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Posted May 24, 2010
Business Travel Coalition (BTC) has long viewed airline mergers and industry consolidation with a good measure of skepticism regarding anticipated benefits for all stakeholders. While we are still working to formulate a public position on the proposed Continental (CO) – United (UA) merger, there are several areas of concern worth noting ahead of U.S. Senate and House hearings that suggest the antitrust analysis should go beyond management spin that this is an end-to-end network combination made in heaven that will drive benefits for all and that should be approved post haste.
Posted Apr 15, 2010
We reported in The Beat on Wednesday that American Airlines said it had not disclosed economic terms for its planned direct connect initiative. Today, the airline issued a slightly more specific statement:
Posted Apr 9, 2010
Just for a moment, set your clock back about twenty years. Imagine a wild-eyed socialist screaming at Michael Dell and Steve Jobs about the the pain and suffering they were causing consumers by--gasp--their choices of product standards and distribution channels.
"You, Dell, need to make your computers available to the masses! In every store! Through every channel! Wherever the working man wishes to find it!"
"And you, Jobs, you need to build products that are open! That play nice with Windows! That fit the established order of things!"
Posted Dec 11, 2009
Mr. Petri Schaaf
Vice President, Global Sales
Finnair, Plc
Dear Mr. Schaaf,
We read with great interest your comments in Business Travel News regarding credit card surcharges. In particular, your airline is contemplating surcharging for payments made through Finnair’s merchant agreement, an equitable, time-tested and efficient process for airlines and their customers. These credit card costs are already baked into the price of tickets purchased by corporate buyers of your airline’s services. As such, surcharging will be asking your very best customers to pay for this cost twice. This, of course, is unacceptable.
Posted Sept 18, 2009
Business Travel Coalition (BTC) and FlyersRights.org today applauded FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt’s decision to require FAA staff to cease referring to airlines customers of the agency, long a concern of travel organizations. The dysfunction caused by this misguided notion of airlines-as-customer is deeply rooted in FAA culture; the Customer Service Initiative was merely one manifestation. Bloomberg News reported yesterday: “FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt, who has been in his job for less than four months, said at a news conference today, ‘When we say customer, we’re talking about the flying public. There has been some confusion in the past.’ ”
Posted Mar 24, 2009
On 3 April in Cologne, Germany, corporate travel managers will convene a customer hearing to shine a bright light on Lufthansa's infamous Preferred Fares Program (PFP) during the VDR Spring Conference. Members of the press expert in travel distribution will join travel managers in questioning industry participants about PFP. At the witness table will be one empty chair--the Lufthansa chair--as the airline refuses to sit next to Amadeus and airline competitors and answer tough but legitimate questions and concerns from its best customers and from journalists.
Posted Feb 10, 2009
The European Parliament and European Council recently finalized the effective date for new rules governing global distribution systems (or, computerized reservations systems, in the European vernacular): March 29, 2009.
Posted Jun 26, 2008
The Business Travel Coalition's predictions of "devastating" "catastrophe" and "collapse" as a result of the "heart-stopping crisis" threatening the "very existence" of the airline industry are not hyperbole, according to BTC chairman Kevin Mitchell. His commentary has received some interesting reactions.
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