Why Businesses Lose Money Over Air Travel?
Many organizations see flight travel as an operational necessity, but when decisions are decentralized & the booking process lacks structure, it gradually costs more than the speculated theory.
Unstructured Booking Process
This isn’t about mismanagement in the booking cycle or department in the company, but the focal point is ‘absence of system control.’ In most companies, online flight booking is handled as individual booking, different platforms & payment methods, inconsistent practices for reconciliation, and more.
Now, this looks efficient from the surface, but it fragments travel spending & even leads to financial leakage. Common consequences include:
- Lack of standardized fare benchmark and centralized booking discipline.
- Without structured oversight, last-minute booking rises with dynamic fares affecting budget.
- No consolidated corporate air travel data leading to poor fare negotiation.
It looked convenient initially, but it eventually weakened cost control at the enterprise level.
Poor Travel Policy Enforcement
With frequent travel involved, most companies opt for framing a travel policy. However, is the policy integrated into their flight booking process? Does it mandate approval beforehand? If it’s a No, then it’s all documented, not implemented.
Here’s what weak policy enforcement results in:
- Cabin class deviation, where unmonitored upgrades silently increase spending.
- Breaking advance booking policy, last-minute travels & dynamic fares.
- Neglecting preferred airlines or routes, affecting the consolidation process.
- Post booking approvals, reversing authority.
A documented travel policy lacking enforcement acts as guidance—not governance.
Lack of Centralised Air Travel Data
When online flight booking involves multiple platforms, payment methods, & individual employee logins, it goes beyond money—it reduces visibility. And reduced visibility ultimately leads to a lack of control.
Without centralized air travel data, companies struggle with:
- Absence of real-time spend data.
- Inaccurate quarterly flight budget forecasting.
- Impacts analysis on lead time (Are employees booking prior to the deadline or not)
Decentralized air travel data affects the reconciliation process, weakens negotiations, & reduces predictive forecasting.
Now, these travel cost challenges do raise an interesting question: “How should corporates book the flights? So, let’s discuss this.
Easy Ways Corporates Must Consider for Flight Booking
After disclosing and discussing the challenges that cost more to corporates, it is now more important to present ways to reduce or rather eliminate them.
Employ a Centralised System for All Bookings
Avoid the pressure of handling and overseeing multiple platforms for the flight booking process and employ a centralized structure to keep every step checked and monitored. It enables:
- Unified Visibility
- Administer Airfare Selection
- Regulated Payment Structure
Utilise a Route-Level Booking Window
A generic 7-day advance booking policy is a good approach. But how about restructuring it on the basis of high-frequency routes like Mumbai–Delhi or Bengaluru–Hyderabad? A high-frequency route usually faces price fluctuation. So, setting the deadline based on the chosen route would be more effective than the generic 7-day flight booking.
Enforce Pre-Ticketing Approvals for Air Travel
Irrespective of your travel preference, whether just domestic or domestic & international flights, the preference for booking approval should be before. This eliminates the problem with improper reconciliation management & cabin category misplacement.
Use an Automated Fare Deviation Trigger System
Most companies have no automated system to check and monitor the fares, so they rely on manual processes. This delays most decisions and might miss out on a few price entries, so introduce an automated deviation trigger system.
It’ll notify you if there’s a limit extension that occurred on a specific travel that exceeds the designated budget. It will unlock the micromanagement feature, allowing better control.
Implement Cabin-Class Based on Employee Grade
Employees booking flights individually can choose a cabin-class by preference. How about you classify that based on the grade? This will eliminate a major issue – silent cabin upgrades. Moreover, this eliminates the manual check of flights for such cabin anomalies, improving the process speed.
Map & Monitor High-Frequency Travellers
In a company, about 20% of employees cover the largest travel portion. These are high-frequency travellers, and you need to monitor to identify travellers based on repetition, frequency & urgency.
Based on their travel path, you can create a custom travel template, removing the booking process starting from scratch.
How Blueberry Travel Simplifies & Optimizes Corporate Flight Booking
Corporate air travel allows companies to expand their business venture to various locations, allowing better connections & customer reach. However, it is not a section where the most investment should reflect.
It requires a management that enforces a seamless booking with a control on budget. This is a work of an expert and Blueberry Travel India is where you’ll find it.
In our corporate travel solution, we offer:
- Preparing & Customising Travel Plans Aligning with Company’s Goals.
- Implementing a centralised platform to monitor the entire flight booking process
- What’s more, we offer assistance with logistic supervision, accommodations, ground transportation and more.
Now, the best part is that we offer the expert solutions in a cost-effective way. So, connect with us and transform your flight booking process for smooth operational working.
