Business Travel News - October 26, 2009 - (Page Cover1)

OCTOBER 26, 2009 INSIDE Advito Sees Airfare Boosting 2010 Prices . . . 3 Southwest To Hold Capacity In 2010 . . . . . . 4 DOT Pursues Lost Baggage Payments . . . . . . 6 Sabre Pushes To Expand European Share . . 16 Buyers Requiring Rental Car Refueling . . . . 18 8 10 BEHAVIORAL MODIFICATION AMEX SHUFFLES TOP EXECUTIVES BTNonline.com Nokia’s Paul Perry Business Travel unit allows for work/life now reports to CEO balance, savings. Ken Chenault. Pre-Trip Lever Easier To Pull BY JAY BOEHMER More Deploy Pre-Trip Policies Companies with a formal pre-trip authorization process Yes No DHS Trips On Watchlist Redress BY JAY BOEHMER Buyers Consolidate Hotel Purchasing BY MICHAEL B. BAKER The Traveler Redress Inquiry Program “in most cases” has done little in the way of improving the The percentage of comsituation of travelers who used the program, acpanies with a pre-trip aucording to a U.S. Department of Homeland Secu2008 51% 49% thorization policy has rity inspector general report dated Sept. 11 and crossed firmly into the mareleased this month. jority in the past year, as When the Department of Homeland Security in 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% cost-conscious corporaearly 2007 launched TRIP, it promised an expeSource: A BTN survey of 210 corporate travel buyers tions have sought to mandited one-stop shop for travelers misplaced on age traveler demand and bolster compliance. the no-fly and selectee watchlists to gain relief While the dismal economic landscape has made pre-trip authori- from the woes that awaited them at the airport. zation a popular policy lever to pull, maturing online booking and What the public got was a program rife with inmid-office technologies have removed many associated bottlenecks, efficiencies, slow processing times, insufficient DHS IG RICHARD SKINNER giving companies a wealth of pre-trip options from requiring mana- technology and miscommunication. Continued on page 14 “Redress-seekers generally do not benefit from their participation in TRIP,” DHS Inspector General Richard Skinner concluded in the partially redacted 165-page report. “Their cases often languish for extended periods and are handled inconsistently. Sometimes59% 41% Continued on page 22 NEW CONTENT, LANGUAGES, CURRENCIES SMOOTH GLOBAL SPREAD Postmaster: Newspaper Handling/Periodicals Postaage Travel buyers increasingly are strengthening their hotel negotiating positions in an environment where they have less demand and more MARRIOTT’S TOWNSHEND clout by consolidating meetings expenditures, including combining group and transient hotel volumes. Meanwhile, Marriott International reached critical mass on a sales restructuring effort that helps support that strategy. BTN’s Corporate Travel 100 research this year showed that 54 percent of the largest travel spenders in the United States have centrally consoliContinued on page 26 Online Booking Expands Frontiers BY SETH HARRIS Some online booking tools in the past two years have vastly expanded their global footprints as they add content, develop new language versions, adapt to local currencies, feed into travel management company online fulfillment operations and leverage consumer online behavior in emerging markets. While some of the largest Western multinational corporations are pushing the self-booking tools into these new areas, challenges still remain. Adoption levels in many marContinued on page 24 Who’s powering your performance? In times like these, it matters. http://www.BTNonline.com http://www.sabretravelnetwork.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Business Travel News - October 26, 2009

Business Travel News - October 26, 2009
Contents
Inside Track: NBTA forecasts price declines
Washington Wire: UAL, US Airways face safety fines
Profiles In Travel Mgmt.: Nokia changes behavior
Forum: Will Tate: Category management rocks
EuroBTN: One-on-one with Sabre’s Tom Klein
Car & Ground: Buyers adjust refueling policy
Destinations: Beijing Convention Center to open

Business Travel News - October 26, 2009