Corporates are incurring hidden costs because of the extra time it takes employees to fill in airline booking forms offering unbundled services.
The claim came from Tony McGetrick, head of sales at BCD Travel, who told delegates at the ACTE Management Solutions UK Forum in London today (May 12) the forms required “a lot more boxes to be ticked.”
He said the more complicated forms added time to the booking for both corporate travellers booking online and for the TMCs: “It is more complexity, more time to do the booking. The traditional booking taking one minute is long gone."
McGetrick was speaking on a session on whether corporates paid a fair price for travel and connected services.
David Coppens, VP global business solutions also at BCD, said it was important to concentrate not just on the cost at point of sale but on the whole cost of a trip.
He said his agency had global clients who were “very advanced” in looking at the whole cost of a trip.
“They are looking at it and trying to take out some of the distribution costs. This includes looking at direct booking, avoiding credit card costs, avoiding TMC costs,” he said.
“These companies are looking to get a good handle on their total spend and we will work with them to achieve that.”
But Geoff Allwright, travel manager for EADS Airbus, said senior managers and travellers understood additional costs.
“We are not really worried about having a long list of charges. It also makes it easier to explain that what we are doing is relatively complex,” he said.
Managers, he said, understood that a ticket was not just one price and were aware of the differences that airlines like Ryanair and easyJet had made to the market.
Todd Kramer of HRS told the session he thought the problem lay in finding the right balance between control and choice.
“Everyone can see a better deal or use another channel. For the corporate and the travel manager, it is about the need to control costs and understanding who is spending what.
“I think it is about how can the supplier side support this balance of giving the corporates the control they need while offering them a choice.”