<B>TechTalk</B>
<B>Web Fare Games</B>
One of the hottest topics in the industry today is how and whether corporate travelers should have access to Internet-only fares. Corporate travel managers particularly are keen on the issue following the launch of Orbitz, a central repository for fares that the airlines make available only on the Web. Even before Orbitz, though, and thanks to the explosive growth of consumer-oriented Web sites from online travel agencies to airlines, several varieties of fares and rates developed that corporate travelers can buy; however, corporations cannot credit those fares to their vendor agreements.
Clearly, in some environments, the threat to corporate travel policy is dire. One is tempted to draw an analogy between corporate booking tools and consumer sites on one hand and corporate travel management companies and leisure travel agencies on the other. Corporations over the years have reined in travel costs and aggregated negotiating leverage largely through a common policy of requiring the traveler to use the designated travel management company, even enforcing it with nonreimbursement rules. But should travel managers do the same online, banning travelers from Expedia and Southwest.com? It really depends on whether, as a whole, a managed corporate program saves more money than the use of fire-sale fares that are loaded with restrictions and are difficult to service en route.
In other words, do the occasional cheap fares outweigh the benefits of negotiated discounts on all fares? What little research is available on the topic, including a study by DuPont, suggests that they do not. Still, this does not mean the Expedias and Travelocitys of the world are useless to managed travel. Actually, they both are putting together features that are appealing to smaller companies with "lightly managed" travel programs and few negotiated arrangements with vendors. Even within a highly managed program, some travelers enjoy looking at their options on such consumer sites. Not to be forgotten, these sites also deserve a lot of credit for "breaking in" road warriors on the usage of online tools for booking. Attempting to reconcile the issue, then, online booking vendors and other suppliers--including some airlines--are developing ways for business travelers working within a managed travel program to track Internet-only fares so they do count toward volume and share thresholds. But buyers should not hold their breath when it comes to the travel vendors.
Despite encouraging signs along these lines from Delta Air Lines, most carriers don't want to make Web-only fares part of corporate agreements, particularly in an economic environment where they need every high(er) fare they can get. Internet fares are designed for people with very few requirements and a lot of flexibility, and regardless of how you feel about yield, or revenue, management, it's here to stay. It is the third-party technology vendors and travel management companies that are trying to count such tickets in volume agreements. Buyers who believe it wise for corporate travelers to be booking these fares--and not all do--should continue to push these tech vendors for access through their self-booking tools and other, non-global distribution system channels. But Internet-only fares will not come from most airlines, and it is misleading to suggest that they will ever be in the GDSs. After all, they only exist because the world developed a GDS alternative in the Web.
<B>Concur Adds Bank of America For Card Feed</B>
A July 17 announcement from Redmond, Wash.-based expense vendor Concur Technologies drew some head shaking from competitors who believed the news was no news. Concur said corporate card provider Bank of America now can integrate its customers' spending data with the Concur Expense T&E solution, lowering data entry costs and improving data accuracy and corporate card compliance. "Everyone does that," said a Gelco executive. Concur deals in the same way with American Express, Capital One, Citibank, Company Barclaycard, Diners Club, First Union, GE Capital, Huntington Bank, JP Morgan Chase and US Bank. Asked how the Bank of America arrangement is distinct, chairman, president and CEO Steve Singh, said, "In the second phase, we'll work together and get new customers that would be open to using both products." But regarding the first phase--the data feed--Singh said buyers should question competitors who claim they work with all card vendors, and that Concur's list is the largest. "We automate T&E for more than 500 American Express customers--more than all of our competitors combined," he claimed.