| Travel and Transport News |
| The Beat Live Conference Update provided by Nancy Rissky, Vice President – Client Services |
| 9/23/2009 |
Greetings from the second annual Beat Live in Austin Texas!
I am very excited to be attending the Beat Live conference for my first time. Tuesday was packed full of many industry experts providing insight and valuable information.
The Views : Pundits discuss their Keynote Vote proposals and debate industry topics including what’s next for travel technology.
Starting off with Rock Blanco from Travel GPA, he explained that industry professionals must listen to data and don’t just rely on theories. Travel smarter rather than travel less and modify policy but DO NOT cut your travel management company out of the loop.
You can’t always rely on the Golden Rules such as booking in advance is always best or using preferred carriers always saves money so listen to your data and adjust your policy around it. The world hates change but it the only thing that brings progress
April Bridgeman from BCD talked from a traveler’s standpoint. Travelers these days are social networkers, twittering, iphone users and it’s hard for them to live in a managed program because they have access to so much information to look at before booking a trip. They are using Seat Guru, Tripit, and one of the other 2000 applications that have to do with travel that are now available for the iphone Travelers now are on social networking sites more than email. Managed travel has to extend it’s boundaries and TMCs need to find ways to string all of this data together.
Ric Leutwyler from Pegasus Solutions explained that it’s a bad time to be a control freak with all the iphone apps. Travel managers are going to have to learn to adapt. Number of looks to books is skyrocketing as people have so many channels to search. Who will ultimately pay for all of these looks?
Richard Eastman from the Eastman Group explained that Commoditization drives componentization….ancillary fees are driving profits for airlines.
The Interview with Jay Campbell
Jeremy Wertheimer, ITA Software Co Founder was brilliant is always looking at next generation opportunities.
Airline Panel Discussion: Open Discussions regarding desires and goals for distribution, business travel and technology from an airline perspective. United’s Kathleen Bennett, Southwest’s Rob Brown and former BA exec Chris Vukelich of Radixx.
Southwest has put themselves in a box by advertising no hidden fees but with all the other carriers making so much money on ancillary charges they will have to do something to remain competitive
All airlines need to figure out how to track, collect and market the ancillary charges and tie those charges to the customer so they treat the customer who spends $300.00 on a fare and another $200.00 on ancillary charges as a $500.00 pax and not a $300.00 pax. A lot of discussion on how to sell, how to track and how to manage from a policy standpoint. Is it an expansible item or not.
Merchant fees are on the mind of all airlines. It’s a huge expense and yet all the airlines have loyalty programs with credit card companies as well.
Did you know that a retailer (shoe store for example) will pay a higher merchant fee on a visa card that is co branded to an airline frequent flyer program that it does for just a regular visa????
GDS Perspective: What are GDS companies doing to stay on top of ever-changing supplier, buyer and intermediary needs? Travelport’s Travis Christ, Sabre’s Chris Kroeger and Ian Wheeler
of Amadeus.
Most of the afternoon from airline and GDS talks focused on the ancillary fees. GDS says they are ready to process but marketplace is not ready yet.
Looking for another great day on Wednesday at The Beat LIVE!
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