Justin Taylor

With fuel prices soaring and airport security measures becoming stricter around the globe, with airport taxes accounting for the 10% of the ticket price and labor costs skyrocketing every year, air fares have become almost a luxury good, particularly when it comes to booking for a group event. Organizations that strive to remain viable need to employ appropriate policies of travel management in order to reduce the cost of the air fares and save money on corporate travel.

One of the most commonly applied policies to reduce the cost of air fares is to identify an event as a business event. Typically, people attending business events use different flights to the same destination, which increases the cost of air fares. Identifying an event as a corporate event allows the organization to negotiate better corporate prices with a travel agency and take advantage of the group travel programs offered by the airlines for corporate events. The final price of the air fares can be discounted up to 5 percent for the domestic flights without requiring the same point of origin for event attendees.

Air fare discounts for group events are, typically, offered to groups of ten people or more traveling to one destination. Group booking terms vary in each airline, but organizations arrange business events that can attract more than ten event attendees so that they can benefit for competitive group rates and discounted air fares offered by the airlines. They may also identify the event attendees as event planners in order to achieve even further discounted air fares.

Booking in advance is another policy that contributes to lowering the cost of air fares. Some airlines allow bookings for corporate events almost a year prior to the date of travel. Organizations that book in advance have a higher possibility to book at the lowest class fare and a better negotiating power with the travel agency. Usually, in last minute bookings, airlines give out their most expensive fares and, for a group event, this can turn out particularly expensive.

Besides, many organizations increasingly use the Internet as a source of fulfilling their corporate travel needs. Offering competitively priced airfares, the Internet offers substantial cost benefits that can be up to a 20 percent discount in comparison to the traditional travel agencies.

Finally, technologically advanced organizations use travel management softwares that allow them to track their travel expenses and acquire optimum efficiency of their travel management policies. By integrating the entire business processes, organizations manage corporate expense policies and choose the most cost-effective solution when it comes to corporate travel and group events.

I work as a financial and investment advisor but my passion is writing, music and photography. Writing mostly about finance, business and music, being an amateur photographer and a professional dj, I am inspired from life.

Being a strong advocate of simplicity in life, I love my family, my partner and all the people that have stood by me with or without knowing. And I hope that someday, human nature will cease to be greedy and demanding realizing that the more we have the more we want and the more we satisfy our needs the more needs we create. And this is so needless after all.

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