Week in Review

GBTA’s Mike McCormick joined the Skift team this week along with Evan Konwiser, VP Digital Traveler for American Express Global Business Travel, to talk about how business travel is trying to become more traveler-friendly. Listen to the full podcast to hear more about traveler satisfaction, bleisure, technology in business travel and more.

Also in Skift, a GBTA poll done with our European partner associations was cited in a story about the impact and resilience of business travel in Europe after the Brussels attacks. The poll showed 20 percent of companies did not have risk management plans in place and an additional 8 percent were unsure. Buying Business Travel reported on an updated risk management tool GBTA launched this week in partnership with iJet International that could help address that gap. The tool is designed to help companies evaluate what type of risk management program they have in place and get recommendations on next steps to build or improve their plan.

Chris Elliott writes about troubling signs for aviation safety in USA Today saying the TSA’s many public failures top his list of worries.

In other aviation news, The Wichita Eagle reports that U.S. airlines improved their quality performance across the board in 2015 with the exception of customer complaints, which went up. If your complaint was about seat size, do not expect Congress to address that. The U.S. Senate rejected a proposal Thursday to have the Federal Aviation Administration set minimum seat size standards, according to USA Today’s Bart Jansen.

Buying Business Travel covered travel buyers’ frustrations with U.S. airlines over a lack of transparency on a fare change. Chris McGinnis reported on the story as well on his TravelSkills blog writing that they have been seeing alerts from business travel professionals warning that the major airlines have quietly changed their pricing practices on multi-leg trips in a way that can cost a lot more money.

Switching gears to the hospitality industry, Tnooz writes that companies worldwide are grappling with the direct booking challenge as hotels try to incentivize travelers to book directly on their site. When it comes to loyalty, hotels and OTAs are revamping their offerings to boost bookings, according to another Tnooz article. The New York Times writes that hotels are catering to millennials and have concluded millennials want three things from them: customized experiences, digital convenience and relevant information on social media.

Does business travel stress you out? FTN News reports on a Booking.com study revealing the top causes of business travel stress. One company is trying to make business travel less stressful for new moms, according to New York Magazine and Business Traveler shares tips on how to survive your first business trip abroad.

Your list for this week comes from 4Hoteliers: Best Practices in Travel: Messaging Apps