[Anonymous]

[GrahamSmith]

Each month, we put questions to the travel manager. This month’s topic…

Will the growth in self-booking apps spell the end of the travel manager?

Apps have meant a big change for business travel, but it’s important to distinguish between those that provide useful information when you travel, and those that encourage you to book through them.

As far as the first group is concerned, I see these as productivity enhancement tools that facilitate your trips and enable the products we buy for you to be more efficient.

Some will give you the weather at your destination, inform you of gate changes before they’re made public and before I am able to inform you myself, and flag up delays.

Since they tap into global distribution systems, or those of the airlines, an app may help you to get that information even before it appears on the departure board. Some companies are starting to embrace these apps and recommend particular ones to travellers.

The second type gives you access to content outside of the corporate travel programme – and this is where it can start to get a little slippery.

In a way, these apps provide the same information as the websites you can access from your laptop, which can sometimes show fares that are less than those quoted by the travel manager.

As I’ve argued before in this column, if you look at the terms and conditions, these tickets are not always as cheap as they seem. Still, there’s no doubt the apps are both convenient and tempting, especially if you have to make a booking in an emergency.

Again, some companies are looking at these apps, and providing they are approved and that the booking can flow back into the programme – allowing it to count towards corporate spend and for appropriate discounts to be applied and management information to be collected for future negotiations with suppliers – it might not be a problem.

In one sense, these apps aren’t giving travellers anything they didn’t already have. There’s nothing stopping you from walking to the nearest ticket counter when things go wrong, but now you have that information in the palm of your hand.

There are some situations where using the apps is appropriate, hopefully within the framework of the company’s policy. I’d say that 99 per cent of the time people do the right thing, but for those likely to stray from the programme, there’s no doubt they can put temptation in temptation’s way.

As travel managers, there’s a lot more we can do to help. There’s no point trying to ban the apps or the smartphones that carry them under the pretext that they are not approved, for instance, since, even if the traveller is issued with a phone, they will probably have an iPhone or Android device for personal use.

We’re better off encouraging them to stay within policy. In fact, forward-thinking companies are setting up approved app stores, showing which work within the programme.

There’s also the duty-of-care aspect, and technology is being developed that can support that – in some hotels you can already use your phone to check in or as a door key. These apps can also track your location, just as social media ones do – flight tracking apps know where you are flying to and with whom.

Do apps threaten the position of the travel manager? I think the opposite is true – behind the app you will still need a manager to administer the programme. A travel manager is needed if the leverage of the company is to be used for negotiating deals.

Geo-location and geo-fencing technology will also allow better communication between the travel manager and the traveller.

Imagine an icon pops up on your phone showing you nearby restaurants with which we have negotiated discounts, or preferred hotels in an area, and how to get there – it’s at times like these that you will probably be glad to have a travel manager working somewhere in the background.

[Charles-P]

At the risk of being thought a terrible Luddite I must say I avoid ‘apps’ wherever possible. I dislike the information they are collecting about me, I don’t trust the security of most and and nervous about having so much important information on a device that needs a battery. I still prefer paper based information in many cases not least my diary and my travel information.

[LuganoPirate]

I tend to agree with Charles. I never use apps for booking travel with just one exception and that’s for my tickets with Swiss Railways.

Apps for me are useful for things like the weather, flightradar24, timetables and banking and that’s about it.

If I need a ticket or have to alter something in an emergency, then i use the phone, which at the end of the day is what those devices were originally intended for!

[SimonS1]

The only time I use apps is to keep the travel manager honest.

Was recently quoted a ‘cheapest available’ fare for a last minute fare to Johannesburg on QR of around £1,900. Looked online at QR website and found sub £1,000.

The TM claimed there were some fare classes not available on his system but managed to come up with the fare after checking…,

[canucklad]

Well I’ve just checked my phone………
My apps include CX, AC, EZ & FR . I’ve also got flight radar. None of these apps are actually used for my business travel, more for leisure.
The ones that are handy for work are pretty limited to BA & IHG and recently train line, not for booking but more for times etc. I am obliged to use our travel management company, even when I’ can get travel cheaper direct. Annoyingly, this also means I can’t take advantage of 1st class rail travel, even when its cheaper than standard class through our travel mangers website. And I must use my corporate card to book travel.
The travel company software must also be linked to our expenses pages as policy breaches have to be justified.

[Charles-P]

This topic came up in conversation today and one of my (young) software engineers said,
“Nobody is going to hack my Filofax”

Is there a backlash among the very consumers who we would have thought are natural users of such technology ?

[MartynSinclair]

I use my BA app for:

**checking in

**Boarding pass

**checking gate…

Never purchased a ticket using the app… just doesn’t feel right :))

Prefer the feel and look of the full website and a PC…

[RetiredLawyer]

The question really addresses the inherent conflict where, the Travel Department has sold management on how much they can save the corporation using blanket contracts with providers. When I flew corporate, our travel folks had a blanket with NW on certain routes, giving fixed fares between certain points for the calendar year. Of course, during the year, fares would fall, but we were not allowed to accept the lower fares.

Similarly, there were other instances where the fares available to the individual traveler were lower than those through the Travel Department, especially when a ticketing surcharge was added.

In all of these cases, the traveler’s individual department budget took the hit, and the Travel Department made their goals at the expense of the individual traveler’s department budget.

If the goals of the individual departments can be “aligned”, then the issue will diminish drastically. Until then, the bureaucratic infighting will continue. No matter what it is, what gets measured gets accomplished.

[BIllyBleach]

as opposed to all those travel agents who are selling your profile information

[KarlMarx]

Each month, we put questions to the travel manager

+++++++++++

Is there only one in existence or is it just poor grammar?

[Tom Otley]

Neither. It’s the one we ask.

[Author]

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