No More Bargains

The latest Business Travel Monitor (March 2011) confirms it: there are no more bargains to be had from the airlines for business travelers. Especially if they wait until the last minute to book a trip.

Average published domestic fares for the month of March for lowest discount ticket types (highly-restricted) were up 17% compared to February 2011 and up 30% from March 2010. These published fares do not include taxes and fees, including fuel surcharges.

Average domestic fares paid by American Express Business Travel clients (which include all types of seats and fares and taxes and fees paid at point of sale) were up 5% for the month and 11% year over year. The average fare paid for international business trips was up 7% month over month and 12% year over year.

What does this mean to managed travel? If the travel industry could get any more complex, it has. It has never been easy to determine who pays what for which seat when and why, but add in increased taxes (see Prashanth Kuchibhotla's analysis of airline tax implications in this month's eXpert Industry Insights), service fees, surcharges and capacity controls and the true cost of travel becomes ever more elusive.

Companies should consider then the value of the data they get on their programs, the insights into their travelers' behaviors, and competitve industry best practices to drive optimal expenditures on travel today. With the on-going challenges in the industry around distribution models and renumeration for all kinds of services, getting accurate and complete data has become even more difficult, let alone analyzing it for meaningful patterns.

But data is where the true value of managed travel is not only revealed but achieved as demand management takes center stage in cost-control tactics today. What kind of real investment has your company made in its travel data and analysis? Can anyone afford not to in light of the nature of the industry itself today?