Interviews

SAP Concur president Jim Lucier sat down with The Beat editor-in-chief Jay Boehmer at The Beat Live to discuss the perceptions of corporate booking tools and why SAP Concur still doesn't want to become a travel management company—or a global distribution system, for that matter.

TripActions' prowess for fundraising is on display again. After pulling in $154 million in Series C funding in November, the growth-hungry digital travel management company today announced its Series D funding round of $250 million from the same crop of investors, led by Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. Co-founder and CEO Ariel Cohen spoke with The Beat.

Jill Palmer, CEO of U.K.-based Click Travel, caught up with The Beat this week to talk tech upgrades, supplier direct connects and growth plans.

Sabre's $360 million acquisition of Farelogix, announced in November, is expected to close midyear. Farelogix CEO Jim Davidson sat down with The Beat editor-in-chief Jay Boehmer last week.

Last week, Enterprise Holdings—parent of the Alamo, Enterprise and National rental car brands—completed the acquisition of corporate travel booking, ground transportation and expense reporting technology provider Deem. CEO John Rizzo spoke with The Beat editor-in-chief Jay Boehmer.

Last month, Flight Centre Travel Group agreed to acquire San Jose-based Casto Travel's U.S. operations. Casto Travel president and CEO Marc Casto spoke with The Beat editor-in-chief Jay Boehmer.

Lufthansa Group's withdrawal of its lowest Light economy and Business Saver business class fares from global distribution systems is the latest push in its mission to transform airline distribution. For an update on the group's plans, The Beat met Lufthansa Group SVP sales hub airlines and chief commercial officer of the Frankfurt hub Heike Birlenbach, Lufthansa's key distribution strategist from a commercial viewpoint, at the Global Business Travel Association Europe conference in Berlin.

Corporate travel industry veteran Andy McGraw joined Milwaukee-based Adelman Travel as CEO in May 2017. Since then, the travel management company has positioned itself as a mobile-first "platform as a service" operator, underpinned by its mobile app, Adelman Virtual Assistant, or AVA, and an upgrade to its workforce management and agent-facing technology. He spoke with The Beat editor-in-chief Jay Boehmer.

At The Beat Live last week, BCD Travel president and CEO John Snyder took the stage to field questions from The Beat editor-in-chief Jay Boehmer and attendees during The Hot Seat session.

Certares founder and American Express Global Business Travel chairman Greg O'Hara sat down with The Beat editor-in-chief Jay Boehmer at The Beat Live to talk about Amex GBT's HRG acquisition and Certares' investment approach and to share other observations on the business.