[MartynSinclair]

@AnthonyDunn – the HKG-BKK (CX) availability changes all the time. Sometimes when I am researching, a sensible 2 hour connection is in the system, by the time I try and book, it reverts to a 6 hour wait and then a couple of hours later the 2 hour wait availability re appears.

2 trips ago I did have a 6 hour wait (in the fabulous CX Wing), but the CX staff, very kindly allowed me to get on an earlier flight.

[Carajillo2Sugar]

Some of you corporate travellers are so good at spending other people’s money!

eg typical BA flexible/refundable fare LON-NYC is well over £4k + taxes, whilst the equivalent cost of travelling with United Airlines is just over £2k + taxes, so less than half the cost. For a 7-hour ‘hop’ across the Atlantic, is any airline on the route worth spending twice as much as UA will cost you? Seriously!

Another example is the BA fare to Luanda at over £6.5k + taxes. They code-share on this route with DT (Taag Angola) – Taag have an allocation of seats on each BA flight. The flexible fare on DT is less than £3k + taxes, a saving of well over £3.5k per trip. Just to be clear, it’s the same flight, the same seats and exactly the same service on board. The reasons given for not taking this bargain are incredible:

“I won’t be able to get my Avios miles.”
“I need to do online check-in and can’t do that with DT.”

You can purchase an awful lot of airmiles for £3.5k….

The question every CEO/Finance Director should be asking their travellers is, “Would you be spending this amount of money if you were paying for it yourself?”

And if the answer is yes, make them pay for the difference in the cost!

[icenspice]

Bravo TAAG!

[MrMichael]

Carijillo2Sugar. I see your point, but some of us have no choice. I am forced in to using a corporate travel agent that in the main sticks to the most convenient, not the best value. If the agent is on a commission then they have an interest in sending you on the more expensive flight. I have questioned my travel dragon on this a number of times who just trots out ….”we book according to the company’s policy”. In my case the company being that I am currently contracted to, I am not an employee but am still bound to their travel policy. So it is not I that am at fault, but the procurement donuts who decided it would be better value to book all travel through such an agent. I know I am not alone in thinking this, it was all talked about in a previous thread.

[Carajillo2Sugar]

MrMichael – whilst I would hope your corporate travel agent follows the travel policy as set down by the client company, I would also hope that they offer any suitable alternatives that present themselves on a trip-by-trip basis. New offers are appearing on the market through-out the year and unless the client absolutely insists otherwise, that should be standard practice, as should MI reporting of any accepted/rejected savings. This builds up a clearer picture of where savings can be made and then changes to the travel policy can be implemented.

For a long-term relationship, it’s certainly not in the best interests of the TMC to not offer this standard of service. I spend a fair bit of my time pointing out the benefits of taking ‘best on the day’ fares, rather than sticking rigidly to a route-deal with any particular airline.

In essence, what may have seemed a good deal at the start of the year can look very different a few months down the line, especially when other airlines are wanting a share of your travel spend.

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