This week British Airways announced that travellers using its mobile app now have the ability to pay for flights with a 'swipe of the finger' via Apple Pay.
When it first announced in June 2015 that it was adopting Apple Pay, BA was not the first. That was JetBlue, followed by Emirates. Nor is it the first British carrier to include it in its app — that honour goes to easyJet.
However, one of the world's largest network carriers adding this functionality to its app does indicate a belief that mobile is quickly surpassing the desktop as the default device. Mobile becoming the rule rather than the exception means that digital payments via mobile will become more widespread. And as BA enhances its NDC distribution and enables more 'corporate' features, the use of mobile by business travellers starts to become a 'no brainer'.
Business flights may ultimately be paid for by the employer but many flights are initially paid for by the traveller, say by using a corporate card. There is no reason why a digital payment option cannot become the corporate payment mechanism and its data feed straight through to an expense management system. The corporate travel procurement team would have the relevant data, from booking to payment, and the supplier would have its money.
Travellers want to be involved in the decision-making, corporates want data and suppliers want bookings and revenue. What's not to like?
Well, the convenience may come at a price. There is no doubt that business travellers want the simplest experience and are more subject to last-minute bookings and itinerary changes than leisure travellers. Two stories from two airlines this week back this up.
United Airlines' third quarter results contained the intriguing information that "Close-in domestic corporate bookings strengthened at the end of the quarter." In other words there was an overall decrease in the average amount of time between booking and travel among corporate short-haul bookings. That means higher average fares — and higher margins.
Lufthansa said something very similar when it predicted increased revenues and profits in a recent profits advisory because "difficult-to-forecast short-term bookings of business travellers in September have developed better than expected".
All signs are that travellers are increasingly in control of their own bookings. However, with all the good things that go with this, there are also a few warning lights such as the potential proclivity of travellers to use the carriers with the best functioning apps and the fact that the easier it is to book flights and change bookings, the more travellers are likely to feel able to do that.
Having a smooth, user friendly, end-to-end mobile booking, reconciliation, payment and fulfilment system is the future. But that needn't preclude compliance. Managers need to remain vigilant to ensure that whether travellers make use of a brand.com app or a consolidated app such as the one Sabre recently released, the travel programme continues to incorporate controls from negotiated rates to preferred suppliers into the system.