MacNair Travel Management, a privately owned American Express Representative Office in the Washington, DC area, announced today a complimentary Webinar titled “Travel Management Solutions for Association Staff, Committees and Members” scheduled for Thursday, July 22nd at 12pm EST.
MacNair Travel is a proven player in the travel management field, has a team of association specialists, and is active in the association community. For more than 20 years, MacNair Travel has been a travel management partner for associations managing its staff and non-staff travel, providing air travel to convention attendees, and helping meeting managers with logistics. All this generating travel savings of 10 to 20 percent compared against national averages, productivity enhancements, control, and support. MacNair Travel has more than 50 association customers and recently announced a separate product for its association customers that will be marketed under AssociationTravelManagement.com.
President and CEO of MacNair Travel Michael MacNair says one of the focuses for the July webinar will be on supplier leverage for associations.
“Non dues revenue can come from consolidating staff travel, non staff travel paid for by the association, and convention travel, and this opportunity is often overlooked,” MacNair explains. “There are some secrets to developing systems to enhance leverage with suppliers while improving the control, data, and systems to maximize these opportunities.”
Small business programs and meeting agreements exist for most of MacNair’s association clients and depending on the airlines they partner with and their volume they earn free tickets, complimentary upgrades, lounge passes, and other traveler amenities.
In addition, MacNair consistently beats the national average ticket cost for its customers through an industry recognized fare savings system that includes more than one technology and even some manual quality control that scours legacy, low cost and even web fares.
“The focus is always on fees but our average association domestic ticket cost last year was $312 versus a $479.76 national average,” he says. “We deliver these consistent savings through best in class search tools and policy enforcement. Policies that we help create and update. That’s nearly $170 savings per ticket.”
Finally, participants will learn how to gain control when managing travel and meetings during the association Webinar. “With concise data on spending you can negotiate with suppliers, process expenditures more effectively, enhance support with traveler tracking in a world that has shown us the ‘underwear bomber’, blizzards, volcanoes, earthquakes, floods and more unpredictable travel elements just this year,” he adds.
Associations are different than companies when it comes to travel management, according to MacNair. There are individual staff trips, small meetings for committees and boards that are paid for by the association, and even convention air for members.
“Insightful online and call-in systems to control and reduce these costs while also maximizing supplier leverage and support is desired by these customers and we have best practices, technologies and solutions,” MacNair adds. “We are excited to launch this new brand for these organizations that are the leaders of their respective industries.”
To register for the free Webinar on Thursday, July 22nd from 12:00 – 1:00pm EST, RSVP by July 21st to Rian Watson at rwatson@macnairtravel.com or 703-650-5256 and instructions will follow.