Thousands of flights canceled, travelers around the world
stranded in airports far from home, millions of dollars in financial losses
and an industry completely caught off guard by a crisis that happened in the
blink of an eye. The fallout from July’s CrowdStrike outage does not make for
pretty reading.
The impact of the CrowdStrike outage were felt far and wide, with
more than 2,200 flight cancelations on day one and thousands more in the days
following as the travel industry grappled with getting itself back online and
travelers clamored for any way to get to their destination.
This state of play
has naturally resulted in endless questions about the travel industry’s
immediate response to the crisis. But perhaps what is more worrying has been
the realization that the travel industry – particularly business travel – has
not made the strides forward that it thought it had in the wake of another
unprecedented crisis nearly four years ago: the COVID pandemic.
In both instances, the significant inconvenience business
travelers faced as they tried to navigate a mad dash to re-book canceled
flights, transition hotel and rental car bookings and re-coup money spent on a
trip they couldn’t take, dominated headlines. But this is only part of the
story.
For employees who opted to circumvent designated corporate travel
channels, the consequences were far more dire as they were forced to sort the
mess out themselves, creating an indirect financial burden stemming from this
off-channel rescheduled travel, or “leakage” – the full extent of which may
never be completely known.
Leakage has long been “public enemy #1” for corporate travel
managers not only because of the bottom-line issues it creates, but also
because of the employee duty of care risks it presents. These issues are
troubling enough when it is only a handful of employees facing delayed flights,
but when “Acts of God” occur, the headaches, potential losses and risks to
organizations are truly staggering.
If there is any upside, it is that this
“one in a million” event once again has thrust the issues around leakage center
stage and is affording businesses and travel industry stakeholders with a prime
opportunity to revamp their operations so that they can cut down on leakage and
provide a better experience for their travel managers, service teams and
employees alike.
With that in mind, here are the core considerations that
businesses and travel industry stakeholders need to keep in mind to help ease
business travel leakage issues and solve these longstanding issues once and for
all.
Outdated systems lead to frustrated travelers
Between the airline industry’s outdated and overworked
infrastructure and corporate travel management company’s slow and hard-to-use
systems, travelers are often stuck with limited options in the middle of a
crisis.
In the wake of this summer’s CrowdStrike outage, airlines had to
grapple with technology flaws that ground their systems to a halt. Fragile and
outdated computer systems, crew scheduling software, air traffic control
technology and even gate check-in and check-out systems, have caused ongoing
issues for airlines over the past several years.
In lieu of overhauling their
infrastructure entirely airlines should think about working with technology
providers and solutions that offer greater connectivity. For example, New
Distribution Capability (NDC) has the potential to better connect airlines to
corporate travelers and make personalization of options and services, such as
re-booking, more seamless for both parties.
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Similarly, because of their company’s outdated corporate booking
tools, business travelers often opt to book their travel plans outside of the
managed travel channel altogether, which in a crisis, can leave them to deal
with re-bookings across air travel, hotels, and rental car services all on
their own – an often-frustrating process that distracts them from their actual
job. Companies also face the risk of financial “leakage” if travelers aren’t
able to secure a refund on impacted bookings.
To eliminate this problem, companies should start by understanding
why their employees are booking off-channel to begin with. Typically, better
choice, greater convenience, and full control over the booking process draws
travelers away from corporate travel management platforms to the consumer
travel sites they’re familiar with.
Additionally, some online booking tools are
notoriously frustrating for users and have fallen behind when it comes to
innovation and ease of use. By circumventing their corporate booking tool
altogether, travelers see this as a way to avoid a headache, but as this outage
demonstrated, they ultimately create many more headaches for themselves. The
corporate travel space must evolve with consumer-grade systems as good as the
leisure travel sites to ensure travelers are brought back into the booking
fold.
A connected journey
Corporate travel managers must prioritize the technology they are
mandating their people use and move away from tools that continue to give a
poor customer experience and a disjointed booking process. Instead, managers
should embrace modern technology platforms that connect the entire travel
experience online.
The right technology pulls together all travel channels in
alignment with corporate policies, under a unified platform to ensure that
managers can keep travelers safe and assist in the event of cancellations.
Upgraded technology allows travelers to have greater ease, choice and
flexibility and eliminates the reasons that employees book off-channel in the
first place.
Other innovations, like artificial intelligence, are starting to automate and elevate
the connected journey by offering personalized booking options for travelers,
aligning with their personal preferences, company policy, travel patterns, and
helping to streamline the process overall. Plus, this technology allows for
full oversight from travel managers, allowing them to see the complete picture
– from the individual traveler’s level to the corporate level.
A path forward
As the airline industry, businesses, and corporate travel managers
emerge from the global IT outage, there is a compelling opportunity to initiate
the process of updating old tech offerings, bring in updated systems and
emerging technologies, and connect the travel experience from start to finish.
Those in the industry who adapt now will benefit from smoother traveler
experiences, have less risk of financial loss, and enjoy a path to a future
with less friction in the corporate travel value chain – while the rest will
continue to struggle with both frustrated travelers and unnecessary financial
loss.
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