Business travel is considered to be an essential tool of commerce in both large and small companies. In fact small companies seem to have a greater reliance on business travel as they often lack the visibility of large companies. Moreover small companies have to compete with large companies in order to acquire new customers as a result of which they have to often invest in substantially in business travel for face to face client and sales generating meetings. It is estimated that in large firms business travel costs make up three to five percent of sales but in smaller companies this business travel component tends to be much higher.

A recent study conducted by the economic forecasting agency, Oxford Economics states that there is a definite link between business travel and corporate profitability. It goes on to add that every dollar spent on travel by a US company can generate an average of $3.80 in profit and a $12.50 in revenue. However, due to the current ongoing economic downturn, several companies across the board have cut back or drastically reduced their business travel spends in recent months. The study concludes that this should be considered as ‘a penny wise and pound foolish approach’ as the bottom line benefits that accrue from business travel are in fact achieved by most businesses over a long time horizon.

Rather than cutting back or eliminating business travel totally, companies should look to reduce and effectively manage their business travel costs in order to continue to avail of the advantages of business travel in a challenging economic climate. Travel expenses can be managed more efficiently if a company takes these simple actions toward organizing its travel activity and curbing its business travel spending.

Essential business travel trips
Companies who have a regional or global footprint tend to rely quite extensively on business travel, however if business travel costs need to be reduced, then such companies should try to limit their business travel to essential trips that only involve face-to-face client meetings and to those trips which are exclusively sales related or meant solely for incentive purposes.

Partnering with a travel agency
If you are looking to reduce business travel costs for your company and do not have a partnership with a business travel agency now is the time to get one. A professional travel agency like the New York City based travel agency, Fare Buzz can help you outline your travel goals and build and enforce a business travel policy that fits your budget and business goals.

Negotiating with suppliers
After you have outlined your goals and set down the rules for employee travel, you can then attempt to renegotiate rates with your regular suppliers like airlines or hotels or even shop around for new lower cost suppliers. However if you attempt to do this on your own you might not be as successful as you would be if you allowed your partner agency, Fare Buzz to negotiate on your behalf. Fare Buzz has exclusive contracts with more than sixty domestic and international airlines and can thus effectively negotiate to acquire cheap business class air fares which are especially required for long haul international business travel journeys.

However Fare Buzz’s services are not just limited to airlines as the company also has an exclusive relationship with a wide network of more than 100,000 diverse hotel properties and can also secure bargains from your preferred hotel chains to meet your business travel needs.

Free travel on award tickets
Fare Buzz is the country’s leading supplier of cheap business class tickets. Fare Buzz through its special relationship with a whole host of airlines manages to procure wholesale cheap business class flights which it then offers for sale to its clients. These cheap business class airline tickets are not lacking in any way as they come loaded with all the perks of full priced tickets like mileage accrual. Miles so earned can then be used to procure free future business class travel and further savings. In fact Fare Buzz also operates its own rewards program in conjunction with American Express rewards cards and every flight, hotel, vacation package and car rental booking that you book through Fare Buzz earns you points which can be redeemed at more than 200 of the nation’s retail and travel outlets.

Monitoring reports to track business travel spending
The travel team at Fare Buzz is made up of experienced and knowledgeable travel consultants who are on hand seven days a week to help you find the best airline business class fares and hotel deals for all your business travel. The team at Fare Buzz can also help you monitor your business travel expenditure by providing you with reports that illustrate all your business travel expenditure along with details like names of staff who are booking trips.

So if you are looking for innovative ways to reduce your company’s business travel spends or are even looking for options to effectively manage your annual travel budget do get in touch with the best business travel solutions provider, the New York City based travel agency Fare Buzz at 1-800-847-1963 today.

2009 has been an extremely challenging for the entire travel industry as the recession has compelled most businesses and companies to rethink their travel procurement strategies. This has resulted in a sharp slowdown in business travel which has always been a money spinner for major airlines and hotel chains. The Federal Aviation Administration earlier this year predicted that overall domestic air passenger traffic was set to fall nearly 9% during 2009, while international bookings were expected to decline by 2.4% as companies were forced to make deep business travel cuts to grapple with the effects of the global recession.

