JC Travel Professionals is pleased to announce the renewal of its agreement and successful implementation of the Amadeus Selling Platform Connect, a leading global transaction processor and provider of advanced technology solutions in travel and tourism.

Justin Montgomery, General Manager Australia for Amadeus said, “We are delighted to renew our partnership with JC Travel.”

“In the coming years, we’ll be working closely with them to develop better technology for better journeys,” added Mr Montgomery.

“Our combined efforts toward innovation will ensure we keep pace with digital disruption, and meets growing traveller expectations.”

Managing Director of JC Travel Professionals, Freddy Mikhael, noted the renewal of the agreement is a “showcase of the strong partnership with Amadeus whom we trust to deliver the best possible solutions for our clients and for our business.”

“The Amadeus Connect technology provides our team with faster, more intuitive access to a greater range of travel content,” agreed Shady Mikhael, General Manager of JC Travel Professionals.

“It marries seamlessly with our OBT, Alienta, and only means greater service for our clients and better efficiency for our team,” said Mr Mikhael.

There are generally two kinds of business travellers – those who enjoy it and those who struggle with it! Love it or hate it, there are times when travelling for work can be overwhelming.

There’s sitting around waiting for flights, jet lag and being away from family and friends to deal with. Of course, there are ways to combat these issues, and having a good travel management company (TMC) on board will help.

Let’s take a look at the top reasons why people don’t look forward to corporate travel, and what can be done about it?

1. Personal challenges

Whether it’s four times a year or once a week, business travel involves leaving home and family, and often missing important personal events.

There’s also the risk of travel burnout. Business travellers have to contend with jet lag, then there’s the actual work. Meeting with people and constantly sharing meals means they need to be more ‘on’ than usual. If they aren’t giving a presentation or leading a meeting, they’re having to listen intently so they can report back. Generally, business travel involves a heavy schedule.

What’s the solution? A TMC can organise itineraries around personal commitments, and make sure there’s no wasted time between stops. Even better, they can intentionally arrange itineraries with enough downtime between meetings so travellers can recharge. TMC’s will also provide travellers with online access to their itineraries, which provide them with control and further ease to schedule breaks where possible.

2. The financial element

Many employees question whether travel is actually necessary. If they are travelling specifically to close a deal or meet with important clients, then there’s an obvious return on investment.

But today’s world is a lot smaller than it used to be. People can connect over email, social networks and Skype or similar apps. There are definitely times where meeting in this way is sufficient, yet companies still require employees to travel because they understand the benefit of face to face meetings.

When travelling, it’s often up to the employee to manage their expenses and the paperwork required. The admin is tedious and time-consuming, yet it’s necessary so the traveller can reconcile spend.

A TMC can help streamline the management of expenses. Request that all chargebacks for the big-ticket items such as flights, accommodation and car hire are handled by the TMC. This means all the traveller needs to consider are their personal incidental expenses.

3. Dealing with jet lag

Business travel can be physically demanding. Travellers need to cope with jet lag, and often struggle with getting enough exercise and eating well while on the road.

Companies can help employees combat this with some handy tips included with their travel policy. For example:

• To ease the transition to a new time zone, suggest travellers maximise their exposure to daylight at their destination and take short naps if they feel tired. A TMC can also help by tailoring routes and stops to minimise jet lag.
• Encourage staff to stretch in their seat and move around during the flight.
• Once at their destination, suggest heading out for a short walk as often as possible.
• Recommend that employees buy some healthy snacks once they get to their destination, and keep these on hand during the day to avoid purchasing junk food.

There’s no doubt that travelling for business can sometimes be hard. But by looking after your staff and using a TMC, you can improve the travel experience and boost the bottom line.

Are you looking to engage a TMC? Talk to us about the ways we can streamline your travel procurement and keep your travellers ready for more.

Nowadays, a TMC is as good as the tools it uses. I can say that one of the best decisions I’ve made as General Manager of JC Travel, is arm the team with a new weapon. Its name is Alienta, and it’s the newest online booking tool (OBT) for corporate travel.

Before Alienta, we were using a global corporate OBT. As soon as I received a demo for Alienta, I couldn’t wait to make the switch.

Our clients have significantly benefited from the change. And I believe this has given us the edge over companies that aren’t using Alienta.

Here’s why.

Transforming the customer experience

Typically, OBTs don’t allow clients to book international travel themselves. They have to go through a travel consultant paying an “offline” service fee. While this can be costly, it also takes the power out of their hands. It makes them dependent on their travel agency for the best deals, itineraries and turnaround time.

Since making the switch to Alienta, our clients are able to book their own international travel online. They can have any international itinerary at their fingertips, at any time, for up to 18 legs.

I understand eliminating this pain point decreases our potential income. However, it never fazed me. The way I see it, when our clients are happy, it’s much easier to build a long-term relationship and acquire new customers. There’s nothing wrong with putting the power firmly where it should be, in the hands of the customer.

Solving pain points

While global booking tools are useful, they do come with certain limitations. There were three main ways our previous tools weren’t letting us meet our clients’ expectations.. the way we wanted to anyway.

1. Limitations around customising services

Many OBTs have a one-size-fits-all approach. They simply don’t take into consideration different company travel policies.

The inability to tailor our services to individual clients meant they weren’t receiving the bespoke attention they deserved. Alienta allows us to customise our services to each of our clients. It’s like the difference between getting a tailored suit and one off the rack at a chain store.

