There is a huge conspiracy between airlines and their passengers which leaves the travel buyer in the middle, Jamie Hindhaugh told the GBTA conference today (September 21).
Carriers which unbundle their products make it both more confusing and more difficult for buyers to manage their policy, the chairman of the Institute of Travel and Meetings (ITM) told delegates in Noordwijk, Holland.
Hindhaugh, also head of sourcing and procurement for the BBC, was speaking in a session on whether travel was a commodity.
He said being a commodity did not mean that there was no choice. “Buyers work with what is available. All travel is the same. You need to understand the requirements of business and what is available from the supplier,” he said.
“An RFP helps differentiate between suppliers. I don’t book every flight at the BBC. But I put a range of choices in place to identify the best suppliers for my travellers needs.”
Rod Ross, ceo of Travellinck, a South African IT company, said people travelled to achieve a business objective and they decided which means of travel was fit for their purpose. They go business class if they want to arrive fresh.”
But he added that travel was a “highly emotive” thing which was often driven by loyalty. People had to be able to compare alternative suppliers.
Jake Cefolia, United Airlines’ managing director for global corporate accounts, argued that travel was “definitively not a commodity.”
He told delegates: “Customers are constantly making trade offs on what they are prepared to pay and the attributes of the airline.”
Airlines offered different products for passengers to choose from. “Some companies just pay for the basic service of transportation. Other companies see their people as a key asset which can earn them a profit.
“So the travellers are left to their own devices and they then show a preference,” Cefolia said.
Both Hindhaugh and Ross called for airlines to be more transparent on their products and prices.
Hindhaugh commented: “The more complicated the airlines made it, the likely the bill would be very different from what you thought. At the moment, this confusion is a challenge to us.”
Cefolia said providing this information was in an evolutionary state and GDS were not currently equipped to do this.
Hindhaugh said airlines were going for the minds of the travellers, not the buyers.
He called on them to “bring on quality and bring on enhancements but also speak to the travel managers more than the travellers and you will get a better idea of what we think.”