Business travel which accounts for most first-class and business class ticket sales has suffered greatly from the huge cuts that companies have been compelled to make as they have tried to limit their employees travel or move this travel to the coach cabins for at least short haul journeys. Most companies however believe that business travel is a key element to their success as face to face meetings with suppliers and customers cannot be eliminated no matter how tough the economic conditions for business are. The personal touch is an essential tool of business which just cannot be replicated by advances in telecommunications and video conferencing technologies though a recent UBS survey of 61 influential travel buyers stated that average air spend this year, has declined more than 30 percent which has dealt a devastating blow to the business travel industry. Business travel is the icing on the cake for all major airlines, which have been affected the most by the cuts in travel budgets. If in 2008 the airlines were battling rising fuel costs, in 2009 they have to face the travel demand crisis which has even affected low cost carriers like Southwest which has seen a drop in business travel demand by nearly 25 to 30 percent for certain sectors.

The airlines have tried to aggressively combat travel demand crisis by slashing fares in order to sustain current load factors. These lower fares have extended even to international ticket sales as airlines like British Airways offered previously un-heard of deals for its business class cabin on its lucrative transatlantic route in the spring of 2009. This tactic was quickly copied by a whole host of airlines during the months of April and May which were particularly tough for the airlines.

This trend continued all throughout the summer as airlines tried to sustain their loads and avoid cutting capacity, for fares are far easier to manage when the upturn which typically follows a downturn begins. The US economy has in fact already begun to show signs of recovery as the Federal Reserve in recent days has cautiously averred that economic activity has stabilized and ‘firmed’ in almost all regions of the economy. This has also been reflected in the US stock market which has risen by almost 30% from the levels of historic lows which were experienced in the month of March 2009.

All this augurs well for the business travel industry which has begun to see a slight improvement during September 2009. In fact in a recent Topaz International survey of 260 travel buyers, a small number of buyers even displayed cautious optimism as they stated that they expected business travel spend for the rest of the year to in fact increase as the economy begins to turn.

In anticipation of this upturn, the British legacy carrier, British Airways which recently announced another fare sale across all its cabins for various routes, is all set to launch a new all-business transatlantic service on September 29th 2009 which will connect New York City’s JFK airport with London’s City Airport. This premium service which is aimed at time-pressed business travelers who have to travel frequently between the world’s most prominent finance capitals will initially launch as a daily return service which will increase to a twice daily flight from mid-October 2009. The launch of this new service at such a time indicates that the business travel industry is poised for a take- off yet again.

Most senior managers intuitively understand that employees have to be kept on the road even during an economic downturn as business travel is critical to their success for when business picks up once again they will have a vital edge over competition. If you believe in this school of thought and are looking at ways to cleverly minimize your travel spend, you should consider partnering with the New York City based travel company, Fare Buzz.

Fare Buzz is one of the nation’s leading suppliers of business class travel. The company has an exclusive relationship with over sixty domestic and international airlines and is able to procure cheap business class tickets for almost all worldwide destinations. Booking business class travel through Fare Buzz provides savings of over 70% as compared to tickets booked through regular channels. Moreover these Cheap Business Class Airline Tickets come with all the perks of a full priced ticket like mileage accrual and pre-assigned seats.

To effectively manage your travel spend and reduce airline, hotel and car rental costs, you need to align with a highly efficient and cost effective procurement agency like Fare Buzz which is equipped with a trained and knowledgeable staff who are on hand seven days a week to ensure that you get the very best travel deals to meet all your company’s goals of maximizing and effectively using the travel budget. Do call Fare Buzz at 1-888-808-4123 to speak to an agent today.

The current global economic slowdown has adversely affected the bottom line of companies all over the world. A direct result of this has been the introduction of various cost cutting measures like freezing of pay and forced unpaid vacations. Business travel which has been on the decline lately has been one of the first areas where companies have tried to trim expenditure through various different measures like better management of travel and more stringent reporting of expenses. It's not just large companies that are instituting these measures even small companies, which generally account for 70% of air travel spending in the U.S., are cutting back and closely regulating travel expenses.

