A New Connection

Bellevue, Washington-headquartered, Concur has unveiled details of a new partnership with Air Canada during its Fusion Exchange event in Toronto earlier this week. The new partnership will see the spend management solutions and services provider working with the airline to develop and enable corporate travel booking solutions functionality for http://www.aircanada.com and Air Canada apps.

The announcement said that businesses — by leveraging Concur TripLink – will be able to capture direct Air Canada corporate bookings while still receiving their corporate benefits and meeting their corporate travel reporting requirements through Concur.

Concur TripLink complements travel programs by providing visibility and information continuity to enable travellers and companies to book directly with Air Canada.

Through TripLink, corporate travellers can use Air Canada channels to book their corporate fares and automatically have the trip data sent back to Concur to populate travel and expense reports on Concur and related platforms.

As well, travellers linking their profiles to Air Canada will realize a number of benefits that include:

• More Choice — Whether a traveller chooses to book through Concur Travel, their TMC or directly with Air Canada, Concur TripLink accommodates the travellers’ choice by allowing the user to define their travel shopping experience.
• Greater Value — Concur TripLink enables travellers to take advantage of their corporate programs regardless of where they book travel; travellers and their companies get better visibility, negotiating power and control. Organizations and their TMCs can use the information to drive programs and services to increase compliance.
• Improved Traveler Tracking — By capturing out-of-program bookings, companies know where their employees are traveling at all times, supporting their Duty of Care requirements. This also enables their TMCs to support these travelers and deliver new services.

Keith Wallis, manager of distribution business development for Air Canada, said of the new initiative that: “Air Canada has a long history of being an early adopter of innovative technology to meet and exceed its customers’ high expectations. Integrating Concur technology directly into the Air Canada web site is the next step in the evolution of corporate travel as we seek to deliver exceptional benefits to our corporate customers.”

Wallis added: “Air Canada is very excited about partnering with Concur to ensure our high value corporate customers always have access to the best, richest Air Canada content, while maintaining the benefits of tracking and reporting of expense through Concur.”

As Concur’s chairman and CEO, Steve Singh sees it: “Corporate travellers want to stay compliant with corporate policies, but at the same time, they crave the convenience of direct booking. With today’s announcement, we are giving our mutual customers a transparent and seamless experience so they can get the most out of their travel budgets.”

Singh continued: “By enabling direct booking at an enterprise level, we are creating a new and deeper level of customer experience that is centred on direct end-user connections. These are the same types of connections that have transformed other industries.”

Currently, Concur TripLink has partnered with Airbnb, Avis, Intercontinental Hotel Group, Marriott Hotels, Starwood Hotels, and United Airlines.

Seen in the photo, from l to r, are Air Canada’s manager of distribution business development, Keith Wallis and Concur’s executive vice-president, worldwide marketing, Robson Grieve at the 2014 Fusion Exchange in Toronto.

For more go to http://www.concur.com .