Business Travel Executive, October/November 2020

ENHANCED TRIPBAM SMART SOURCING AVAILABLE AS STANDALONE PRODUCT Star Alliance Connection Goes Digital with Singapore Air Singapore Airlines is the launch airline for a new digital version of the Star Alliances Connection Service Originally introduced in 2017 the Connection Service helps customers make time critical flight connections between Star Alliance member airlines The digital service is embedded in the participating member airlines mobile app currently available for Android devices with iOS implementation to come soon The initial release on the SingaporeAir mobile app will be trialed at London Heathrow Airport Terminal 2 using the technology of digital location specialists Living Map to create customized customer routings within the terminal Features include updated transfer information and intuitive navigational services through the customers smartphone Star Alliance says it plans to roll out the new digital version of its Connection Service to more transfer intensive hub airports for adoption by other member airlines in the future n 39 Business Travel Executive askBTE com October November 2020 website and mobile app Since bookings are limited on most trains to allow for physical distancing the number indicates how full the train is as a percentage based on the reduced number of seats available The results are displayed in real time when customers search for their train Corporate Travel American Express Global Business Travel has launched Travel Vitals a travel briefing platform that allows users to search travel guidelines by destination airline airport hotel chain train operator and ground transportation provider The journey assistant is free and available to all travel managers travel management companies and travelers Itinerary specific information is available for GBT clients and travelers Tripkicks a cost savings and compliance add on for business travel programs has launched a new solution for corporate booking tools When business travelers book a trip Tripkicks presents real time insights that include health and safety information travel disruption alerts border and visa entry requirements COVID 19 risk information and destination intelligence Tripkicks can be activated within Concur Travel Dining Dinova the business dining platform with a network of over 20000 restaurants has a free mobile app and guide aimed at helping diners make safe decisions when dining out during the pandemic The new Business Dining 20 focuses on four factors restaurant responsibility such as safe food handling and complying with government rules diner responsibility for planning ahead and complying with restaurant rules shared responsibility of hand hygiene and social distancing and diner screening Travel Insurance InsureMyTrip a travel insurance comparison site launched a COVID 19 Recommendation Tool to guide travelers searching for coverage for certain COVID 19 related issues Popular coverage includes benefits like Trip Cancellation Trip Interruption CFAR Cancel For Any Reason Quarantine Coverage Emergency Medical Coverage or Financial Default Coverage Travelers can review the expanding list of highlighted plans after completing a quote Meetings Cvent the meetings technology provider has added several new safety features to the Cvent Supplier Network its event venue sourcing platform and to Cvent Event Diagramming the seating and diagramming solution New features include Source Safety Hub a database of venue health and safety information a meeting space calculator that determines space for social distancing outdoor space and safety protocol filters a health and safety tool which allows venues to diagram elements such as temperature checks hygiene stands and sanitizing stations Tripbam the global hotel shopping benchmarking and analytics provider has announced a new release of its Smart Sourcing product that makes the solution available to any corporation or consultant regardless of whether theyre existing Tripbam clients or using a TMC reselling the Tripbam rate auditing service Smart Sourcing leverages data collected from daily rate auditing to empower travel managers and procurement professionals to secure hotel agreements in just a few clicks New demand from consultants and buyers not already using TripBam for daily rate auditing led the company to make Smart Sourcing available as a standalone product In addition this release also offers a new batch RFP feature and a discount factor to account for difficulties in applying historical data to a post COVID marketplace Coupa Launches Savings Solution for Air C oupa a company specializing in business spend management has launched Coupa Travel Saver Insights for Air The tool is an advanced analytics solution that allows corporate travel managers to mine large data sets of air travel spend for new opportunities to reduce travel costs improve supplier negotiations and optimize overall travel program performance The new solution complements Travel Saver Insights for Hotel a hotel analytics solution that offers insights into savings achieved by implementing recommendations across sourcing rate types and policy improvements