However many companies also realize in this era of globalization they can't really afford to entirely do away with face to face meetings that are conducted via business travel more so if their business competitors are continuing to carry out these meetings. Moreover companies which are based in the western hemisphere are also cognizant of the fact, that Asian economies like China and India have grown to become major economic powerhouses during the last decade. This has necessitated the setting up of regional and global offices of a parent company which is head quartered in the west. While daily communications between the parent company and its regional or global branches can be effectively managed via technologies such as video conferencing, relationship building which is often believed to be the cornerstone of business success can only be achieved by face to face meetings.

With the trimming of business travel budgets in the current scenario the onus of the effective management of business travel has fallen on the in house travel department of a company which usually makes all the business travel arrangements for its executives. These travel departments now have to streamline their processes so that they are able to procure the best deals for their executives. They have to their utmost to ensure that these executives continue to travel for business in the manner that they are accustomed to and not be forced to downgrade either their airline cabin or hotel choices, especially when this travel for business involves long haul flights across continents.

The Internet is peppered with various travel websites who all claim to have the ‘best' fares available but when business travel involves long haul travel and distances, these in house company travel departments have a better chance of securing the best business class fares while working in tandem with a supplier of discounted business class fares like the New York City based, travel management company Fare Buzz.

International itineraries often tend to be extremely complicated and while travel websites might offer quotes for specific routes they are not really able to give their clients the complete range of options that are available to them. Fare Buzz, unlike these run of the mill travel websites is equipped with a customer service desk which is manned by manned by experienced ‘live' travel consultants who are on hand seven days a week to help you find the best airline business class fares, hotel and car rental deals for any destination in the world and thus it can help you procure the most cost effective and complete business travel package.

Moreover Fare Buzz can also help tailor vacation packages to meet the incentive business travel needs of various companies. Incentive travel is usually used to ‘award' an employee for a job well done and it is considered to be extremely essential for the maintenance of employee morale. With its exclusive relationship with a wide network of more than 100,000 diverse hotel properties and its contacts with more than sixty domestic and international airlines, Fare Buzz can easily customize a complete vacation package at discounted rates which can then be used for to meet the incentive business travel needs of a company.

So if you are currently looking for a way to work within the boundaries of a restrictive travel budget, why don't you give Fare Buzz a call at 1-888-808-4123 and see what it's helpful and knowledgeable travel management team has for you. I have no doubt that you will be quite pleasantly surprised.

The ongoing global economic downturn has affected nearly all major industries but the effect has been particularly devastating on the global airline industry which has been grappling with various woes like rising fuel costs, falling revenues and rapidly diminishing demand especially in the premium class of travel. In a recent forecast, the International Air Transport Association director general and CEO Giovanni Bisignani, estimated that global airlines would face a 12 percent decline in revenues for 2009.

These airline industry woes have affected all airlines and both the legacy carriers as well as the low cost carriers have had to deal with this changing global economic scenario. While several low cost carriers like the all business class transatlantic services, EOS, Silverjet and Maxjet have simply shut shop and disappeared into oblivion whereas many airlines have even dropped certain routes or reduced the frequency of service to certain destinations in order to combat revenue losses.

Business travel which is usually associated with the premium cabins of airlines has been especially badly affected by the recession as companies all over the world have gone into cost cutting mode and have eliminated or altered their business travel programs in keeping with their new conservation mantra. A recent survey by the Association of Corporate Travel Executives found that more than 70% of corporations were in the process of cutting down on travel budgets by 10% to 20% this year. Additionally, companies such as AT&T have reportedly reduced business travel by 15% through the use of video conferences and web meetings while consulting giant, Accenture has begun the process of setting a network of video conferencing rooms at its various locations worldwide in an effort to limit business travel.

However in spite of all this, the general consensus seems to be that business travel is extremely essential to the conduct of regular business and cannot be done away entirely with especially in situations that demand interpersonal interaction across international borders or require specialized training which needs to be imparted. Some companies do in fact realize this and are currently leaning on their travel departments to control costs by procuring the best airline and hotel deals for their executives who need to make these essential business trips.

