AirPlus has cracked the code on reporting airline ancillary fees.
Travel managers will find these reports extremely useful. You’ll know with great certainty what your travelers are buying from each airline. You’ll be able to answer important questions, such as:
- How much are we spending on Ancillary Fees (AF)?
- What are the biggest sub-categories of AF – baggage fees, onboard fees, upgrades, extra mileage, etc. (and therefore, implications for negotiations)?
- What’s the average purchase in each of these sub-categories (and what are the implications for your travel policies)?
- Which travelers are the biggest buyers of AF, and exactly what types of AFs are they buying?
- How much are we spending on AF with each airline (and what are the negotiation implications)?
Here’s a set of sample reports: Sample AirPlus Ancillary Fee Reports You’ll see a clean, crisp presentation of the data, from high-level summary down to traveler-specific details.
Matthew Talbot, the gent at AirPlus who took the lead in developing the reports, combed through hundreds of AF descriptions from airlines around the world. Where an airline’s AF description was less than clear, Matthew and his team built logical rules to classify those murky AFs into their most likely sub-category. Users have the option to re-classify those charges as they see fit. Users may choose their reports to be published in Excel or PDF format.
The reports are based on charges captured by the AirPlus Corporate Card. In the competitive world of corporate T&E charge cards, AirPlus just moved its seat to the head of the class. Well done!Scott Gillespie is the author of Gillespie's Guide to Travel + Procurement. These thoughts are excerpted with permission from his blog.