NW To Offer Corp. Rates Online

<B> NW To Offer Corp. Rates Online</B>

Northwest Airlines vice president of distribution planning Al Lenza last week said that the airline by August or September will begin allowing corporate travelers to book their companies' negotiated rates on the airline's Website. Travelers will be allowed to input a designator, as travel agents do in the CRS, to access preferred rates. Also, smaller companies that do not have a negotiated program with the airline and are "unmanaged or lightly managed" will receive a monthly spreadsheet of activity, and possibly a soft dollar award or back-end discount, in return for booking on the Web page. "We're still working out the details," Lenza said. He characterized the plan as "much more limited" than previous airline attempts to set up corporate booking systems (<I>BTN</I>, April 13).