The British Airways Sale is targeting leisure travellers rather than business travellers.
Bookings in Club World and First Class are non refundable, non changeable and non transferable.
But economy tickets can be changed at a charge of £60 for European flights and £90 for worldwide flights.
Book by Tuesday 24th January
I absolutely love this app for UK national rail.
It provides up-to-the-minute station information e.g. 2 minute delay on the train that I’m running for…
I’ve found it to be more accurate than station announcements.
It meets my criteria: Fun to use, intuitive and useful.
It gets information directly from the ATOC system (Association Train Operating Companies)
Once, it offered me an alternative route that saved me about 10 minutes and one less change.
The app is offered by “crosscountry” and is called “Train Tickets”
If you appreciate this advice, please subscribe to my monthly blog and come back next time you need to book travel. Thanks!
Travel agents make money in a variety of ways, depending on the product being sold.
Travel agents make money by selling holiday packages which are organised by tour operators. Or they may package the travel and hotel accommodation together themselves.
Travel agents also sell flight tickets on their own, hotels on their own, and other services such as train tickets, ferry bookings and insurance.
HOLIDAY PACKAGES
The major tour operators promote their packages through travel agents by allowing the agent to deduct a commission, typically 10%, when the agent forwards your payment to them.
Operators may also pay the agent additional incentives to sell their products. Anything from M&S vouchers through to offers of free “familiarisation trips”
TAILOR MADE PACKAGES
Another way that a travel agent can make money is by pricing a flight and hotel together as a package themselves. The hotel will pay a commission of typically 8-12% and the agent will include a mark-up of perhaps 10% into the bundled price.
FLIGHT ONLY BOOKINGS
How do travel agents make money from flight only bookings?
The airlines no longer pay the 9% that they once did. Some still pay 1% which is not enough to cover the time and cost required to process a booking.
How do travel agents make money from no-frills airlines?
No-Frills airlines such as Ryanair and easyJet display sole price levels on their websites.
If a travel agent books this for you they must charge you a “transaction fee” or “service fee” for their time.
Online travel agents include a mark-up in the fares quoted and this is why we always recommend that you book no-frills or low-cost airlines directly on the airline’s website.
How do travel agents make money from full service airlines?
As mentioned above, airlines no longer pay 9% commission. Some may pay a fixed 1%.
The airlines also pay some agents typically 1% and this is usually tied to sales and marketing activities, thus while travel agents benefit from this at year end, they cannot rely on these payments to cover the cost of selling you a ticket.
To understand how travel agents make money from flight tickets you need to know about “net fares and published fares” See our article here
A business travel agent will charge a transaction fee to arrange the booking. If the airline offers agents a lower net fare, it enables the agent to earn a margin on top of the fee.
All the leading online travel agents in the UK, such as Expedia and Opodo, include mark-ups in their prices too, but because their systems are automated, the amount charged is fixed and may be more competitive.
Thus we recommend that you always search and compare using our Flight Search as well as Expedia and Opodo Page
We looked at 10 hotel booking and hotel comparison sites before deciding to recommend the one that we feature on the Hotel Page of BookingBusinessTravel.
This site searches and compares approximately 40 different hotel companies and hotel bed banks and provides the results in a concise readable format.
We’ve seen the site compare the following in just one search:
Not only do you benefit from knowing that you have the very best rate available, but also, some companies hold allocations of rooms so you may find availability even if the hotel says that they are fully booked!
accorhotels.com
ascendcollection.com
bestwestern.com
bookdirectrooms.com
booking.com
cambriasuites.com
candlewoodsuites.com
carlsonhotels.com
choicehotels.com
clarion.com
comfortinn.com
comfortsuites.com
countryinns.com
crownplaza.com
ctrip.com
dhr.com
easyclicktravel.com
easytobook.com
ebookers.com
econolodge.com
expedia.com
getaroom.com
hiexpress.com
hilton.com
hiselect.com
holidayinn.com
hotelclub.com
hotelindigo.com
hotelopia.com
hotels.com
hotels4u.com
hrs.com
intercontinental.com
lastminute.com
laterooms.com.com
mainstaysuites.com
needitnow.com
octopustravel.com
olotels.com
parkinn.com
priceline.com
qualityinn.com
radisson.com
ratestogo.com
regenthotels.com
rodewayinn.com
skoosh.com
sleepinn.com
staybridge.com
suburbanhotels.com
sunspreeresorts.com
Travelocity.com
Your travel management company (TMC) will assign you an Account Manager.
