American Airlines prepares a data portal for corporate travel buyers
The carrier, which released a new portal for agents earlier this year, has already been demoing SalesLink Insights for its corporate customers and plans to put it in the hands of a beta group of about 50 corporate accounts in November, said American Airlines managing director of sales operations Brett Berman. american airlines corporate
In the first quarter of next year, it will expand that to more than 2,000 corporate accounts globally.
The portal “provides the dynamic reporting we’ve always needed,” American Airlines SVP of global sales and distribution Alison Taylor said. “We do that through great visuals, great maps, and market-level data, and you’re able to drill down as much as you need.”
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Using Prism data as its basis, the portal shows buyers how well they are meeting contract terms as far as spending and revenue share, as well as data on savings, bag fees, Flex Funds and reports on operations like on-time performance and denied boarding instances, Taylor said. It also includes data from American’s joint-venture partners—British Airways, Iberia, Finnair, and Japan Airlines—and will be able to include other JV partners as they come aboard.
That data allows travel buyers not only to manage their programs but also to have a resource to easily explain their programs when needed, Taylor said. “Sometimes, when going to their bosses, a travel manager needs to articulate what they are doing: the savings they get through ancillaries and travel expenses, the things we are waiving for them, and the source of Flex Funds to help them out,” she said. “This provides that in a one-stop shop.”
Data is updated both weekly and monthly, so buyers will be more up-to-date than they are via standard quarterly reviews, Taylor said.
The platform was designed to scale over time, so it can be enhanced as needed, Taylor said. The carrier has already been incorporating feedback from its demos, including from its corporate customer advisory board, which had its first meeting in May, she said.
United launched its Jetstream portal in 2017, and Delta launched its Edge portal in 2014. american airlines corporate