Airlines also realize that these business class travelers are their primary source of revenue and profit and need to be retained at any cost. In order to fill their planes and retain custom they have resorted to offering fantastic discounts on tickets for their cabins located in the front of the aircraft. Recently British Airways had a 2-for-1 sale on business-class seats from the United States to London for travel between June 1st and October 31st 2009. This offer was soon followed by similar sales from airlines such as Virgin Atlantic, American Airlines and Continental.

Domestic and International air fares seem to change often and quite rapidly and even though currently corporate travel departments are being asked aggressively look for the best airline deals for their business travelers it is almost impossible for these personnel to be on top of all these fares changes all the time. This is where a partnership with a company like Fare Buzz which is a leading supplier of cheap business class fares would help immensely.

Fare Buzz has contracts with more than sixty domestic and international airlines and through these exclusive contracts it can procure the ‘best’ business class airfares to almost any destination in the world. Moreover unlike other ordinary online discounters, the customer service desks at Fare Buzz are manned by experienced ‘live’ travel consultants who are on hand seven days a week to help you find the best airline and hotel deals. Moreover you don’t even have to pay anything ‘extra’ to speak to a travel consultant at Fare Buzz who can even hold a ‘special’ fare for you for a period of 24 hours. So next time when the need to travel arises don’t procrastinate but pick up the phone and call Fare Buzz at 1-888-808-4123 for the best travel deals in the business.

Rachel Maarten is an associate with a leading consulting firm. She is currently in the process of juggling two important international consulting projects, one with a client who is based in Basel, Switzerland and the other with a client based in Tokyo, Japan. These projects are expected to continue for the next few months and require her to travel away from her base in New York City for weeks on end. Rachel, unlike many other business travelers, thrives on long haul travel to far away destinations especially since she gets to make her trips in the plush business class cabin of a leading carrier.

Arun Sohni is employed as a Vice President in the IT department of an investment bank in New York City; he was recently given charge of a QA department based in the London branch of the bank. This role necessitates him traveling to London every month as he is in the process of building his QA team. Though Arun hates to travel, he thinks it is important for him to make these monthly trips to the London office especially when he has a role that cannot be fulfilled effectively through remote management. Additionally, what makes these trips bearable is that his bank’s travel department has assigned him business class flights for these transatlantic trips.

Both Rachel and Arun, regard their business travel as essential for the successful fulfillment of their roles as they say that despite the recent advances in technology and video conferencing, there is no substitute for faceto face meetings especially in situations that involve dealings with foreign clients or remote supervision. These away meetings along with conventions and incentive travel are essential for the successful conduct of modern business. 

However during the uncertain times of the current global economic downturn many firms are doing away with business travel entirely or if the business trip is considered to be absolutely essential they are convincing their executives to fly in the coach cabin on even long haul flights that last for more than eight hours in an effort to manage costs. Rachel says if she is forced to fly in coach on her fourteen hour flight from JFK to Narita, she will not be able to function when she lands in Japan. Currently, the only way she copes with jet lag is by sleeping throughout the journey on the flat bed that her business class flight affords her.

Business travel is a necessary tool of commerce that not only aids the companies themselves but it also helps the various arms of the travel industry like airlines and hotels. In fact airlines depend greatly on business class travelers for much their needed revenue.

Yes, firms do need to cut costs but instead of eliminating business travel entirely or cutting back on business class travel they should try and administer their travel management programs more efficiently by using companies like FareBuzz. Fare Buzz is a leading supplier of cheap business class flights. Through its contracts with over sixty domestic and international airlines it is able to procure cheap business class deals to almost all worldwide destinations. Booking business class travel through Fare Buzz provides savings of over 70% as compared to tickets booked through regular channels. Moreover these Cheap Business Class Airline Tickets come with all the perks of a full priced ticket like mileage accrual and pre-assigned seats. Booking your business class travel with Fare Buzz ensures your business travel is a necessity and not a luxury. Call Fare Buzz at 1-888-808-4123 for a quote today!