Business Travel News - December 17, 2007 - (Page 1)

DECEMBER 17, 2007 INSIDE AirTran First Sabre XML Airline MasterCard Upgrades Reporting, Data Amadeus Debuts Hotel Platform Mtg. Buyers Give Carriers Lower Marks 4 6 8 19 3 3 12 AMEX TO GO HOOD BACK KODAK END TO END AT BCD MOMENT Petruccelli hints at Returns as presi- Doug Baldy 1Q08 release. dent of Americas. develops savings. Sec. Peters Prepares Air Delay Proposals U.S. Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters, nearing her year-end deadline to submit recommendations to President George W. Bush on ways to reduce U.S. airline delays, last week spoke with Business Travel News editors David Meyer and Jay Boehmer. BTN: Are the airlines being cooperative as you seek remedies for delays? Mary Peters: They’re certainly working with us. A real base-level thing we have to say going into these negotiations is the status quo is not acceptable. We simply can’t go into the 2008 heavy sumTRANSPORTATION SECRETARY mer travel season with the very same things in place PETERS: Status quo not acceptable. as in 2007, because we’re just not going to subject the American traveler to that. It’s just not fair to them. The airlines participated wholly in the process. They shared their ideas, their thoughts and their concerns. Are we going to come to a decision and a recommendation to the president that’s going to make everyone happy? Probably not, but the status quo is just not acceptable. Continued on page 25 Settling For More WAL-MART BLAZES TRAIL TO SETTLE FOREIGN TICKETS IN U.S. BY JAY BOEHMER Wal-Mart this month became the first company to settle non-U.S. airline transactions through a U.S. point of sale, overcoming logistical hurdles with the support of American Airlines, ARC, Sabre and Universal Air Travel Plan. Wal-Mart confirmed that it is settling American Airlines transactions made in Canadian dollars and Mexican pesos solely through ARC, rather than other bank settlement plans. Now, Wal-Mart will be able to consolidate all North American transactions with its major network carrier into one settlement data stream. Wal-Mart director of global travel services Duane Futch WAL-MART’S FUTCH said the initiative “streamlines processes from booking to fulfillment,” consolidates multinational ticketing data, “allows our countries to obtain incountry pricing and complete airline ticketing transactions in a local currency,” provides reporting in the local currency and “eliminates financial discrepancies due to Continued on page 25 Wyndham Courting Corps. BY MICHAEL B. BAKER Buyers Adjusting Budgets, Trips BY SETH HARRIS Some buyers have adopted new measures to curWyndham Hotel Group, spurred by rapid international growth and development in the midprice, upscale and luxury tiers, is posiMany travel buyers recently have revised their tail their 2008 travel expenditures. One CT100 comtioning itself to become a bigger force in the corporate travel market budgets for 2008 to account for souring economic pany plans to reduce its total T&E costs by 15 perand already is reporting increased travel buyer interest as a result. conditions, including the home mortgage crisis, cent next year, after several years of continuous Wyndham manages or franchises more hotels than any other ho- volatile trading markets and the weakening U.S. growth in expenditure. Another CT100 company tel company, and ranks behind only InterContinental Hotels Group in dollar, in some cases allowing for higher spending has accounted for inflationary increases in the budget for the first time ever. total hotel rooms (BTN, June 25). Because its portfolio skews heavily and in others limiting travel. Ricoh Americas has thrown toward the economy and budget out its previous travel budget in tiers, however, it traditionally has :05:55 PM order to gain a more accurate not received the same attention SECOND OF A TWO-PART BUYER ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION OF THE STATE OF HOTEL NEGOTIATING spending picture, rein in overprofrom corporate buyers as other jected costs and scuttle unnecesmultibrand hotel companies, and sary travel spending, according its own leaders refer to the com- Continued on page 7 Buyers Air Dynamic Pricing, Green Concerns Continued on page 8 Business Travel News in November discussed hotel negotiating strategy with four travel buyers: Pfizer director of global travel Phil Dunphy; Cynthia Gillen, director of procurement and travel management for BDO Seidman; National Business Travel Association president Kevin Maguire; and Cynthia Shumate, director of travel services for Estee Lauder Cos. In addition to 2007 negotiations (BTN, Nov. 19), participants discussed ongoing corporate hotel trends. BTN: How will room nights in your hotel program in 2008 compare with 2007? Cynthia Gillen: We do expect to have more Continued on page 10 Postmaster: Newspaper Handling/Periodicals Postaage you book the trip leave the rest to us SM (FROM LEFT) CYNTHIA GILLEN, CYNTHIA SHUMATE ERIC WONG chain code: RA ramada.com 1-800-2Ramada © 2007 Ramada Worldwide Inc. All rights reserved. All hotels are independently owned and operated. For more, visit www.btnonline.com http://www.koreanair.com http://ramada.com http://ramada.com http://www.btnonline.com http://www.koreanair.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Business Travel News - December 17, 2007

Contents
Amex to Go End to End
Hood Back at BCD
AirTran First Sabre XML Airline
Inside Track
MasterCard Upgrades Reporting, Data
Amadeus Debuts Hotel Platform
Washington Wire
Kodak Moment
Travel Management
Forum
Mtg. Buyers Give Carriers Lower Marks
Meetings Today
Drawing Boards
Black Book Contents
Airlines
Private Jets/Charter
Associations
Car Rental Companies
Conference Centers
Consultants
Lawyers
Travel Management
Travel Security
Travel Technology
Ground Transportation Companies
Education
Hotel Chains
Corporate Housing
Hotel Management Companies
Hotel Rep Firms
International Business Services
Payment Systems
Technology
Back-Office Accounting
Data Consolidation and Reporting
Hotel Program Services
Meetings Management
Miscellaneous
Reservation Systems
T&E Expense Management
Travel Management Companies
Travel Angency Networks

Business Travel News - December 17, 2007