The latest Insight from Egencia USA

Southwest Airlines Signs With Egencia

Egencia — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 19:57:20 +0000

Southwest Airlines Signs With Egencia

Good news for business travelers. Egencia just reached an agreement with Southwest Airlines that will give Egencia corporate clients improved access to the carrier’s content and functionality.

The agreement allows Egencia clients with Southwest corporate agreements to gain direct access to Southwest Airlines fares and schedules via Egencia’s booking technology, as well as through Egencia customer service agents. Additionally, these clients will be able to fully integrate Southwest bookings into their Egencia reporting.

In a nutshell, Egencia clients gain direct access to Southwest fares and last seat inventory, receive booking and ticketing that supports the Rapid Rewards member number, and can enjoy a wide range of functionality, including cancelling and exchanging reservations.

Gotta love it.

Read the press release here.

Avoiding the Business Traveler Belly Bulge

Egencia — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 17:52:43 +0000

Avoiding the Business Traveler Belly Bulge

The odds are stacked against road warriors when it comes to the scale - they are 92% more likely to be obese than less frequent travelers. Frequent travelers also face very high stress levels, sleep deprivation and high blood pressure.

We’ve created this infographic to share some quick and easy traveler trimming tips to stay fit and healthy on the road.

See the infographic here

Strange but true...

Egencia — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 20:30:08 +0000

Strange but true...

How often does a plane take off or land at Chicago O’Hare? Can you name the only U.S. state without a major airport?

Just for fun, we’ve rounded up a few fun facts and interesting tidbits for today’s business traveler. Click the link below to see a graphic with business travel information admittedly you may never use, but is still interesting to read about anyway.

Enjoy. And as always, safe travels.

See the Infographic Here

Holiday Travel: Friendly People, Smiling Faces, Abundant Patience and Good Cheer

Egencia — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 12:58:14 +0000

Well, not really. But it’s nice to dream.

As we look back at the holiday travel season, I wanted to share an interesting article I found on CNN.com called The Etiquette of Crowded Flying. Several challenges are featured, including on-board crying babies, the “who-gets-the-armrest” question, carry-on luggage problems, and the always popular “I-paid-for-a-ticket-so-I-get-to-crank-my-seat-back-into-your-lap” guy.

There’s also a new problem cited that that you probably haven’t heard about before. Hint: it has to do with technology.

And while the article is primarily focused on leisure travelers, there’s sure to be some business travelers who can relate to it as well, so the tips included here apply to everyone, i.e., anyone that’s a human being.

Luckily, as I mentioned, the holiday travel season is over, so it’s back to business as usual: crying babies, carry-on luggage problems, the I- paid-for-a-ticket-so-I-get-to-crank-my-seat-back-into-your-lap-guy…

Here’s to safe (and sane) travels in 2012.

trthompson@egencia.com

How To Get Lower Airfares

Egencia — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 18:52:48 +0000

You could hit someone up for money in the airport lounge.

Take advantage of that fancy new ‘overhead bin’ seating option.

Or you can go with Egencia.

Egencia has been in the business travel industry for awhile now, and through this experience we’ve found some consistent and effective ways to get lower airfares for business travelers.

First off, one of the best ways to find lower airfares is to book as early as possible (at least 22 or more days in advance). In our 2012 Global Travel Forecast study, we found, just by booking early, that you could achieve 29% savings on ticket prices to Toronto, 27% to Houston, 44% to Paris, and 20% to Beijing.

Read the full report at Egencia.com.

Second, non-refundable tickets cost 49% less than refundable tickets on some U.S. domestic routes, and 56% less on some international routes. You can reduce airfares by up to 65% simply by considering a minimum 2-hour window between connections.

Finally, if you choose to book corporate travel on our site, please take advantage of our flight search filters to quickly identify the cheapest time of day to fly. This information is displayed in the overview grid at the top of the flight search results.

However, if you’re not an Egencia customer, the last tip won’t help much unless you join up with us. Learn how to get started here. Of course, if you choose not to join up, you can always rely on the airport lounge to maybe pick up a bit of extra cash (here’s a list of some of the nicest airport lounges in the world).

Safe travels and happy landings from Egencia.

trthompson@egencia.com