AmTrav

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What a week! The AmTrav family was welcomed in the most incredible way into the TravelPerk family by being flown out to TK's Barcelona HQ to create relationships with our new colleagues in real life, and it was so impactful. To top it all off, we were in attendance for the 2024 Summer Rodeo party, which was out of this world! Thank you TravelPerk for everything, this is a trip I will never forget as we start this new chapter together. Our future is so bright & I'm looking forward to all of the great things we are going to accomplish together!

TravelPerk sure knows how to throw a party! The AmTrav team had an unforgettable week in Barcelona getting to see the Travelperk headquarters and meeting so many amazing people. It culminated with a Summer Rodeo Party like no other - from Cava tasting, to a rodeo acoustic band, a TravelPerk band comprised of local employees, to a rave. It just kept going and I even got to see 330am with many, many others. Cheers to Avi Meir, Jean-Christophe Taunay-Bucalo and the rest of the TravelPerk team for making AmTrav feel so welcome. We are thrilled for the future and fortunate to have found such a great match.

What. A. Blast. Last week Team AmTrav flocked to Barcelona for the TravelPerk Summer Rodeo! TravelPerk and AmTrav are serious about bringing people together face-to-face, in-real-life to make business work better — because it's personal. We loved the opportunity to meet our new TravelPerk colleagues from across Europe and the U.S., see TravelPerk's beautiful hometown, and dance under the stars. We're not done with IRL: we'll see you next week in Atlanta for the GBTA | Global Business Travel Association 2024 convention — can't wait! Jeff Klee Craig Fichtelberg Susan Altman Gaurav Patel Gregory Ross Elliott McNamee Samantha O'Mara Liz Augustine Eric Fichtelberg Christopher Bene' Terry Robin Fran Bal Kyle Harrison Crystal Schrope Joseph Harrington Shannon Marvin Laura Pilla Taylor Stradley and lots and lots more!

With American Airlines putting lots of fares back into GDS channels, the subject of "ties" has become front and center in many NDC conversations. That is, if you're a corporate booking platform and behind-the-scenes you're shopping for flights through both modern and legacy channels, what do you do if the fare is the same in both? At AmTrav, it comes down to whether we think the traveler ultimately will be better served if they are holding an NDC booking vs. a legacy one. Specifically for American, here's our scorecard: ADVANTAGES OF TRAVELING ON AN NDC BOOKING - You can select/book any seat, including Main Cabin Extra and Preferred, with status and entitlements recognized - Self-service ticket changes are simpler and faster and quotes to change are more accurate - In an IROP situation (e.g. bad weather, flight cancelation) it is easy to be re-accommodated on a different flight. Just follow the same process to change your tickets and you'll automatically be quoted a free change. (In the legacy world, an entirely different workflow is needed which generally requires speaking to an agent) ADVANTAGES OF TRAVELING WITH A GDS (EDIFACT) BOOKING - Certain function have faster response times through the GDS (e.g. booking retrieve, seat map) - "Random" errors are more frequent in NDC (the GDS is still more stable) - Upgrading your ticket to a higher cabin on only one leg of a round-trip is easier with a GDS booking - Changes involving residual credits are more seamless Clearly, there are pros and cons to each and anyone who tells you that either option is better for every scenario is being disingenuous. But we believe that the benefits of NDC impact a broader group of travelers than the benefits of EDIFACT, which are more confined to fringe scenarios. As a result, at AmTrav, ties have been going to NDC since October of 2023. FWIW, there is one big disadvantage of booking through EITHER NDC OR EDIFACT. When travelers try to make changes on AA.com or the AA app, they are told they cannot do so, they have to go back to their travel agency. Many travelers like using the AA app and are particularly frustrated by this limitation, especially for last minute changes when they are at or enroute to the airport. From what I hear from travelers, when they see these messages they blame the airline every bit as much (if not more) than the TMC (i.e. its not an effective tool for channel shift). It is a huge source of friction which leads to a lot of resentment all around -- a total lose-lose proposition. I urge every traveler, every TMC, and every corporate buyer to join me in pushing American, and every other airline that doesn't allow third party tickets to be changed through their apps, to fix that as soon as possible. (Kudos to United Airlines and Southwest Airlines who DO allow travelers to use their apps for changes, no matter where their tickets were booked!)

Absolutely great day checking out the TravelPerk Headquarters! So excited about the future with AmTrav and TK!

Next week! AmTrav shares how your business travelers really want to book. Do they want to call a travel agent? Or book themselves? We'll tell you! We analyzed a half million corporate bookings to deliver definitive insights on how travelers actually want to book in 2024. Registration links in the comments.

Will you be in Atlanta for GBTA 2024? AmTrav will be! Come find us, or better yet, grab an appointment in advance to talk online booking, 24x7 service and gathering for meetings! See you there! https://lnkd.in/eaMz3hmd

What a week! Thank you to EVERYONE for your kind words and congratulations this week, including our beloved AmTrav customers, our wonderful AmTrav team, our new TravelPerk colleagues, and all our fans around the world. It means so much to Jeff, Craig and our whole team. Thank you. We're really excited for our next chapter with TravelPerk. One thing we've heard again and again is "what a great fit" between AmTrav and TravelPerk, and we couldn't agree more. We need a weekend to rest up, but can't wait to share more of our plans to expand our product and itinerary offerings for our customers, serve customers around the world, and more.

Start spreadin' the news… 🗽 We’ve made a splash in Times Square yesterday with our latest news on the acquisition of AmTrav, backed by a new credit facility of $135m from Blackstone and Blue Owl Capital. 💙Thanks Nasdaq for helping us celebrate big! Read more about this acquisition and our plans here: https://lnkd.in/d_8Vm8wj