Business Travel News - December 14, 2009 - (Page 4)

NEWS Payment Systems Join To Help Buyers Track New Air Fees BY JAY BOEHMER & SETH HARRIS Payment systems AirPlus International and MasterCard Worldwide are developing a solution that would enable travel buyers to report ancillary airline charges, paralleling similar efforts of U.S. airlines, technology companies and settlement providers. However, the foundation of such a solution—an electronic miscellaneous document that essentially would establish an e-ticket for ancillary charges—will not debut until the second half of 2010, at the earliest. Meanwhile, American Express said it is pursuing an ancillary feereporting solution with a large U.S. carrier. The AirPlus/MasterCard initiative would provide reports with accurate and standard notification of the airline ancillary fee types, including checked-bag and seat-upgrade charges. First, though, industry stakeholders must agree on at least some level of standards after the EMD system is in place. The first EMD incarnation not only will enable airlines and travel agencies to sell and track ancillary services at the time of booking, but also will serve as the underlying technology for card companies to he said. “Not only is it going to creoffer more detail on air charges ate more fracture in terms of what a made after the fare is booked. customer is going to see and how it AirPlus International president is going to translate from one airline Richard Crum said some necessary to the next, it certainly won’t work standardization would include pro- on an international level where you cedures for airlines to process such introduce all new types of carriers fees similarly, common locations and systems.” where carriers would record data Meanwhile, a spokesperson said and the code or lanAmerican Express guage they would recently began workuse to identify each ing “with a major fee type. U.S. carrier to define Sources said farea solution that can be filing organization rolled out to other Airline Tariff Publishairlines,” but added ing Co. is developing that ancillary fees a standard set of comprise less than 1 codes for each ancilpercent of Amex’s lary fee category, corporate card which then can be clients’ total air travput into global distriel cost. “We are more AIRPLUS’ RICHARD CRUM bution systems. focused on enhancBase level of standards needed “That is the base leving a broad range of el of standards that data and reporting we are going to need to be able to solutions, such as hotel folio, benchserve our customers,” said Crum. marking and consulting services.” “Standards are more important than However, an Association of Coreverybody trying to rush for a solu- porate Travel Executives survey retion on their own.” leased last month shows ancillary One-off standards developed by air fees concern travel managers, as individual payment firms are “the 29 percent of about 300 travel buywrong direction for our industry,” er respondents said they do not manage the total cost of trip well and 51 percent reported that they manage it only somewhat well, primarily due to the difficulty of tracking such fees. Inside Track: IRS cuts mileage reimbursement rate . . . 4 “At this point, you swipe your card Profiles In Travel Mgmt.: OSI consolidating data . . . . 8 and all it says about that transaction 6 is that it was with an airline,” said Expense Manager Survey: Cos. clamp down . . . . . . 10 JOINT CONTRACTING travel management consulting firm Forum: Signs of optimism; Eyes on ROI . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Jens Bischof plies Consulting Strategies principal David Benchmarking Europe’s Biggest: Buyer data. . . . . . . 14 Lufthansa’s allies. Hillman, who specializes in payment systems and e-procurement. Managing Economic Crossroads: Buyers’ views. . . . 20 Travel buyers have developed workarounds that lean heavily on guesswork. One common method is to assume all airline charges of less than $50 from corporate card data are checked-baggage fees. Midmarket travel buyer OSI Systems even automated the process, guiding its expense management software provider to build new expense reporting fields for specific airline charges separate from the fare. Although card data displays the fees as generic airline charges, “you might be able to tell by looking at the number what it is,” according to OSI Systems global travel manager Frank Dolce. “I’d rather rely on the traveler.” Meanwhile, distribution technology firm Farelogix is testing EMD reporting that essentially attaches a record to a ticket when an ancillary service is purchased with American Airlines, United Airlines and a U.S.based non-legacy carrier, said Farelogix president and CEO Jim Davidson (BTNonline, April 1). Continued on page 28 ON THE RECORD “We see a trend where companies want receipts for everything.They want to verify that a $5 coffee was actually a $5 coffee.” CYBERSHIFT SENIOR PRODUCT DIRECTOR CRAIG FEARON, PAGE 10 CONTENTS FIND DAILY NEWS UPDATES AND MORE AT WWW.BTNONLINE.COM December 14, 2009 Issue 687 Vol. 26, No. 19 BTN (USPS 0728-870, ISSN 8750-3670) is published semi-monthly, except monthly in January, February, May, July and December, by Nielsen Business Media Inc.,770 Broadway,New York,NY 10003,tel.646-654-5000,and is distributed free of charge to qualified corporate travel buyers and travel agents specializing in business travel in the United States and Canada. The cost of a subscription to non-qualified subscribers is $119 in the U.S.; $135 in Canada; $135 in Mexico and Central America; $200 in South America and Europe; and $200 in Asia,Africa and Australia; payable in advance in U.S. dollars. Registered for GST as Nielsen Business Media Inc. USA GST No. 264513185. 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Fully Equipped Kitchens • Large Work Spaces • Free Fitness Facilities • Comfortable Recliner • Free Internet • Free Guest Laundry • And More www.CandlewoodSuites.com/home Business Travel News www.BTNonline.com Monday, December 14, 2009 http://www.BTNonline.com http://www.CandlewoodSuites.com/home http://www.CandlewoodSuites.com/home http://www.BTNonline.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Business Travel News - December 14, 2009

Business Travel News - December 14, 2009
Contents
Payment Cos. Join Air-Fee Tracking Effort
IRS Cuts Mileage Reimbursement Rate
Inside Track
Lufthansa’s Bischof Pushes Joint Deals
Scanning for TMC Savings
Profiles In Travel Mgmt
6th Annual Expense Manager Survey
Expense Manager Survey
Forum: Signs of Optimism
European Top-Market View
Benchmarking Europe’s Biggest
European Buyers Navigate Volatile Waters
Managing Economic Crossroads
Choose Chicago For Your Next Meeting or Event

Business Travel News - December 14, 2009