Business Travel

Save Money on Business Travel - Part 3

Let's be practical about this, during the "working" season, book on Friday for the following Monday's first flight out to Frankfurt (as we seem to be going there a lot on this page) and you will be lucky to get a seat at any price. It doesn't matter how many contract fares you negotiate, if there is only one seat left, you are not going to get it for £10.

So where are these savings coming from? Usually, they are arrived at from the difference made between telephoning your agent of choice to a DIY approach. We have, by now, managed to quietly forget that about 5 years ago most businesses, though paying fees to their agent, were getting a very large sum back for the airline commissions. Fees with some TMC's can be pushing £40 a throw for a telephone booking which is a lot of money to add on, so by saying that you "only" pay £20 to do it on-line, the savings part looks very attractive indeed.

Let us, for a moment, go back to our Rugby analogy. This saving only represents the goal kicking, not the try scoring.

Right at the start, I said that any agent is only as good as the person answering your request. It is the same with a self booking tool or indeed simply booking flights on the internet with a credit card. Nobody, but nobody, has come up with a way of thinking about or around what you are trying to achieve. Nobody has come up with a way of incorporating the tricks of the trade into an internet site or SBT (self booking tool). The internet will answer your question. True. But it has two main flaws - Are you asking the right question and are you getting the answer from the right source?

This principle applies as much to simple short haul stuff as it does to medium and long haul. You may have negotiated fares but fares have conditions and the fare availability is signified by a number against the required booking class letter. For example, there is a growing inclination to have to think in terms of two one way fares rather than a return. It may even prove (slightly) more expensive to do it this way but there could be significant benefits in terms of restrictions. It may also mean that you are not compelled to use the same airline out as for coming home. If your negotiated fares apply only to one airline, then this potential cost saving is in direct opposition to your carefully designed policy.

On long haul flights, this saving is much more pronounced. Negotiated rates on airlines are usually very much in-line with what are known, in the trade, as "consolidated" fares. These are the ones that you see advertised in the back of the Sunday papers. What they do is take these fares and basically, bend the rules for Jo Public a bit to accommodate you. One feature is that on long haul flights and especially in the front cabins, some airlines do a lot more rule bending than others. Being realistic, falling over backwards to fill a seat at £3,000 is a lot more cost effective than falling over backwards to sell one for £300. ...  Diversion Ends...

So, what is the new fashion in saving money in business travel? Are you really going the right way by looking at Global TMC's? In so doing, are you really making a move forwards, or are you just being manipulated into a booking system/ or going with an agent purely because business travel agents are employing less well trained staff?

So, apart from helping the profitability of your TMC, your wonderful SBT also makes sure that many of the really cheap longhaul fares may be denied to you. You have edited them out by all your careful policy making - or at least run the risk of so doing. It is important to note that not all airlines give all their fares to everyone so even the fares that you can access may be more of a "selection" rather than a complete picture. Another handy feature of the SBT is that it edits out the need for TMC's to have to take responsibility for mistakes. Incorrect dates, times, mis-spelled names, failure to input the right or incomplete information, etc. These may be now made by your self. Another feature of SBT's is that they require you and your troops to sit down and work your/ their way around a (stunningly easy - of course!) software system. This makes me wonder. The number of times I am called by clients "on the hoof", between appointments or from a noisy place. I am called from a "need an extra hour" meeting, a "stuck in traffic" car, a "bloody thing delayed for 2 hours" cafe bar, or a "I have forgotten to book a hotel" back of a taxi -  brings visions to my mind of how, under a self booking regime, such situations are catered for. Okay, so in these instances you telephone the TMS. So that's £20 saved on the booking process and £30 lost on the telephone to sort out the problem bit. (maybe more, because things like this usually happen at about seven o'clock at night or five o'clock in the morning)

Let's go back to the subject of partnerships. I find it boring as anything booking return flights to Paris. I will do it, but it is boring. What I enjoy and what I find worthwhile, both for myself and my clients, is when I get asked to do my job. The call I like is one which starts "I have to go to X, Y and Z and can I get to E, and F at the same time?" Here, the internet, SBT's and even airline reservation centres fall flat on their faces. Furthermore, you pay your employees (probably) a lot more money than I get to make you money. Not to act as surrogate travel agents. This is also where a lot of high powered TMC's fall down as well - their order takers are not, frankly, trained well enough - or don't have the simple knowledge of years -  to cope with the thinking that goes into this sort of a process. Furthermore, on this sort of an itinerary we have the opportunity to do a good job and to save real money. How do you divide up the itinerary most cost effectively? How do you maintain flexibility? Here we can score a try. Spare a moment or two to think about the question that was originally asked - a question that took a very short telephone call and possibly from a highly paid executive or a busy PA  - I have to ask a few questions in return and then off I go to earn - yes, earn - my fee.

The more that the booking process - especially a booking process which has not gone through the steps suggested in part one and two of this article - are automated or placed in the hands of people who deal with each individual query who have little practical experience, so your costs will increase. You may save on the booking process but saving £10 on a trip that should not be happening, is not saving money.

It's about getting people on board with the idea of saving money, it's about using a skilled agent and it's about knowing when to use an agent.

As I said on page 1, this is not the whole story. I have written this article with the intention of giving your thoughts on business travel a new direction. If you would like further help, you can email me by pressing on the link below.

All rights reserved. Murray Harrold. +44 (0) 1753 889567. Please feel free to copy this article but please include a LIVE link back to this website.