Yapta says that early customers of FareIQ, its airfare price tracking tool for travel management companies (TMCs) and other companies have saved an average of $279 per corporate travel itinerary over and above any airline imposed change fees.
Since June, a handful of companies have used the FareIQ web portal to track $20 million in T&E spend as pilot customers. Yapta wouldn't name names when Tnooz asked who the pilot customers are, though it hinted that some major T&Es as well as corporate travel programs for major brand companies are participating.
Tnooz noticed that in July, during the GBTA Convention in Boston, Patrice Simon, VP of Innovation and Business Development for CWT, revealed that Carlson Wagonlit Travel is piloting FareIQ. Simon said that, in the first month of testing, 5% of itineraries qualified for savings through re-booking, and the average savings was $536.
In a note on the Carlson Wagonlit Facebook page, Simon was quoted as saying:
FareIQ's ability to deliver actionable pricing data has the potential to make a significant impact from an overall cost savings standpoint. By piloting FareIQ, we're looking to gain greater visibility into price volatility and act on any potential savings that may be revealed.
Plug in and save
Finding the cheapest airfare is a game, given that airfares bounce up and down all the time. Without needing IT integration, FareIQ connects to the TMC's back-end systems, tracks fares for itineraries after they've been booked, and then pinpoints any lower fares that might pop up.
Travelers keep the same airline, travel dates, departure times, and other preferences; all that happens is the fare can be rebooked at a lower price. This makes testing the tool relatively painless for TMCs.
Explains Yapta spokesperson Jeff Pecor in a statement:
The FareIQ web portal tracks pricing on individual passenger name records (PNRs) that are placed in a queue by the corporation or its travel management company.
Upon recognizing a savings opportunity, FareIQ immediately issues a series of messages, including email alerts, a FareIQ web portal notification, and remarks posted directly in the PNR, enabling savings to be acted upon by an agent or a travel manager.
Yapta claims its tool has been saving companies about 10% off of overall itineraries, a higher percentage than it teased this spring in its brochure when it was signing up its first travel and expenses (T&E) clients.
The company, founded in 2007, is backed by both Voyager Capital and Concur and has raised more than $11 million in funding to date. It installed a fresh CEO in June.