2. Lengthy delays dealing with system errors

With our old system, all errors had to be reported to the technology provider and it could take the team weeks to get an answer. This led to a great deal of frustration for clients, and made it hard for us to provide the quality of customer service we wanted. With Alienta, system errors are automatically sent to our team of consultants. This ensures swift issue-handling.

3. Slow implementation

In other systems, it could take anything from three weeks to a month to set up new clients. With Alienta, we can set up clients in hours or less than a week at most.

What do our clients think of Alienta?

Because Alienta has so many features, clients are able to do things they couldn’t using our previous tools. So far, the feedback communicated directly to myself, as well as the team, has been overwhelmingly positive. Here are some of the features our customers have commented on:

• Easy personalisation to company travel policy and finance billing requirements
• Logical navigation around the system, making it faster to find what you want
• Simpler user log in process and general ease of use
• Hotel searches populating in a display map as well as list form is one of the favourites
• Easy transfer from the previous booking tool
• The comfort of knowing that they can leave a note or question for the agency at any time during the process

Our clients can draft their own itineraries, save them, manage and use their airline credits through Alienta (a significant challenge with most OBTs).

Most importantly, our clients don’t have to deal with issues themselves. If an error occurs, it comes to us automatically. They don’t have to do anything nor wait weeks for errors to get fixed.

Because we can now save time on the booking process, we’re able to focus on the business and provide the bespoke level of service we promise at JC Travel.

I can vouch that Alienta is designed from a customer’s perspective, unlike other tools which are designed from a travel agent’s perspective. This is the core of what makes it valuable. It’s why Alienta fits perfectly with our philosophy of putting the customer first.

Have you recently hired a travel management company (TMC) for your organisation? As with any business service, it’s crucial to assess how well the arrangement is working in the first few months.

Here are the five key things your boss really wants you to know about your TMC before you report back.

1. How satisfied are staff members?

When staff are making travel bookings, are they going through the TMC, or complaining about it? If service is poor and the system isn’t user-friendly, staff will book travel themselves, which will be reflected in the bottom line.

Another question to ask is whether employing the services of the TMC has made life easier for your business travellers. If this is the case, the TMC is serving its purpose. If not, it’s time to investigate further.

2. Has it saved the business money?

One of the primary reasons to engage the services of a TMC is to save on your corporate travel. Have the savings promised during the procurement phase been realised? Are the reports on spending readily available for analysis, and easy to understand? If your TMC’s system of reporting isn’t comprehensive or transparent, you won’t be seeing where savings are and where adjustments are needed.

3. Is the TMC going the extra mile?

Anyone can book a flight or hotel, but it usually takes a special service to procure those little added extras. Sure, the TMC is organising travel and finding the best deals, but is the company also going the extra mile? This might include securing upgrades, free Wi-Fi and included breakfast for travellers, and offering staff corporate rates for personal trips. If your TMC is going above and beyond for your organisation, great. If not, perhaps it’s time to renegotiate.

4. How well does it solve problems?

Travel is not without its problems. Flights are rerouted, accommodation changes and travellers may be stranded by natural disasters. How well is your TMC dealing with these sorts of issues when they arise? Are they on hand outside working hours for emergencies? A good TMC will be quick to respond to problems, and will handle issues calmly and efficiently.

5. The level of support

Is your TMC quick to help with forms and answer questions? Does it provide enough support in using the online booking system (OBT)? If your TMC isn’t offering ongoing training and tips on how you can get the most out of the OBT, you’re not getting value for money.

Using a TMC to streamline your corporate travel makes sense for the bottom line. However, it’s vital to analyse how it’s operating along the way, to ensure your organisation is realising the full benefits.

There are many benefits to engaging a TMC to handle your corporate travel. From organising travel in one handy system to helping create travel policies, having a TMC on the books is a good investment. However, there are some specific situations where it’s extra handy to have a TMC on call.

1. When employees experience travel delays

Travel mishaps are unavoidable whether they’re the passenger’s fault or beyond anyone’s control. For example, missing a flight versus being fogged in. Either way, travel issues need to be tended to. Delays and mishaps are undoubtedly frustrating, especially for the traveller stuck in an airport or on the tarmac for hours on end.

However, working with a TMC means there’s a professional on hand. The TMC can handle any flight changes, hotel issues or even car situations should the need arise. Your travel managers can look for alternatives and book these, so you and your staff don’t need to worry about a thing.

2. When employees go rogue

Travel non-compliance is not all uncommon. Despite corporates having travel programs in place, bookings will be made outside of the policy, whether that’s by mistake or intentional. However, if this is happening a lot more than it should be, having a travel management company can help. With a TMC, reporting is ongoing and accessible. Therefore, you can keep tabs on what is going through the appropriate channels and what is slipping through the cracks.

3. When you need to understand your travel expenditure

Any business needs to understand where money is going. In most cases, travel is the third or fourth highest expense after wages. Using a TMC not only cuts the outright cost of travel, it also gives you access to reporting data. Consequently, you’ll have visibility of travel spend and areas where you can improve your bottom line.

4. When duty of care calls

Travel isn’t without risk, and you have a duty of care toward all your employees. The risks of travel can include something as common as a flight delay or more serious issues such as civil unrest. A TMC keep details and a status report of all your travellers. They will also be able to identify immediately if one of your travellers is at risk. A TMC will keep details for all company travellers, from flights, to hotels and car hire right through to tours, in one place. This means contact details can be found immediately and situations can be dealt with as quickly and calmly as possible.

It might seem easy to handle corporate travel yourself – after all, there are a number of booking websites available to help. However, these online websites don’t offer the security, data reporting and streamlined travel management a good TMC provides.