The role is purportedly to ensure that you the client gets the most price competitive arrangement out of the business relationship but in actuality, and behind the scenes, the role is an account manager is primarily to maximise the profit for the TMC.
To whom is the allegiance of your account manager? Is it to you, the client, or to the business travel agent, the employer.
It is the TMC that pays the wages, even if you are billed for account management.
You may be charged for the account management but the manager will be looking to maximise the profit for the TMC rather than obtain you the best deal.
EXAMPLE:
There is a potential for negotiating a route deal with an airline but it isn’t suggested to you because more money is being made by the travel agent from the existing arrangement.
If you require truly impartial account management, from an experienced travel industry expert, please contact us. Se about us page
Helping you booking business travel online.
We are not travel agents.
Uniquely, we are a travel company that says “if it’s cheaper online direct, then book it!”
Top booking travel tips e.g. how to find the best fares and when to use a business travel agent.
Helping you booking business travel online.
We are not travel agents
We are probably the company that says, don’t book with us, go direct!
And we’ll help you to do just that!
Top booking travel tips e.g. how to find the best fares and when to use a business travel agent.
It is important to be familiar with the airline alliances because these airline groupings may share their loyalty schemes and they also share fares, routes and around-the-world options
Here is a complete list:
There are three global airline alliances: oneworld, Star Alliance and Sky Team
ONEWORLD ALLIANCE
American Airlines (AA)
Finnair (AY)
British Airways (BA)
Cathay Pacific (CX)
Ibera (IB)
Dragonair (KA)
LAN Airlines (LA)
LAN Peru (LP)
Qantas (QF)
JAL Express (JC)
Japan Airlines (JL)
Jalways (JO)
Malev Hungarian Airlines (MA)
Mexicana (MX)
Japan Transocean (NU)
Royal Jordanian (RJ)
S7 Airlines (S7)
Lanecuador Aerolane (XL)
LAN Argentina (4M)
STAR ALLIANCE
Aegean Airlines (A3)
Air Canada (AC)
British Midland (BD)
Air China (CA)
Continental Airlines (CO)
TAM Linhas Airlines (JJ)
Spanair (JK)
Adria Airlines (JP)
Blue 1 (KF)
Lufthansa (LH)
Polish (LO)
Swiss (LX)
All Nippon (NH)
Air New Zealand (NZ)
Egypt Air (MS)
Austrian Airlines (OS)
Croatia Airlines (OU)
Asiana (OZ)
TAM Mercosur (PZ)
South African Airlines (SA)
SAS (SK)
Brussels Airlines (SN)
Singapore Airlines (SQ)
Thai Airways (TG)
Turkish Airlines (TK)
TAP Portugal (TP)
United Airlines (UA)
US Airways (US)
SKYTEAM
Air France (AF)
AeroMexico (AM)
Alitalia (AZ)
China Ailines (CI)
China Southern (CZ)
Delta (DL)
Shanghai Airlines (FM)
Korean Air (KE)
Kenya Airways (KQ)
KLM Royal Dutch Airlines (KL)
China Eastern (MU)
Czech Airlines (OK)
Tarom (RO)
Aeroflot (SU)
Baggage fees are increasing for departures during June, July August and September 2012 from £20 per bag to £25
Bags that are booked through call centres or at the airport (as opposed to online) will increase from £35 to £60 per bag
From January 15th, the charge to issue a boarding card at the airport increases from £40 to £60
Passengers must be extra careful not to carry baggage that is over the limit otherwise the £60 bag charge will be enforced.
The permitted carry on allowance must not be exceeded by more than 900 g otherwise the additional fees apply!
Companies will book business travel online – wherever the best deal is
According to travel industry news provider, e-tid.com, a leading think tank of travel industry executives who are members of the World Travel Market Club have agreed that there is a trend towards unmanaged business travel, and that that is set to increase over the next 5 years
Corporate negotiated rates were often more expensive than spot rates available online.
Unmanaged business travel means booking travel without being restricted to a particular “deal” or “preferred supplier” and accepting the best deal available on the spot whether that is from an agent or an online website.
