Hundreds of thousands of business travelers learned of the heightened security levels prompted by the foiled terrorist attacks in London this month hours before they set foot at any airport. Text messages, voicemail messages to cell phones, e-mails and even phone calls from their travel management companies or managers informed them of the security changes, flight cancellations, delays and rebooking opportunities.
Reliance on such technologies has become a key component to travel disaster plans since 11 Sep 2001. Each travel disruption tests the scope and validity of the plans, and provides at least a few tweaks. For the first time, travelers in the United Kingdom and elsewhere were forced to pack into checked bags the technologies that they've come to reply upon for notifications: cell phones, personal digital assistants and laptops. However, travelers adapted--either phoning their TMCs' 24-hour response centers or accessing Web sites.
The Transnationalasked travel management companies--including American Express, BCD Travel, Carlson Wagonlit Travel, Expedia Corporate Travel, HRG, Orbitz/Travelport for Business and Travelocity Business--to detail their responses to the cancelled flights, delays and tightened security procedures. American Express was unable to respond by press time.
The responses revealed sophisticated, technology-powered crisis plans that evolved after each new trial, whether prompted by security issues, hurricanes, major power outages or other incidents. TMCs detailed multi-level disaster plans and considered this month's events of medium intensity. BCD noted that it activated its emergency communications plan, but not its disaster plan. Universally, travel management executives said the plans worked well, as business travelers simply adapted to no electronics, no liquids and lengthy delays.
For TMCs, notice of disruptions is key to quick response. Each of the major TMCs said their plans include a proactive approach to monitoring the news, subscribing to e-mail alerts offered by CNN or other news outlets, or subscribing to private security services. None rely on the airlines or government agencies to inform them of delays or cancellations, as any such notifications come too long after the fact. Once alerted to any disruption by e-mail or pager, all said they rely on media outlets, with televisions tuned to various 24-hour news operations.
Evaluating alerts the TMC began receiving, one individual within HRG decided that the incident warranted implementation of its disaster recovery plan, said executive vice president of HRG North America Michele Ferrari. Once begun, the plan prompted a flurry of reports detailing a week of travel bookings for each company, hourly update calls with the 14 people responsible for leading the plan and communications sent to travel managers and travelers--including intranet updates.
Every TMC noted that disaster plans trigger reports which detail travel bookings by company. TMCs either e-mail reports to travel managers, or alert them of their availability for download.
In this case, Travelocity Business reports detailed outbound and inbound travel in impacted areas, the booked hotel if the traveler was in London and instances of multiple employees on the same flights, said vice president of global operations Kathy Petrovic.
TMCs contacted travel managers and employees, updated Web sites and, if allowed, alerted travelers. [Corporations usually dictate whether the travel manager or agency would alert travelers to changes; in emergencies, BCD contacts travelers directly, said senior vice president of global marketing Melanie Garrett, since travel managers or arrangers may not intercede quickly enough.] But increased use of online booking is also training travelers to proactively search their booking sites or internal travel Web sites for updates.
"The mentality of our customers is fundamentally an online mentality; they will go to the Expedia Corporate Travel site to check changes," said ECT's new vice president of marketing, Stan Sorensen. ECT notifies travel managers, but Sorensen said, those managers typically notify their travelers.
"Over the first 24 hours, Travelocity sent 145,000 e-mails to affected or impacted travelers," noted a spokesperson. "In a crisis environment, we are sensitive to the needs of the corporation and how they want to pursue it."
The Orbitz care center on 10 Aug sent more than 120,000 alerts--almost three times more than on a normal day--to Orbitz, Orbitz for Business and Travelport for Business customers. By 11 Aug, the center had alerted more than 230,000 travelers, employer contacts, spouses and others on the travelers' contact lists. Realizing that the alert might not have reached a traveler, Orbitz tried to contact others who the traveler might call from a pay phone.
Orbitz sent verbal travel briefs via cell phones to all passengers traveling out of the top 20 U.S. airports. It also sent alerts via e-mail, text and SMS. "Two of our largest corporate clients requested that we inform every one of their registered corporate travelers about security changes, as well as updates regarding the situation in the U.K. We sent 35,000 notifications to those two companies alone," said a spokesperson.
Attempting to differentiate its service, Orbitz has hired former air traffic controllers, meteorologists and reporters to help predict disasters and react to them. Nine specialists in Chicago and another nine in Denver monitor every flight in the country on huge displays, and focus on problems caused by security, weather or natural disasters. Their goal is to provide more predictive analysis of delays and cancellations to help travelers achieve their travel objectives, explained Orbitz for Business/Travelport chief operating officer and general manager Dean Sivley. Of the 15 million alerts it expects to send this year, 5 million will be to corporate travelers, he said.
For Carlson Wagonlit Travel, this incident began just two days after the acquisition of Navigant International. Integration planning had included lengthy discussions of emergency response plans. "We both understood each other's plans and had touch points," said CWT vice president of central operations Debbie Westlake. "Our technology may not be identical, but when CWT activated its plan, so did TQ3."
Hundreds of CWT clients were booked on flights to or from the United Kingdom during the four days following the terror bust. CWT agents phoned high-touch clients impacted by the flight delays and cancellations, and sent e-mails and text messages to most, offering to rebook if they phoned in. Westlake said they didn't notice a significant increase in call volume.
BCD sent a total of 30 client communications over the course of the incident and its aftermath. BCD's Air Travel Security Situation of 11 Aug summarized delays, new security provisions, airline baggage fee waivers and the fact that some European rail suppliers were accepting airline tickets to ease congestion at European airports. The two-page summary also detailed traveler recommendations for arrival, baggage and security.
"Technology is the cornerstone of what we do, and it all worked very well," Garrett said. "We learned that our processes work, but we'd never stop evaluating them. Security is now at the top of everybody's mind and it has to be a standard part of everybody's travel program."
In such instances, the telephony platform--allowing the agencies to route and answer significantly increased call volume, or quickly change recorded voice announcements--becomes a critical component to response. HRG's platform allowed it to increase 24-hour staffing by 50 percent.
TMC officials agreed that in the event of such fluid incidents, there is no such thing as "too much information."