February 2010
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CWT keeps you informed
CWT study on Travel Management Priorities for 2010: The economy is on the upswing, but saving money is still important more
Airline booking violations: What travelers should know more
Airport security enhanced in response to terrorist threats more
CWT Traveler Trendbarometer: We’re moving forward again! more
CWT study on Travel Management Priorities for 2010: The economy is on the upswing, but saving money is still important
Optimizing hotel
expenditures, improving compliance with travel policy, making simple bookings
easier, and taking advantage of potential savings on flights and other modes
of transport – these are the priorities that travel managers have set
for 2010. These were the findings of an online survey of 169 travel managers
that CWT conducted between late September and mid-November 2009. The surveyed
companies are based in the Asia–Pacific region, Europe, Latin America
and North America, work in various industries and have travel budgets of at
least five million USD. But the travel manager survey was only part of the new study; the other part comprised an analysis of the business travel market in 2009 and yielded results that were quite dramatic. Air travel was down, causing airlines to introduce surcharges for what used to be free additional services, as well as in-between classes as a way of compensating for the decline in Business Class bookings. The hotel industry likewise sustained some serious losses: accommodations were not filled to capacity, leading to a drop in room prices and hence in average revenue per room. It was only on the rail market that things looked somewhat brighter in 2009, with many business travelers switching from air to high-speed train travel for flights under three hours.
2010 is so far giving cause for some cautious optimism. According to the International Monetary Fund, the global economy will grow again by four percent this year and, with it, business travel activities. The results of the CWT study clearly demonstrate that, as the market picks up, saving money is particularly important – but so is a well-managed corporate travel program.
The complete study Travel Management Priorities 2010: Decisive Opportunities for Success is available online on the CWT-website.
Airline booking violations: What travelers should know
When booking travel online, travelers may not be aware of some of the booking practices that airlines consider “booking violations.” The airlines have a variety of rules in place to help them effectively control and sell their inventory of airline seats—and violations of these rules can often generate penalty fees of which travelers may not be aware.
Over the next few months, CWT Traveler will be providing information about some common booking violations, and how travelers can avoid them. This month features a common booking violation called “churning.”
Churning
While the rules may vary by airline, many North American airlines have a churning rule in place that prohibits the repeated booking and cancelling of the same itinerary to circumvent or extend ticketing time limits. For example, Joe would like to attend a conference, but has not yet received approval from his supervisor to attend. He found a great airfare and decided to hold it, but it had to be ticketed within 24 hours. Joe still didn’t have supervisor approval to attend two days later, so he cancelled and rebooked the flights in order to hold them for another 24 hours.Since this process blocks the airline from being able to sell the seat to another traveler, it is a practice that is prohibited by many airlines. Travelers should check to see if their airline prohibits churning, and to avoid this violation, travelers should only book a ticket once they’ve confirmed that they intend to make the trip.
Airport security enhanced in response to terrorist threats
Following the attempted bombing on Northwest Airlines flight 253 December 25, airport and airline security have been enhanced in a variety of ways. Baggage restrictions have been put in place on some flights to the United States, and more passengers have been subject to enhanced or secondary screening procedures. One of the more visible, and controversial security changes is the addition of more full-body scanners.
Both in North America and internationally, these body scanners are becoming more common, and the U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is planning to install 950 machines in U.S. airports in the next two years. The machines, which essentially give TSA officials a view of a passenger’s body beneath his or her clothing, have raised concerns from privacy advocates. The TSA outlines privacy practices in place, such as the separation of the person being scanned and the TSA official viewing the image, and provides additional information regarding the scanners here.
Currently, the TSA has stated that travelers in U.S. airports who do not want to pass through the scanners can opt to undergo a pat-down procedure instead.
CWT Traveler Trendbarometer: We’re moving forward again!
At the start of the new year – a year that will hopefully bring renewed economic growth – we wanted to find out whether your travel schedule will change in comparison to 2009. This is what you told us:
- Yes, I will travel more in 2010: 31.6%
- No, my travel schedule will remain the same: 42.1%
- Yes, I will travel less in 2010 than in 2009: 26.3%
Nearly 75 percent of Traveler readers will therefore be traveling more or just as much as in 2009: that’s the clear majority. These results confirm forecasts that economic development will in fact stabilize again in 2010, and may even take a turn for the better. They are also a signal that, after having to implement strict savings measures, companies are once again placing higher priority on business trips for their employees – after all, personal relationships with business partners are too important to put at risk through a lack of personal contact.
Saving on travel spend is nevertheless still an important goal for many businesses. Companies will be taking a closer look at their travel policy and monitoring employee compliance more carefully. The details of corporate travel policy naturally play an important role here. This includes for example any changes in the class booked for air travel – which happens to be the topic for our new question for the CWT Traveler Trendbarometer:Has your company changed the prescribed booking class for flights in order to save money?