Citigroup Adds Travelocity BusinessCitigroup has selected Travelocity Business for a small portion of its travel management program, according to industry sources, who expect incumbent agency American Express to retain the vast majority of the business. Officials at Amex, TBiz and Citigroup refused to comment. Ranked number 12 on the Business Travel News list of companies that spent the most on travel in 2003, Citigroup had an estimated U.S.-booked air volume of $143 million. It has been a heavy user of Sabre's GetThere booking technology and was a client of both American Express and Rosenbluth until the former bought the latter last year.
Southwest Flight Attendants Voting On New ContractFollowing more than two years of negotiations, 7,400 Southwest Airlines flight attendants, represented by TWU Local 556, last week began voting on a tentative contract hammered out last month. "Given that both sides worked so hard for so long, we expect it to be ratified on the first try and for it to be implemented later this summer," said Helane Becker, analyst with The Benchmark Co. When relations between management and the union this spring became acrimonious, Southwest CEO Jim Parker asked chairman Herb Kelleher to assume the lead position on management's negotiating team. Voting ends July 30. Ballots will be tabulated and results announced that same day.
JPMorgan Chase, Bank One Complete MergerJPMorgan Chase and Bank One on the first of the month completed their merger, creating the second-largest bank in the United States and ditching the Bank One brand in favor of the JPMorgan Chase moniker. According to data provided for this year's Business Travel Survey
(BTN, May 24), JPMorgan Chase had a commercial volume—not including small business cards—of nearly $7 billion last year. Although Bank One did not provide data on its commercial card volume, insiders expect JPMorgan Chase's total volume to double once fully integrated—creating the largest commercial bankcard issuer in the United States, not including government volume. Industry sources said since the announcement of the merger earlier this year, Bank One has stopped development of its own commercial card reporting system, and customers of the merged companies will use JPMorgan Chase's system. Meanwhile, JPMorgan Chase last month announced that both consumer and commercial card accounts for both companies will move under the Chase brand. While Bank One branches next year will be renamed JPMorgan Chase, newly branded credit cards will be among the first major changes. "Although we have built strong momentum for the Bank One brand, particularly during the past two years, the research was very clear that we will be better served by moving to the Chase brand," Bank One CEO James Dimon said in a statement.
Frontier Downsizing Los AngelesFrontier Airlines next month will reduce service at Los Angeles International Airport, just four months after launching operations there as its first focus city outside of its Denver hub. Specifically, the airline will eliminate service to Minneapolis St. Paul and reduce daily flights to both Kansas City and St. Louis from two to one. A Frontier spokesman said flights to Minneapolis, which compete against Northwest Airlines, were "underperforming in a difficult fare environment" while the other changes were "primarily seasonal."
KLM, Swiss To Cut Travel Agency CommissionsKLM Royal Dutch Airlines and Swiss International Air Lines on Jan. 1 will eliminate base commissions paid to travel agencies in their home markets, further advancing the global trend toward reworked agency compensation models. In announcements last week, both cited greater cost transparency for customers, who will pay fees to agencies to replace commissions, and detailed new direct booking fees. At KLM, the elimination of commissions will impact Dutch travel agencies, following similar moves in the United Kingdom and Scandinavia. The changes at Swiss also will impact local-market agencies, following discussions with the Swiss Federation of Travel Agencies. Swiss eliminated base commissions paid to U.S. agencies more than one year ago. All major U.S. carriers have eliminated agency base commissions in the domestic market, replacing them with pay-for-performance models. Many other international carriers have taken similar steps. British Airways, for example, now pays only a 1 percent commission, while Lufthansa German Airlines on Sept. 1 completely will eliminate base commissions.