World Traveller Fuss

Seems most folks earn the majority of their status on here through work-related travel, corporate wage slaving etc. Curious what other FT'ers experience is with booking corporate travel?

Some context... I'm sizing up a new job where I know I won't have full freedom to book where I like (e.g. ba.com => BA Holidays => enter convoluted itinerary masterminded through ITA Matrix to get best flights/hotel/status....). They use a travel management software platform (not sure which one). What am I at risk of losing? And is anything likely to get better for me as the traveller?

corporate-wage-slave

There seems to be dozens of travel management tools out there, so it can only be a general answer. If you didn't have status it may be that you would get free seat selection, plus any corporate fare deals that exist. There are all sorts of options there too, for example selling at Basic fare level but allowing a bag (but not SDC). Some corporate bookers can use something known as a Closed User Group (CUG) which is also used by the Military Service users - that is a special login but otherwise identical to BA.com except the relevant discount shows up on the fare matrices. Among the benefits of at least some of the non BA systems is the ability to see multiple fare buckets, so you can see for example whether it's just a few quid to go from O fare bucket to N, and / or get a bit more flexibility by paying slightly more. BA.com tends to take a black-white approach to this.

icebird

A lot of my travel is booked using my company’s TA. I never get POUGs on those bookings. On the positive side, we get free seat selection at time of booking which is worth a bit for those without status.

bisonrav

CWT used with us with Concur as a portal, and as mentioned you tend not to get POUG. Centralised booking tends also to use "On Business" which is a sort of avios style scheme for businesses and you don't get TP or Avios if points are used to book. Otherwise you get a PNR as normal which you can manage via ba.com, you can attach your BAEC and other loyalty scheme numbers either in the traveller profile or via BA.COM, as a matter of fact I was just updating my Concur/CWT profile with my global entry id.

The benefit to the business is that often they get a group rebate, and there may be other benefits like cancellation facilities and travel policy enforcement. I have no problem with CWT at all.

CrazyJ82

It'll depend on the employer and whatever deals they've worked out with a TA/airline. My corporate TA uses Concur as the booking portal. BA is one of several available airline options (across all three alliances) for most searches I do, and the system won't force you to take a connecting itinerary just because that's a bit cheaper. I seem to recall that free seat selection without status is available at time of booking, and it only books fares that come with a baggage allowance.

I'm surprised to hear people say their corporate/TA bookings don't allow POUG, because I've frequently been offered POUG on bookings made via my corporate TA. Most recently a month or so ago. I do find they only show up within a week of departure if I get an offer on the app. I wonder if some corporate or TA arrangements with BA bar BA from offering the upgrades to those bookings in case an employee paying for the upgrade changes the conditions of the ticket for changeability or refundability? Since we book restricted tickets anyway, I don't think buying a POUG would change much.

duncgor

We use HRG which can be a bit of a faff. General rule is we are meant to take cheapest booking and highlight reasons if not taking lowest cost option which gets highlighted to the grown ups. The thing is though that the “cheapest” option their online system typically comes up with generally has some ridiculous routing or layover (eg overnight in MAN prior to flying transatlantic to IAH) or combination of both so it’s generally workable for me to fly bulk of trips OW, but I will go other airlines if the OW options are ridiculously expensive.

POUG option does occasionally seem to show up on the app but when clicked through it blocks so generally don’t get that option so don’t get that but get every other benefit of a normal booking, plus the Avios and status for flights not coming out of my own pocket.

jimlad48

I've used HRG and thought they were okay. Clarity are by a country mile the worst online booking engine I've ever encounted for corporate travel.

tigertanaka

We use Egencia - the annoying thing is that they have just removed the functionality to pick the fare class by sector - this was an easy/cheap way of picking a J fare on a domestic connection for an easy 40 tier points. No POUGs either.

scottishpoet

Concur is highly programmable. if they use that then your employer can set rules about what you are allowed to book and without approval, and what you would need approval for. Different profiles types with different rules depending on job type can also be set up.

Other than having to follow the booking rules, I have not really lost anything, still get lounge access, occasional opups....

RoyalSwazi

We used ATPI in Norwich. Personally I was not impressed- for instance they were unable to find EasyJet’s non-stop LGW-VLC flight, instead suggesting a more expensive routing via CDG on Air France and the ghastly Air Europa. After that incident I would just send them an email with my preferred flight numbers and they would book accordingly. In general they were fast responders, but booking requests were done by email and not apps/booking portals. Hotels we would book ourselves, but I sometimes asked about quotes & suggestions. I was always better at finding cheaper, better and more relevant options myself. Comparing this to my experience with Norwegian corporate TAs I was not impressed.

i was still offered POUGs, however only at OLCI.

ChampagneSocialist

Ahhh yes we also use Egencia and I thoroughly hate the new interface too - the new one is just so clunky. Regarding your issue, the new interface does seem to by default give you a list of different fare classes including mixed cabin outbound/return, which may be a plus as not all airlines' own websites allow this.

For me, I think a more fundamental failing that you can't switch fare class for the whole itinerary, unless you start your search all over again (so it's not easy if you want to say flip between PE and J to compare options for different airlines), argh!!!

That said, the human TAs behind Egencia are efficient and competent enough should computer say no. Recently I was trying to book some flights on TG but the interface simply refused to give me the fare basis I needed to use an upgrade voucher despite same flight being available on TG website - the human Egencia agent was able to manually book said flight for me.

And to bring this back to BA, booking via Egencia does have some perks - seat selection at booking even for non-OWE, and more flexible fare conditions (ticketing deadline, changes, refunds etc) though this benefits company more than myself.

TPRun

carrotjuice

Concur has some restrictions. If I want to say take a flight that arrives in a city late at night, and depart late at night the following day thus allowing me close to 24 hours to stopover for sightseeing, it doesn't provide options that arrive day on one day and depart the following day.

Also I work with a global company... if you're employed in some countries, the multi city booking feature is switched on, in others it's disabled. Not sure why.

scottishpoet

As I mentioned Concur is very programmable, so your experience really depends on how your employer has programmed it and what profile they have set you

The idea of flying into one city and leaving for another the following evening is not a restriction I have in Concur. I can arrive one day and leave the next. Its not unusual to do a tour of Europe over a few days.

tigertanaka

I wasn't aware of the free seat selection at time of booking for non OWEs - that is a big plus for non-regular BA flyers, especially if they are on a LH flight.

We get red flags on the booking if the flight we want is over £100 more than the cheapest flight on the day (although this is easy to circumvent) or if it is out of policy (Y only in Europe, J over 6 hours). Red flag bookings can still be made but the employee should be prepared to defend it (although I don't know anyone who has ever been challenged).

Some BA flights do not show up on the Egencia search unless you specify BA and the approximate departure time.

As a side issue, our Egencia bookings with Hilton are not eligible for HHonors points/stays which simply means most people book Hilton directly.


On reflection, the POUG issue could be more to do with the fact that I generally fly into LHR from NCL and then connect on.