Business Travel News - March 3, 2008 - (Page 1)

MARCH 3, 2008 INSIDE Industry Masters Eye Travel 2.0. . . . . . . . . . 3 BA, Virgin To Pay For Surcharge Collusion. . . 4 Buyers Embrace Midprice Hotels . . . . . . . . 10 Hotels Foresee Slower Revenue Growth . . . 14 BCD, HRG Expand Super-PNR Tests . . . . . . 17 6 12 15 DATA POWERS WESTJET SEES ATTENDEE INPUT HOTEL SAVINGS CORP. GROWTH ALTERS EVENT AEP’s Georgy Sales director Huffman leverages Duncan Bureau TMC, booking tool. details flight plan. Deltek’s Bill Clark ups annual user conference ROI. BTNonline.com PART ONE IN A SERIES ON AIRLINE ANALYTICS Analytics Bring Rigor To Air Contracts BY JAY BOEHMER Carriers, with growing confidence in air merger news, their airline contracting analytical mod- see btnonline.com/bn els, are structuring deals and monitoring corporate contracts with an increasing degree of analytical rigor, airlines and analysts said. Carriers have spent years refining their analytical approaches to corporate pricing and contract management, and in many cases have further aligned corporate sales with revenue management departments to set discounts, structure agreements and monitor accounts. Through that cooperation and the analysis it yields, carriers more than ever can hold clients to a higher degree of accountability. United Airlines senior vice president of worldwide sales Jeff UNITED’S JEFF FOLAND Foland, during an investor conMoving beyond relationships. Continued on page 23 For the latest Buyers Prepare To Face New Liability From U.K. Corp. Manslaughter Law BY AMON COHEN the major new developCompanies that travel to ment is that “courts will or within the United Kinglook at management sysdom are scrambling to imtems and practices across prove relevant health and the organization, providing safety processes, such as a more effective means for policies and risk assessprosecuting the worst corments, before the Corpoporate failures to manage rate Manslaughter and health and safety properCorporate Homicide Act ly,” said the recently comes into force April 6. formed U.K. Ministry of Justice. The United Kingdom will BLACKROCK’S McSORLEY Under the new legislaconsider prosecutions for Instituted risk assessment. tion, individual senior manany work-related deaths agers will not face criminal that occur there, regardless of whether the employee’s organiza- charges, but their organizations will be lition is registered there. Although this al- able for substantial fines. These have not ready is possible under the existing Health yet been set, but current proposals are for Continued on page 25 and Safety at Work Act, enacted in 1974, Buyers, Suppliers Boost Social Networking PRODUCTS, INTERNAL FORUMS ENHANCE TRAVELER INTERACTION BY SETH HARRIS ONE-ON-ONE DOLLAR THRIFTY COO JAY FOLEY Postmaster: Newspaper Handling/Periodicals Postaage Social networking has arrived in the corporate travel industry as some buyers are using internal community forums, discussion boards and blogs to facilitate communication between travelers and to promote policy, including Cisco Systems, which launched a travel-specific internal platform in January. Meanwhile, some travel suppliWESTINGHOUSE’S COOPER ers are providing social networking prodInternal capabilities can proucts, and others plan to later this year. mote policy, preferred vendors. Sabre Travel Network’s February announcement that it will launch its social networking platform through its GetThere online booking tool and distribute it initially through travel management company American Express Business Travel shows corporate travel social networking’s growing prominence Continued on page 24 Car Rental Co. Ups Corporate Focus Newly appointed Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group COO Jay Foley spoke with Business Travel News editors David Meyer and Elissa Hunter in February to discuss the company’s difficult fourth quarter in 2007—punctuated by fleet delivery problems, a decline in demand and overfleeting—and its approach to corporate business in uncertain economic times. Business Travel News: What is the outlook for 2008 demand, particularly corporate? Jay Foley: Our suspicion is that businesses are going to continue to travel. We feel, in a pressing economy, that corporations are going to be looking more toward the value proposition that our brands offer. They’ll kind of migrate downstream to the value brands and we feel our value proposition to the Continued on page 8 http://BTNonline.com http://btnonline.com/bn

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Business Travel News - March 3, 2008

Business Travel News - March 3, 2008
Industry Masters Eye Travel 2.0
BA, Virgin To Pay For Surcharge Collusion
Inside Track: Continental Gives SEC M&A Outlook
Profiles In Travel Management: Powering Savings
Buyers Embrace Midprice Hotels
BTN Research: Deploying Midprice Strategies
Aviation: WestJet’s Bureau Woos Corp. Canada
Hotels Foresee Slower Revenue Growth
Lodging: Hotel Revenue Up, but Growth to Slow
Meetings Today: Quantifying Attendee Feedback
Corporate Travel World: Blakey to Keynote
BCD, HRG Expand Super-PNR Tests
Travel Technology: Super-PNRs Further Evolve
Executive Dashboard: Saturday-Stays Reborn
Washington Wire: Amtrak Tightens Security

Business Travel News - March 3, 2008