Loyalty points for travelers have been around for decades. Over that time, those simple programs have evolved into multi-headed hydras. 

In the world of buyer-supplier relationships, it pays to remember: Love means never having to say you’re sorry

The turmoil of the past three years has seen key players in corporate travel scrambling to stay afloat, cutting staff and budgets, and watching service levels deteriorate.

The lingering ripples of the pandemic travel upheaval will continue to shake up supplier contracts well into 2023

Someone’s missing from today’s business travel – tomorrow’s buyers

With the effects of the pandemic fading, there’s a steady drumbeat of business travelers returning to the road – in many cases, literally. The result is a bounce in rental car demand, and a resulting rise in rates. Accident repair costs have soared as well, meaning insurance is a bigger piece of the pie.

The Global Business Travel Association’s Convention 2022 is in the history books. And in many ways, after years of turmoil and COVID-related chaos, the San Diego event was historic for the association, as its success clearly marked a turning point toward new momentum for the organization and a fresh vision for the industry.

Not every square technology peg will fit in the round hole of your travel program’s needs

When it comes to association involvement, 80 percent of success is just showing up

It’s a sign of the post-pandemic times that, after a couple of years of uncertainty, the Global Business Travel Association is gearing up for a major in-person convention this August in San Diego. But associations are more than annual get-togethers; to really get the most out of the opportunities, it takes getting involved.

Lessons learned from a personal journey through the pandemic job jungle

As the concept of the distributed workforce gains traction, whole new categories of employee travel have emerged. There’s the office-less itinerant, the COVID-cautious traveler, the occasional tripper, the seasoned road warrior who brings new expectations to the journey. 

What’s going on with the work day is transformational

Ever since their introduction, online booking tools have held out the promise of an easy-to-use, consistent, automated travel buying experience. It’s a promise that’s always been tantalizingly close, but never quite fulfilled. It’s a hot button topic within the managed travel community, and among our Buyers Think Tank members, there is certainly no shortage of pragmatic ideas and no-nonsense points of view on this particular subject. 

​In this edition of Travel Buyer’s POV, our Think Tank members take a look at the challenges of change management in the midst of the pandemic, and offer some practical insights into the responses they have made in their own travel programs.