Week in Review

Much of the week was dominated by the sad news of the Germanwings plane crash in the Alps killing 150 people. It soon came out that the fatal descent the flight took was deliberate and that according to CNN, the co-pilot was hiding an illness from his employers and had been declared “unfit to work” by a doctor. We at GBTA are very saddened by this tragic loss of life.

USA Today reported this week that PreCheck is now at 1 million travelers. GBTA’s Mike McCormick called TSA’s PreCheck essential to road warriors, but in light of a report revealing the agency cleared a convicted felon for expedited airport screening said it still needs stringent oversight and review by TSA to ensure these trusted traveler programs are working as intended or situations like this one could have the potential to undermine confidence in the system as a whole.

Successful Meetings reported that GBTA joined other industry groups in support of A4A’s fight against a proposal to nearly double the Passenger Facility Charge (PFC). Some groups are pushing to double the PFC to $8 per boarding – that along with other taxes and fees means that a business traveler could see an increase of $58.20 for a round trip ticket.

In lighter news – but not light for the company bottom line – The Telegraph reported on the most expensive cities for business travel across the globe.

Hospitality Net reported on the successful GBTA Mexico 2015 conference held last week in Mexico City that saw record breaking attendance and the successful roll out of the Advanced Principles of Business Travel Management pilot session. In other conference news, GBTA and its German partner association VDR are set to partner again in 2015 on Europe’s largest business travel conference.

Looking to make your business trips go smoother? Well, this week provided a wealth of great ideas: Fox News shared six amazing business travel gadgets and Entrepreneur gave us four tips for road warriors to save time and money. USA Today detailed new uses for those airline amenity kits you often see in business class and Business Traveller tells us how to sharpen your know-how before your next business dinner abroad.