Which are best? Flexible airfares or fixed cheaper ones? This is a question we are often asked by new TTFN Travel clients. It’s a good question and the answer can only be revealed after we’ve analysed a company’s travel habits and set up their travel policy.
For many companies travel costs are the number one cost after wages so it’s important to keep a close eye on them through a good travel policy. We often find that companies tend to overestimate the number of times that their employees change their flights. This means that they have unnecessarily been purchasing the higher cost flexible fares when a less flexible cheaper one would have sufficed.
When you look at the general ticket options for Australian domestic flights with Qantas or Virgin, the fixed cheapest fares typically add a change fee before day of departure of around $80 plus any fare difference. Compare this with a fully flexible ticket that has no change fees but will often cost much more than the $80 change fee and you can start to see that it might just be worth the risk.
For new corporate clients of TTFN Travel, our general method is to review your travel spend for the past 3 – 12 months and look for any opportunities to either reduce your travel costs or get more value out of your current spend through a sound travel policy. Unfortunately the full details of a company’s travel spend is not always recorded in a single place. Depending on existing process and policies in place, often travelers simply book their own travel and expense it back and accounts are not always reconciled. This is what is termed ‘leakage’ in the industry as the true cost of travel is not known. This is another reason TTFN Travel recommends companies (even small ones) put a travel policy in place.
TTFN Travel can also negotiate on your behalf with the airlines to ensure that your company is getting the best value possible out of its travel budget.
To find out if your company would benefit from flexible or fixed airfares, call TTFN Travel today to talk about your travel policy on (08) 6382 5000 or email travel@ttfn.com.au
Article by Nicola Billens
Nicola Billens is an experienced traveller, having visited all the continents (except Antarctica) over the last 20 years. She’s lived in France, England, Austria and New Zealand and spent many years and many dollars experiencing what this wonderful world has to offer.