{"id":4351,"date":"2021-03-25T22:58:15","date_gmt":"2021-03-25T22:58:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.peeriosity.com\/shared-services\/articles\/?p=4351"},"modified":"2022-08-23T18:03:17","modified_gmt":"2022-08-23T18:03:17","slug":"covid-19-saving-millions-by-consolidating-unused-airline-tickets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.peeriosity.com\/shared-services\/articles\/2021\/03\/covid-19-saving-millions-by-consolidating-unused-airline-tickets\/","title":{"rendered":"COVID-19: Saving Millions by Consolidating Unused Airline Tickets"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

Introduction<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The hot topic for the last year for everyone has been adjusting to the new realities of conducting business in a world facing the COVID-19 global pandemic.\u00a0 While the business impact varied by industry, with airlines, hospitality, and restaurants taking the biggest blow, every person and every company has been impacted.\u00a0 With new work-from-home requirements impacting all of Shared Services, the processes for travel, including bookings and expense report processing, took a direct hit with an unprecedented decrease in transaction volume.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

In the mix of chaos comes opportunity.\u00a0 For example, one of the many financial impacts on Corporations was the cost of unused tickets, where reuse or exchange was complicated by manual processes with the potential loss of millions of dollars related to trip cancellations and changes. This research paper highlights how a Peeriosity member company designed a new process to control the losses, achieving a net saving of more than a million dollars as a result.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Company Experience<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

A recent Peeriosity PeercastTM<\/sup> featured a global company with over $15B in annual revenue discussing their Travel Services strategy, and specifically their response to reduce the financial impact of unused tickets which resulted in million-dollar savings to the company.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The company\u2019s stated travel vision is to \u201cEnable travelers to compete and win every day by providing safe, comprehensive, easy to use, and cost-effective global travel solutions\u201d.\u00a0 Its mission statement is broken down into three components including achieving a best-in-class customer experience, driving savings and compliance, and expanding Travel Services\u2019 global offerings and footprint.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The opportunity addressed by the company\u2019s Travel Services team was to create a better process for eliminating costs related to unused airline tickets.\u00a0 In the pre-COVID-19 world, unused tickets were valid for one year, with stringent reuse requirements and a very manual process for reuse.\u00a0 Post-COVID-19 the volume of unused tickets went up dramatically, with airlines waiving change fees including name changes, with the process remaining both messy and manual.\u00a0 The solution developed was to consolidate unused ticket costs to one credit card per airline and use the credits for any future travel by any employee.\u00a0 Considerations to address included potential employee or cost center dissatisfaction and confusion in the expense reporting process.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The project started by getting approval and alignment within Finance and with functional leadership.\u00a0 Next, they negotiated with key airlines to consolidate unused ticket value to one credit card<\/a>, followed by communicating the changes to impacted travelers.\u00a0 The new process automated ticketing to use one credit card per airline, and when an employee travels they receive notification that the credits have been used and the associated pre-paid expense<\/a> has been processed as a travel cost.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

For details, Peeriosity members are encouraged to sign into the members\u2019 area to view the complete presentation and listen to the recorded Peercast.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

iPollingTM<\/sup> Results Review<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The results from a recent Peeriosity poll created using the iPollingTM<\/sup> technology provide additional insight into how companies are responding to the impact of COVID-19 more broadly. \u00a0The first question in the poll asked Peeriosity member companies about how companies are handling business travel as restrictions for COVID-19 are relaxed.\u00a0 For 53% of Peeriosity member companies, many employees have developed new ways of working without travel, with the expectation that travel levels going forward will be lower than they used to be.\u00a0 An additional 42% see a continued need for significant travel requirements, with the expectation that they will be cautious about ramping up travel to ensure employee safety, with a slow ramp-up of travel expected.\u00a0 Here are the details:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\"how<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The second poll question asked about the impact on employees who are responsible for Travel Expense processing<\/a>, and the primary changes, if any, that have been made to their work roles during the pandemic.\u00a0 Responses were fairly evenly split, with 37% indicating their roles were partially shifted to other projects and work within T&E that needed attention, 27% indicating that their roles were partially shifted to other areas where additional resources were needed, and 26% indicating that there had been no significant changes. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\"primary<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

A few of the comments from members include:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n