Echoing planners' difficulties in managing air travel, Southwest Airlines announced in mid-November that it will no longer offer a meetings program, citing lack of use among customers. Under the terms of its program, Southwest offered a 10-percent discount to groups with 25 or more bookings from several cities into one destination, as well as one free ticket for every 40 purchased.
A central part of the problem was that attendees could only use a meeting's ID code to purchase tickets over the phone, and not online. A posting on Southwest's Web site noted that the airline "found many meeting customers have forgone the meetings program and booked reservations without a meeting ID code due to the low fares and special offers available on southwest.com."
As meeting participants have become accustomed to registering for events and booking accommodations online, the lack of a similar feature for booking air travel is fast becoming a problem for airlines and planners alike. In fact, Lynne Tiras, president of International Meeting Managers in Houston, TX, says that until there is an ability for attendees to book online with a meeting ID code, she'll likely ignore airlines' meetings desks for domestic events. "We're watching the pickup numbers for our currently negotiated agreements," she says. "But if the figures stay the way they've been, we'll just tell attendees which airlines serve our host destination and let them book their own flights." Tiras adds, however, that this problem only affects her domestic meetings; agreements she's negotiated for overseas meetings still attract much attendee participation, despite the need for phone transactions.
Martha Filson, director of housing and exhibits for the Direct Marketing Association in Washington D.C., says "we used to designate an official airline in order to earn free site inspection tickets for the association. We now use a travel agency to help people make the most cost-effective choice, but even that option has been used far less often in the past six months as more people book tickets online."
Surprisingly, Delta is the only major airline with a firm timetable for implementing an online solution for meetings; a Delta spokesperson says that the feature should be available by mid-2004. But Tim Kincaid, manager of corporate communications for American Airlines, says that planners shouldn't walk away from the airlines in the meantime. "We believe that planners are justified in setting up agreements with us, which provide savings and enable planners the ability to budget, track, and also earn future travel. Additionally, zone pricing, available through 2005, lets us guarantee prices from different geographical areas, providing planners with a concrete budget."
Tiras, however, is not convinced. "If airlines want meetings business, they need to make it part of the one-stop online purchasing process that we offer attendees for other meeting components."