Revisiting your travel policy for 2020

January has not only marked the start of the new year, but also the start of a new decade. Like many others, we’ve Marie Kondo-ed our desks, packed up the office Christmas tree, and set our goals for the year. As we set those goals, we couldn’t help but think about our clients. One thing we hope our client’s jotted down was revisiting their travel policy.

Business travel is one of the most rapidly growing areas in the industry and is constantly changing. For that reason, it's important that each year, you're revisiting it to make the necessary changes to ensure it keeps up with the latest trends in the industry.

With that being said, we took the liberty of highlighting some areas that you should pay extra attention to in 2020.

Define cost objectives and lowest logical airfare benchmarks for measuring

Staying within budget is of the utmost importance, especially within the NGO realm. Oftentimes, NGOs receive grants and other government funding to use for their operations – including their travel program. For that reason, staying within budget is mandatory. While looking at your travel policy, be sure to address topics such as basic economy fares, lowest logical airfare, and degrees of flexibility for each aspect of the trip.
Resources: The GSA website shares a wealth of information on travel regulations for you to reference.

Ensure travel policy reflects travelers needs

By 2025, 75% of the workforce will consist of millennials. Organizations should accommodate this unique generation by understanding how they travel and factoring in employee satisfaction. A new concept called bleisure travel has become increasingly popular in recent years. As you revisit your travel policy, consider if your organization will allow travelers to extend their business trips for personal travel? Will you provide your travelers with online booking tool options such as Concur or GetThere?
Consider This: According to Booking.com, data shows that nearly half of business travelers (49%) have extended their business trip to a different city or country.

Set clear guidelines and exception approval process

Leaving room for interpretation within your travel policy can lead to many bumps down the road. Travel policies should be accessible, clear, and up to date. As you revisit your organization’s travel policy, be sure to clearly define the approval process to ensure travelers are unable to book trips out of policy. Also, be sure to define preferred suppliers and take advantage of soft dollar programs and your traveler’s frequent flyer miles.
Statistics: The third leading concern of US business travelers are earning frequent flyer points. About 41% of travelers were concerned about this in 2017.

Reigning in rogue travelers

Organizations have a civic and moral responsibility to ensure the safety of each employee traveling on their behalf. Within your travel policy, it’s of the utmost importance that you clearly define how you intend to keep travelers safe within the Duty of Care Section. Within it, you’re going to want to take a look into how your company will monitor the whereabouts of your travelers? Will you invest in traveler tracking? Does your travel management company take care of this, or will you outsource to a duty of care organization?
Tools: EWA Travel utilizes the travel management reporting tool, iBank, to track travelers during their business trips. Another option is International SOS’s Tracking Tool.

Keep current with travel technology and ancillary product purchases (i.e. seats)

The Global Business Travel Association recently predicted that business travel will grow to an estimated 1.513T in 2020. As you can imagine, the travel industry is ever-changing to accommodate its rapid growth. For this reason, companies must stay on top of this by continuously adapting to today’s travel landscape offerings. Will your company offer paid regular seats? What is the policy of economy comfort seats?
Other Options to Consider: What ancillary products/purchases will your organization offer to your travelers? Some to assist in traveler comfort include onboard WiFi access, baggage, meals, and priority boarding.

Preparing for NDC (New Distribution Content) and bundled offerings

According to IATA, NDC is, “NDC (New Distribution Capability) is a travel industry-supported program (NDC Program) launched by IATA for the development and market adoption of a new, XML-based data transmission standard (NDC Standard).” NDC factors in corporation discounts, traveler’s airline status and benefits for customized bundles. With this, it will be easier to compare flights/prices with increased visibility of ancillary offerings.
Breaking Down NDC: Trondent offers insight into NDC and how it will impact business travel.