NBTA Conference Finds Promise & Problems In Electronic Ticketing

<I>Arlington, Va.</I> - Business travel managers from the East and West coasts are having decidedly different experiences with e-ticketing, according to a straw poll taken at the National Business Travel Association Government Contractors Conference, held here recently.

During a "hot topics" session for the more than 100 registrants at the conference, corporate travel officials indicated that usage of the emerging technology is in direct proportion to the number of West and East Coast travelers in a company. Those from the western states, where United and Southwest have made strong inroads with the new technology, reported experience with e-ticketing, while those on the eastern seaboard did not.

Session co-moderator Bob Langsfeld, partner in the Incline Village, Nev., consulting firm Langsfeld Fazio & Associates, described e-ticketing as "a cost savings that can provide efficiencies." He added, however, "accounting people are generally a conservative lot, and they like to see a receipt."

Co-moderator Bill Ustaszewski, travel manager of MIT/Lincoln Laboratory in Lexington, Mass., said his organization does all of its own ticketing in-house, and he wants all of his travelers to have a boarding pass. "They don't want to give that up," he said. Acknowledging that e-ticketing will save money in the future, Ustaszewski said it's a savings only for the airlines right now. He also noted the delays that can develop for travelers if a flight is cancelled and they are left to make alternate arrangements based on an original electronic ticket.

Langsfeld pointed out that it could be argued that e-ticketing does save money for the traveler because it makes the airlines more efficient--assuming, of course, that the carriers will pass those savings on to corporations. But, he acknowledged, the technology means that the traveler must give up the "security blanket" of a boarding pass.

When e-ticketing becomes more prevalent on the East Coast, the procedures involved in accounting for this form of travel will become even more streamlined, Langsfeld predicted. Smart cards also will affect the accounting process, he said. The Internal Revenue Service's recent guidance letter permitting the use of electronic ticket statements to substantiate business travel expenses will help as well.

Ustaszewski said travel managers should "think of today as the embryonic age" in terms of technology. Within the next 10 years, the travel industry will be absorbed into the era of electronic commerce, with information able to be passed to and from the traveler's personal computer, he said.

As part of this evolution, the federal government already is using the Internet for contract procurements above a certain value. "The pile of paper you get is diminishing," Langsfeld said.

Ustaszewski, however, remains concerned about delays inherent in accessing the Internet. He noted that certain events, such as the Hale-Bopp Comet and the Heaven's Gate cult suicide, can tie up access to the system. "The Internet will have to become a lot faster" before total electronic commerce is a reality, he said.

The two moderators agreed, though, that travel managers need to be aware of the expanding popularity of electronic commerce, including the impact on the development of electronic expense reporting. "Three to five years down the line, your people need to be already trained to deal with this," Ustaszewski said.