deniah

I ask because for my very very international firm -- 100k+ employees , 100 country presence -- it is mandatory that we purchase flights through the internal travel portal. (hotels and cars shouldnt, but can be booked privately)

If it matters, we do have some lee-way in what to book. It is encouraged to book the cheapest fare but we can book alternate options within a 'reasonable' difference.

Occasionally I get email chatter from the travel department about taking surveys and with booking tips to save the company money, allow for more negotiation leverage, yadda yadda yadda yadda yadda


Anyway, the point being, there is 0 cost difference from what is offered internally, and what I can book publicly!!!! And I've been doing this for 5 years. It's understandable we implement this internal system, so they could track usage and costs.... but shouldnt we see any sort of discount as well?

gglave

The 'discount' may be in the form of a rebate paid back to the company, based on bookings made through the portal.

timfountain

Bingo!
Big companies negotiate a rebate based on the amount of business they put through carriers. We have to choose the lowest cost carrier, but UA/CO and AA are preferred as we get better rebates with them. I can often see a lower price directly on AA than through the travel portal, but I cannot book that AA flight directly with AA as per co policy.... Sometimes if it is a massive difference (>50%) I'll call the TA and ask them to get a better price. I'd say I have about an 80% rate on getting a price much closer to the price I am seeing online direct with AA or whoever!

dartagnan

Bingo. We get a rebate based on the amount we put through to our preferred carriers. The typical traveler doesn't see it, though, so they just don't know why they should book the preferred carriers. Stupid system with bad incentives.

gobluetwo

Different contracts work differently, obviously. The rebate is one form of "discount" the company sees. In my company's case, we actually see lower fares for our preferred carriers than you see on the airline websites or through online travel portals (eg, expedia).

james318

On the most expensive Y fares (Y, B, M, H) on Delta, I can usually get a discount of ~$100 - ~$200 from what delta.com is showing for the same fare class.

When you get down to the sLUT fares, there is no difference.

Often1

While the push is towards "discounts," many companies negotiate escalating "rebates." Discounts provide certainty, but rebates can increase if travel dollar volume increases. In other words, if at the end of the year, $2 Mill / 5% rebate, at $3 Mill / 10% and so on. You wouldn't necessarily see this.

You may also not be aware of other items which aren't dollar discounts but affect travel cost. Most common is that fare is sold as discount but is fully flexible for refund/change purporse or that certain high-level travelers can book discounted fare bucket but have purchase treated as Y-UP for UG purposes. Again, nothing in what you see.

dcpatti

Not sure if my company gets airfare rebates or not--- I'm just a worker bee and hae no visibility into what happens at the budgetary levels--- but we do get free Internet regardless of status when staying at a "company preferred" hotel that would otherwise charge for Internet access. We also get rental car insurance via a blanket policy as opposed to a daily charge. I think most importantly is their being able to proactively find and help us. When booking through the corp travel desk, they take care of me during irrops, and I don't have to wait for the airline. On 9/11 we had something like 2200 employees flying or getting ready to fly worldwide, and they found every one within something like 35 minutes, then started lining up hotels for those who'd been diverted or grounded, put people on trains, etc etc.

Often1

+1 - This is another significant benefit. Our corporate TA monitors flights in progress and when there is likely to be a misconnect, proactively handles rebooking and, if necessary, hotel, car service and the like. When I land, there's an email with full details, a text message with the next step (such as "ASAP go to UA at Gate 5") and a voicemail backup as well. Not only do I not stand in line, I am not on hold and because they are proactive, I've got the pick of the litter for whatever the IRROPS mess is.

They also let my assistant know so that she can, if necessary, notify a client of a delay or somesuch.

jonu

Whoa! This is cool. Doubt our corporate agent will do anything like this. Who is this (or is it internal)?

Often1

Our in-house actually pays a 24/7 service to do this. It's widely used by a lot of business travellers for exactly the reason that you want business travellers doing what they are supposed to be doing: business, not standing in lines or fretting about how to get home.

There's a real value in having someone in a room with access to information helping you rather than a harried GA who was supposed to be home 4 hours ago and really doesn't know how to grab that last seat on some other carrier. We've often found that for all the fighting about not rebooking on other carriers, it's sometimes just as cheap to cancel, take the refund and rebook on another carrier. Or, maybe it costs a couple of hundred, but no hotel + delay.

St Vincent

My large UK based company insists that all flights, hotels and even rail travel are booked through a central portal. When questioned about the fact that Internet fares could be found cheaper they said that it was for our safety and well being so that they knew where everyone was in the event of trouble. There was no suggestion that they would pro-actively monitor flight status etc. and take care of re-booking. I'd be pretty impressed if they were doing this though.

slawecki

the benefits frequently include upgrades on long flights, no up charge for no saturday overnight, no upcharge for changes or late bookings.

stifle

If it's the same as the company I just left (which has that policy, other than for rail fares under £28), then you can be sure the travel company doesn't do anything of the sort!