Business Travel News - April 6, 2009 - (Page 14)

AVIATION TMCs Deploying FlightStats Alerts To Mitigate Interruptions BY JAY BOEHMER said Meara McLaughlin, FlightStats A growing number of travel man- vice president of business developagement companies are adopting ment. “That’s a nice thing to have, FlightStats’ At-Risk Monitoring tool, but the message doesn’t change which alerts agents to traveler itin- your outcome. It doesn’t get you eraries that face cancellations, where you need to go in the face of missed connections or other travel the cancellation.” interruptions. Travel Solutions CEO Tammy While flight alerts that warn trav- Troilo-Krings said the agency has elers of such problems via text mes- adopted the system on behalf of sage have become widespread, the most of its clients as part of a suite At-Risk Monitoring of homegrown and service—employed by Access the purchased offerings. such agencies as Ova- 2008 Annual Airline Survey The agency monisee btnonline.com/airsurvey tion Travel, Travel tors passenger name Leaders, Travel Solutions and Bal- records with the help of FlightStats boa Travel, among others—goes a and ranks in-progress itineraries red, step further by alerting agents to yellow or green based on the likeliproblems and prompting them to hood of a missed connection, canremedy travel disruptions, in some cellation or other travel disruption. cases before travelers even know “Anything that falls into the yellow, they face an issue. we start to take a look at,” Troilo“It doesn’t matter that we can Krings said. “If they’re already in push a message to the traveler,” red, we immediately jump on those and start reaccommodating folks.” Troilo-Krings said the agency alerts the traveler that their flight has been delayed or canceled, with a follow-up alert detailing the agency’s action on the itinerary. “Perhaps we’ve secured another flight or made a hotel reservation,” she said. Troilo-Krings said the agency has implemented a dedicated desk to monitor the system around the clock. “The people who are handling fulfillment and electronic booking back up that desk,” she said, “so if we do have a situation like we did a few weeks ago where the entire Eastern Seaboard was collapsing because of weather, then we can reallocate resources very, very quickly.” Ovation Travel executive vice president Michael Steiner said the agency started using the service last year on behalf of a handful of clients, “then rolled it out to the majority of our clients in 2009” as part of the agency’s standard offering. In some cases, Steiner said, travelers will be in mid-air unaware of a looming missed connection or cancellation on their next leg. “By the time they land, they’re getting an email or a phone call from us with what we’ve been able to do for them,” he said. Balboa Travel adopted At-Risk Monitoring in the past year as an additional service to clients. In the case of a missed connection, said vice president of corporate travel solutions John Cruse, the system helps to push their clients to the front of the line in being reaccommodated by airlines. “In a lot of cases, the airlines will go in and automatically reaccommodate things,” Cruse said. “This gives you the opportunity to go in before they zero out flights in some cases.” Cruse noted that some minor glitches might occur, if, for example, an airline cancels a flight only “A message doesn’t get travelers where they need to go in the face of the cancellation.” MEARA McLAUGHLIN FlightStats vice president to reinstate it, “which has caused agents to prematurely rebook travelers with new itineraries.” However, Cruse said those situations are “rare” and largely due to when “the wrong information gets pushed out by the carrier or the airport.” FlightStats’ McLaughlin said a couple of mega agencies also are in the midst of exploring the offering, which usually comes at a cost of “a couple extra dollars per passenger name record,” she said. ■ jboehmer@btnonline.com ■ Air France-KLM Takes Alitalia Stake Air France-KLM on March 25 completed its purchase of a 25 percent stake in Italian flag carrier Alitalia “through the subscription to a reserved capital increase for an amount of some E323 million,” after more than a year of stops and starts in efforts to take over all or some of the airline. Air France-KLM in April last year pulled a proposal to acquire Alitalia outright (BTNonline, April 22, 2008), but in January said they “reached an agreement to launch a new strategic partnership, cemented by Air FranceKLM taking a minority stake in Alitalia.” Alitalia then noted that “network optimization and revenue management” synergies in the next three years “should amount to some E720 million for Alitalia.” Air France-KLM said the partnership gives it “greater access to the Italian market thanks to Alitalia, which, following its acquisition of Air One, has reinforced its position in the domestic market.” —Jay Boehmer 14 Monday, April 6, 2009 www.BTNonline.com Business Travel News http://www.btnonline.com/airsurvey http://www.airastana.com http://www.airastana.com http://www.BTNonline.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Business Travel News - April 6, 2009

Business Travel News - April 6, 2009
Contents
Inside Track: Carriers Await Joint Venture Approval
Profiles In Travel Mgmt.: Booz Allen Restructures
Forum: Iwamoto, Whitesage on Recession’s Impact
Aviation: TMCs Deploy FlightStats’ Travel Alerts
Lodging: Global Rates Drop; Lane CEO DeForrest
Travel Mgmt.: Cos. Advance Brazilian Tech

Business Travel News - April 6, 2009