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Posted Jul 26, 2011
Most every agency engages in the practice of allowing more than an average of 13.5 days for a corporate travel customer to pay for tickets issued. If the tickets are issued on a credit card, however, ARC (Airlines Reporting Corporation) does not draft your agency bank account; instead, the airline collects directly from the credit card company. This cash flow benefit is significant in an industry which operates on such a slim profit margin. And there is even more good news! Travel agents can deduct the commission derived from transactions directly from the authorized ARC draft amount. In fact, some agencies whose accounts are nearly 100 percent credit card do not have their accounts drafted at all; they receive a check every week for the airline commissions earned.
Posted Sept 17, 2010
This is Part 1 of 2 in a series of posts airline loyalty programs.
It seems everyone has a loyalty program nowadays. Buy 6 cups of coffee at your local cafe, get the 7th free. Get points for transactions at your bank. Reap rewards for your gas purchases. And the newest one I learned about just this past weekend when I went to grab some lunch -- make sure to get your Panera Card.
Posted Mar 9, 2010
A new report out on commercial card spending notes that 2009 is the first year since purchasing cards were introduced to see a drop in overall spending. In fact, it was a year of decline for the commercial card industry on the whole, which, for more than a decade has posted double-digit spending growth figures.
Posted Feb 3, 2010
Large, mid-size and small organizations with any kind of spend, in the U.S. or globally, should use enterprise-wide corporate cards to pay for everything from travel and entertainment expenses to legal services in order to increase the card rebate, gain visibility into expenses, decrease fraud and reduce accounts payable cycle time. Although the move to an enterprise corporate card system feels like a complex initiative, the implementation produces a streamlined business process. Even organizations that have already implemented a corporate card may question how to negotiate with behemoth financial institutions.
Posted Nov 9, 2009
For years airlines have made statements that the merchant fees that they pay when they accept cards as a form of payment were ‘next on the list’ of distribution costs that would be in focus. And more recently we are beginning to see evidence that this is true with examples such as United Airlines' reported change of policy when it comes to [some] travel management companies' use of their merchant agreement and KLM’s announcement of a credit card surcharge of EUR 7.50 being debated.
Posted Sept 9, 2009
Oops.
Maybe this was not a good time for Southwest Airlines to throw a big $49 sale.
I am traveling to Austin the week after next where I will be giving the luncheon keynote address at this year's The Beat Live conference. More on the conference this week.
Anyway, I have to get there. So I just went to make a reservation on Southwest's brand new Web site.
Posted Jul 27, 2009
We all know the old adage, but how often is it applied by corporations when selecting preferred travel suppliers? In the most recent edition of The Wire…from AirPlus, we asked travel professionals exactly that--which criteria are most important to them in several supplier categories. What we found was not surprising in this economic climate. Cost was the largest factor in selecting airline, hotel and car rental vendors. However, in the TMC and payment categories, it was data that reigned supreme.
Posted Jul 21, 2009
Here are some comments by UAL Corp. executives, from their second-quarter financial conference call this afternoon, about distribution and risk ...
Posted Jul 21, 2009
The only thing that surprises me about all this is that anybody is surprised. This has been a nailed-on certainty for the past few years and ties in neatly with other significant costs which many airlines have passed on via their intermediaries. In fact, this is the greatest value agents give airlines at the moment--the ability to transfer cost indirectly. Except, finally, they have gone for a big one that is visibly less stealthy than the others!
Posted Jul 18, 2009
I have emailed a United spokeswoman to confirm but according to a tweet by American Society of Travel Agents CEO Bill Maloney, United Airlines "told Congress last night that they would delay 60 days, as requested, shifting merchant fees on credit card to agents and consumers." More than a dozen members of Congress including two senators had requested that United delay the new policy for 60 days beyond its effective date of July 20. "United Blinks!" Maloney wrote.
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