Delta Air Lines plans to introduce during the second quarter three new services: the ability for corporations to transfer unused tickets to a UATP card, an enhanced reporting snapshot and the creation of a corporate solutions team, the carrier announced Wednesday at its corporate Showcase event.
"It's our centennial year, and we're being very, very intentional with support all the way up to [CEO] Ed [Bastian] that we have an investment strategy for business travel," Delta managing director of sales and distribution innovation Sara Reid said in a call with BTN prior to the event. "We really are going to be investing, [more] than we have ever done."
All three of the new services were the result of requests from corporate customers, Reid said.
Corporate Solutions Team
The first of the three services to roll out will be the corporate solutions team on April 1. The team will be within the carrier's global sales solutions hierarchy, Reid said, and will be a "specialized team that really understands the corporate business," she said. "The way to think about this is we're really expanding our account management team … and offering it 24/7, 365."
Corporate customers will have access to the added new resources via phone and email to start. On May 1, access will be expanded to chat, which will be powered by the new corporate solutions team, Reid said. "Earlier this year, we launched expanded chat coverage, so we are now on the weekends, and our plan is to have that accessible 24/7 as well."
Delta has been "piloting the new team with a select number of customers since February, and so far, the feedback has been extremely positive," Reid said during the Showcase. She also gave BTN examples of when the corporate solutions team would be used instead of an account rep or travel management company, including tracking down a lost bag, and "a lot of day-of-travel challenges that our business travelers have," she said.
"Our agency partners end up coming to Delta anyway, so this is just giving the travel manager direct access to that VIP traveler servicing," Reid added. "We've had a tremendous response and support from our travel TMC community on this, and it's going to be a partnership. We think some of these requests already come to the team, but they have to go through multiple people before we get them. So the idea is this is going to be expediting servicing."
During the Showcase, Delta director of global sales support Will Strattner said that when the new team launches, "we will be sharing a dedicated 800 number that [corporate travel [managers] will have access to. … They'll just enter their corporate PIN number into the phone and then that will direct them directly to the associates within GSS."
Reporting Snapshot
Last year, Delta introduced "snapshot emails," which they sent on a monthly basis to the corporate travel managers of its largest customers. The carrier beginning in late April will enhance what is reported in these emails and expand who receives them to all corporate customers, "no matter their travel footprint," Reid said.
Currently, these emails include performance metrics and overall value beyond the contract, but Delta will add "targeted, rotating metrics that are personalized," Reid said. "For example, [for] unused tickets, when that is rolled out, we want to make sure that people have access and visibility into how much value is out there for them. We're exploring things like bag-fee savings and making sure there's visibility into that. We're looking at metrics that matter to traveler managers."
The emails also will continue to include operational performance data, and TMCs will begin to receive them "later this year."
Unused Ticket Transfer
The ability to see and transfer unused ticket balances will launch in June.
"Unused tickets is one of the big, big pieces of feedback that we've heard," Reid said. "We're also going to be rolling out a new digital self-service experience so that customers will be able to easily view and then retain the value of those unused tickets."
Corporate customers will continue to be able to make name changes on unused tickets. What's changing is that corporate customers—both travel managers and TMCs—also will be able to see all eligible unused tickets, and be able to filter and sort by attributes, such as passenger name expiration dates, Reid said. They then will be able to transfer the eligible funds less any applicable fees from the traveler's personal Delta wallet into a company UATP account.
When asked about eligible ticket qualifications and fees, Reid said Delta would "provide those details closer to when the program launches."
Customers will have access to this new unused ticket visibility and transfer ability through the Delta Professional platform.
Delta also is continuing to evaluate solutions and enhancements, Reid said during the Showcase, such as the ability to manage partially flown tickets.
NDC Update
Reid told BTN and reiterated during the Showcase that Delta is starting the process of integrating with its global distribution system partners for New Distribution Capability content, and that the carrier is "optimizing our NDC solution," she said. "This year it's still going to be very much a year of testing and integration. You won't see a large-scale launch of our NDC solution this year, but more like small-scale testing with our GDS partners to optimize our technology."
RELATED: Delta Unveils NDC Strategy, With an Eye to 2025