center technology in Mendota Heights, Minn., next month. Both technologies are part of the Traveler Service System, the first component of Mercury, a project that includes "creating a series of large scale virtual call centers," said vice president of global systems development Loren Brown. TSS will work with all CRSs and use an advanced telephony system. The second release of the Web-enabled point-of-sale system, due out by year-end, will be designed to link to corporate intranets, said Mylle Mangum, senior vice president of expense management and strategic planning. Senior vice president and chief technology officer Richard Smith called the point-of-sale system "substantially better than Turbo Sabre and Galileo's Focalpoint," and said, "As we roll out across the U.S., we will begin moving calls from center to center depending upon agent availability." An online booking product that is a "derivative" of the TSS agent tool eventually will be rolled out as well. Carlson Wagonlit has just developed the prototype for that self-service reservation product.
<a name="4"><B>ACTE Revises Its Game Plan</B>
The Association of Corporate Travel Executives has developed a three-year strategic plan that focuses on refining its membership and its educational and networking programming. ACTE president Earl Foster and executive director Nancy Holtzman said that to put the plan into place, ACTE has added more paid staff and is changing the way it structures sponsorships and dues. With 2,300 members in 18 countries, ACTE is not looking to increase its numbers, but rather to focus on going up the corporate ladder for membership, Foster said. "Our membership efforts need to reflect the evolution of the profession from travel managers to business managers," he said, adding that sponsors would only be asked to fund educational programs and takeaways, not food and beverage at ACTE events. Meanwhile, dues and fees will rise. To build on the foundation that the volunteer organization has laid, Holtzman said ACTE has hired Kate Farrell, formerly of System One, to head marketing and membership development, Leslie Dyer as director of finance and operations, and Bill Lawrence as director of partner programs.
<a name="5"><B>Hertz Hike Hits Non-Negotiated Rates</B>
On March 1, The Hertz Corp. implemented an across-the-board increase of $3 per day on all non-contracted rates. Because rates change daily and vary widely by location and time of week, it's hard to assess the impact of the increase, said Neil Abrams, president of Neil Abrams Associates Inc., a car rental consultancy in Purchase, N.Y. "They have the pricing programmed into their reservation system and the GDSs," he said. He expected Hertz's competitors to match the increase. "This pricing pressure is indicative of Hertz's need to get greater profit margins," he said, adding that corporations could expect car rental companies to continue to press for more price increases.
<a name="6"><B>Southwest Invades North Carolina</B>
Southwest Airlines will begin serving Raleigh-Durham June 6 with $65 one-way unrestricted fares on four daily nonstops to Baltimore/Washington, $119 on two to Chicago Midway, and $99 on four to Nashville and on one each to Tampa Bay and Orlando.