Business Travel Tips

According to a survey more than half of organisations make no attempt to quantify the benefits of travel and expense (T&E) management.

The survey, sponsored by KDS, a leading European supplier of integrated T&E management systems, also shows that half of the business travelers submit expense claims on paper.

Some of the survey’s most significant findings include:

- 51.2% of the respondents admitted some of their business trips, in retrospect, are not worth the time or cost involved;

- 55.5% of respondents acknowledged that on several occasions they would have reconsidered business trips had they known in advance the total cost – including travel, accommodation and other expenses.
(source)

A survey performed among members of the Association of Corporate Travel Executive (ACTE) shows that the activity in the business travel market will increase in 2011.

64% of European ACTE members and 70% of those in the US are expecting a greater travel spend over the next year due to an increased travel frequency.

The vast majority of members questioned — 66% from Europe and 60% from the US — are expecting their company’s employees to travel more in 2011 than in the two previous years.

The survey also shows that only a minority of member companies questioned will be encouraging shorter trip stays — 5.4% of those from the US and 6.4% of those from Europe respectively.

A research produced by American Express Business Travel in collaboration with the Institute of Travel and Meetings (ITM) explores the use of technology for Business Travel and its influence in the corporate environment..

The study reveals that companies use communication tools such as video-conferencing and telepresence to reduce the need for some corporate travel and the costs associated with it — however they are not replacing business travel to the extent that many predicted.

At the same time companies use communication tools such as mobile devices to connect people on the road more effectively.

That means companies are making a dual use of of technology for business travel: alternative to travel and enabler of travel.
Interestingly, the research also shows that new adoption is not age specific.

Among the barriers to implementing technology-based travel options, the study shows that travel managers in many cases do not have purchasing power to provide options that improve efficiency and productivity of employee connections.
The research found that only 13% of buyers are responsible for mobile/technology procurement related to business travel, 22% have some influence and 64% have none at all.

American Express Business Travel created an informational website to assist travel professionals. It offers guidance for building a business case by walking through key scenarios demonstrating the benefits – cost savings, productivity savings and others.
The site provides advice and tips and features a variety of content including articles, demos and case studies. It is available at http://virtualtravel.americanexpress.com/ .

A new airfare shopping mobile app has been launched for the Apple iPhone and iPod touch.
The app, OnTheFly by ITA Software, Inc., offers the powerful comparison shopping features used by many travel companies and by ITA’s Matrix airfare search application at http://matrix.itasoftware.com.

OnTheFly enables users to easily shop for optimal airfares for any itinerary in the world and provides comprehensive choices to tailor the search and shopping experience.

Travelers can download the shopping-only version for iPhone and iPod touch for free from the App Store.

ITA Software is planning to launch mobile applications for BlackBerry and Android platforms later in 2010.

Most of corporate travel managers lament that they have no idea what the real cost of airplane tickets is going to be when booking air travel.

The New York Times writes that the extra fees that managed travel systems generally do not show when companies buy airline tickets, can increase the cost of a flight 25 percent or even far more.

“Companies negotiate overall discounts annually with various airlines but then use managed travel systems, which work with huge reservation systems called global distribution systems, to book the tickets. Those systems generally show the fares but not all the extra fees for various services like checked bags [...] Fees do add up. In the first quarter of this year, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics at the Transportation Department, airlines took in $768 million in fees for checked bags alone.”

The New York Times says that the Business Travel Coalition plans to testify before the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee’s aviation subcommittee to emphasize that travel managers want federal regulations to force airlines to become more open about fees on all reservations systems, not just their own Web sites.