Business Travel: Top Business Trends for 2015

Business Travel: Top Business Trends for 2015

For road warriors – the business travelers – the focus of their travel is their business at hand. But getting to their destination and back again is a job in itself as managing a business travel budget grows more complex.

Today, it’s more than just identifying the cost of airline tickets, hotel night stays and car rentals. The airport security check-in, the ever-increasing amount of ancillary fees and corporate policies for booking seats on long flights require careful planning.

A survey based on responses from 429 Travel Leaders travel agent experts who identified that their portfolio consists of 50 percent or more of business travel clients shows the many ways that they’re actively working with clients to make a trip successful.

For business travelers, clearly the most valuable part of working with a travel agent is having someone to provide assistance at every step, with instant access to an expert before, during and after their trip. Beyond that, the business travel agents were asked about the services that will be most valuable to clients in 2015. At the top of list is 24-hour service (37.3 percent). There’s no substitute for the peace of mind that comes with knowing you have someone to call in the event of a problem. Other top services deal with waivers and favors from airlines (21 percent) and tracking and using nonrefundable tickets (13.5 percent).

Ancillary fees are increasingly a fact of life for travelers. Survey respondents picked the most frequently charged fees that their business travel clients encounter. At the top of their list is the fee charged by airlines for changing flights (73.7 percent), followed by fees for upgraded and/or premium seat assignments (53.9 percent) and for baggage (53.2 percent). Also on the list are hotel charges for Internet access (17.7 percent), “resort” fees (11.7 percent) and hotel parking (10.3 percent).

Company policies vary for “front of the plane” travel on domestic and international flights, an important consideration for businesspeople who have to hit the ground running.

When asked about the policy a majority of their business travel clients have in place, 29.8 percent responded that only executives may select First or Business Class on all flights, 27.7 percent indicated that First or Business Class is never allowed on domestic flights and 17.2 said only executives taking flights over five hours may choose First or Business Class. For international travel, 25.9 percent of respondents said that only corporate executives may select First or Business Class on all flights and 13.8 percent said all travelers may select them for flights over eight hours.

Getting through airport security in an efficient and timely manner is one of the biggest concerns business travelers face. TSA Precheck allows low-risk travelers to experience expedited, more efficient security screenings at participating U.S. airport checkpoints. More than 22 percent of the respondents to the Travel Leaders survey indicated that a majority of their corporate clients are approved for TSA Pre, and more than 23 percent indicated that between 41 percent and 50 percent are approved.

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