Advantage Business Travel

One does get, from time to time, a few spare moments to sit back and read some of the related-but-I-haven’t-got-time-for-it-now stuff which arrives via email. One such, today, was a missive from the Business Travel Coalition, an American group which supports (I think) business travel agents of various shades and types.

Usually, with the BTC stuff, I have to read it several times before any lightbulbs start to flicker. It is all good stuff, but being a simple-minded sort of chap, it takes a while to understand the thrust of what they are on about.

A typical BTC missive arrived with a thud into my email in box. Another weighty tome, a bit like dropping the Encylopedia Britannica onto the desk and saying “precis this by this afternoon”. This time, I followed through about this bloke from Farelogix, Jim Davidson, but not of the “nick, nick” variety, who seems to have a bit of a bee in his bonnet about, well, about an awful lot really.

I have read some of the Farelogix press releases. They do not make sense. For example, one dated Feb 2010 talks about “…consumers generally make their reservations through a travel agency… where overall cost is a primary requirement” In the next breath we have “…Many travelers would welcome access to a new world of convenience and add-on choices available directly from their mobile device prior to departure.” Erm, Yes. If cost is a major concern, they are hardly likely to want to add stuff on, are they? Another statement runs “..Airlines can offer individual travelers a variety of add-on services, such as seat upgrades, priority boarding…” Wow! Farelogix has found the holy grail – have their mobile service and Hey! Presto! your $9 ticket will get you a seat in first class – and you join the front of the queue.

Mobile technology has it’s place and will become more popular – but I think the prophets of mobile technology need to take a reality check. You see, according to them, we agents should all have disappeared just after Graham Alexander Bell said “Look, these tin cans and this piece of string – could we make communication better?” We have had the telephone – and we are still here. We have had the fax machine – and we are still here, the mobile phone, the internet and the internet on mobile phones – and we are still here. We have had our commission taken away, so clients pay us a fee – and we are still here. Why? Simple – because in the final analysis, man is a social animal – we like to communicate and I mean really communicate. As in: talk a bit about the weather, what the last trip was like, the bloke/ bird that we sat next to (depending on orientation) a bit of banter, a laugh or as the Irish say, for the craick…..

For all Farelogix may go one about how their kit may be the best thing since sliced bread, that social element can never, ever, ever be replaced by any form of technology. And it is that social thing which makes us belong – and why real agents will always have a place.