Less than half (44 percent) of corporate travel managers are not tracking airline ancillary fees, but many are finding ways to review it, according to a survey by AirPlus International. Within expense reporting, 38 percent rely on travelers to include fees manually in expense reports, while only 7 percent include fee menus and 15 percent have automated capabilities built in to expense reporting tools.
AirPlus International, a corporate travel payment and analysis provider, released the survey in its August The Wire…from AirPlus titled Ancillary Aggravation Eases.
Other options for tracking include the five percent who track through their travel management company (TMC) and the 11 percent who rely on corporate card data, Air Plus said.
“We’ve been on record from the start that unbundled pricing for air, hotel and car is the new reality for travel professionals. And we know from our customers that being able to track and manage these expenses is a challenge,” said Richard Crum, president and CEO of AirPlus International, Inc.
“Thus, we’ve introduced a solution to our US corporate card customers - the AirPlus Ancillary Fee Reports - the first card-based solution in the industry. These comprehensive reports consolidate and bring transparency to the hundreds of different airline fees in the market today. The AirPlus Ancillary Fee Reports enable corporations to achieve better policy control, strike clearer negotiations and realize true savings," Crum said.
"Unlike other solutions in the market, our reports do not rely on the individual traveler to mark the correct category in expense reports, but rather the data is derived directly from our intelligent corporate card engine built specifically for these fees," Crum said.
The Wire…from AirPlus is a monthly report for the business travel industry. Results of this edition are based on a survey of 101 corporate travel buyers in North America and Europe from June 3 to July 8, 2011, the company said.
Visit www.airplus.com