We at Booking Business Travel encourage this policy.
The article is here: “TMC’s will struggle against internet deals”
http://www.e-tid.com/News-Home/TMCs–will-struggle-against-internet-deals-.aspx
Here at Booking Business Travel we’ll keep you updated of travel news items that affect you, as a travel arranger, if you sign up to our blog.
But here is our selection of the top UK travel publications, should you want more general information.
Two all-round general travel trade publications are delivered weekly to most UK travel agencies and are also available online:
Travel Trade Gazette known as the TTG
Travel Weekly Magazine
Both publications cover leisure travel more extensively than business travel
The following web and email based travel trade news are also popular:
e-tid.com Travel and Hospitality Industry Digest
Travelmole
And for travel technology news:
Also, two publications which are aimed at corporate travel buyers but sometimes appear to be more industry centric:
Buying Business Travel and
The Business Travel Magazine
Both of these publications are bi monthly.
www.superfly.com mocks other search engines such as KAYAK as being outdated so we thought we should take a look.
Yes the site is slick and simple. Yes, you can access all your frequent flier / memberships from one dashboard, which is nice, but others services do that too.
When it comes to flight search, the service MUST include ALL airlines. And the service must connect directly to airlines rather than to online travel agents such as Expedia, who, may add a mark-up to the fare.
And of course, the system needs to quote £ rather than $
So, for now, we continue to recommend Skyscanner as the best, most comprehensive and accurate search engine.
Visit our Skyscanner page here to see for yourself.
The government announced an increase in rail ticket prices for 2012 of 6% rather than the intended 8% and as a result, it is taking some time for the rail companies to update their computer systems.
Thus, if you book train tickets before Tuesday 20th December for travel next year, you’ll pay 2011 prices.
This applies to all flexible type or walk up ticket fares, Anytime/Off-Peak/Super Off-Peak
Unfortunately, for season tickets, you’ll have to wait until the new fares are available and pay the higher prices (from Tuesday 20th December onwards)
Use our rail booking page to further avoid all booking fees and credit card charges.
If you have significant rail ticket expenses, do contact us to look at alternative managed solutions.
These are the cheapest club world fares that I’ve ever seen but you need to act fast and book by Monday night.
The airline is selling long haul business class (Club World) seats for only £503 each way! Yes, £1,016 return, including tax!
Book by Midnight Monday 5th December 2011
For travel outward 20 – 31 December 2011
Return by 12 January 2012
Visit our British Airways Page to check availability and book or go direct to British Airways here
Save 35% off the onboard price of £37 return
I have sat on the Heathrow Express Train and watched in disbelief a number of people paying this fare.
By booking online the current promotional discount fare is £24.00 a saving of £13 or 35%
For more details read my post here
Discount Heathrow Express Tickets are currently on sale directly from Heathrow Express with a 25% reduction. That’s a discount of £8.00
A standard class return ticket is discounted from £32 to £24
And the Heathrow Express discount single fare is now £16.50
This offer applies to tickets sold up to 31st December for outward travel up to 31st January 2012
NB The return date can be up to one month after outward travel (so you can return in February)
This discount offer is not available from the machines, the ticket office or on the train. Neither is it available from online train companies such as thetrainline.com or Redspottedhanky or travel agents or travel management companies
Even the Heathrow Express website does not automatically give the discount. You must visit their site by clicking on a Google advert. Simply Google “Heathrow Express Sale” and you should see the advert at the top of the page.
Return fares on the Heathrow Connect service which takes 32 minutes against Heathrow Express’s 15 minutes still cost £16.50 return.
Booking Business Travel provides impartial advice. We earn nothing from this particular article but hope you’ll revisit us and consider taking our advice when you next need a hotel, a Eurostar ticket or international flight.
The Eurostar 10% Discount applies to travel from now up to 9th February but bookings must be made by midnight Friday.
You need to add a “promo code” to the last stage of the booking process.
Here are the voucher codes for Eurostar:
LONPARIS
ASHPARIS
EBBPARIS
LONBRUSSELS
ASHBRUSSELS
EBBBRUSSELS
LONLILLE
ASHLILLE
EBBLILLE
Book through our Eurostar Page here
For the lowest hotel rates, use our Hotel Comparison Page here
NB This offer is not available through travel agents, travel management companies or via Eurostar mobile apps.