Corporate Blog

"It's not the despair, Laura. I can take the despair. It's the hope I can't stand," so says John Cleese's character to his co-star, in the 1980s madcap comedy Clockwise. It's a sentiment anyone working in the travel sector for the last five years can empathize with. We all hoped that, along with a welcome release of pent-up demand for leisure travel, the volume of business travel would rise to pre-pandemic levels, even if it took a little while. It hasn't happened. By the end of 2022, business travel was still only at 75% of its pre-pandemic levels [1]. The latest forecasts are that, with the ...

Loyalty programs are a priceless starting point for developing deeper connections with customers. Insights on customer behavior and preferences is like having a head start in the race to establish value-based, personalized member engagement. Yet, in every conversation I have with customers, we spend a lot time analyzing whether their technology platform is an enabler or disabler to meeting business objectives. Loyalty teams have fantastic ideas but often can't get them to market either because their technology doesn't support their ideas or the time and cost it would take to develop and adapt ...

Loyalty programs often do not get the attention they deserve. Most companies are surprised at how much value their loyalty programs drive. With technological advancements, loyalty programs have become more powerful than ever before. In this conversation with Marcus Puffer, Vice President and Head of Loyalty Solutions, we understand how modern airline loyalty programs surged in importance, and how they drive business growth.   Why has Loyalty become such an important factor for business success? Loyalty programs have been around for a long time now, even more than 30-40 years. These freque...

I was fortunate to participate in one of the first in-person travel industry gatherings in Europe since the start of the pandemic in early 2020 at the Aviation Event 2021 in Tenerife. As aviation experts and stakeholders came together on 11 June, there was a sense of both excitement and trepidation. Hidden behind obligatory sanitary masks, face-to-face conversations were taking place again like the good old days - live, in 3D, and in color! Nonetheless, the journey to Tenerife had certainly revealed new encouraging, yet alerting, realities: Flights are operating and airports are filling up, bu...

Understanding the stakeholder in a typical corporate travel transaction is a challenging task for an airline. A corporate customer's preferences may revolve around budget restrictions, predictability of expenses and additional services on offer, while the individual (employee) who will be travelling on the ticket may seek personal convenience and access to ancillary services even at an additional expense. Ultimately, the airline seeks to engage and satisfy both of them, thereby maximizing their own share of wallet as well as driving down the cost of future sales to the same customer.   Co...