Delivering High Value for Pharmaceutical Company’s National Sales Meeting Through Air Travel Management
Challenge/Opportunity
Planning for an event requires hard work, but what happens when you throw in a massive winter storm shutting down travel just a few days before a big event? To some, that means the only option is to cancel, but to Bishop-McCann, it means it’s time to figure out another way to get people there on time.
In 2016, Winter Storm Jonas hit three days before a main arrival day for a national sales meeting. With about 4,000 attendees, multiple divisions, and variable booking parameters, the Bishop-McCann travel team began figuring out the best way to make sure everything would still run smoothly.
Response/Solution
Bishop-McCann is a full-service travel management company—experts in corporate event planning and air management. Because of our experience, a problem like a winter storm striking days before an event was something we could handle while still saving our client money.
For this situation, our travel team focused on quick turnaround on airline reservations. This resulted in client savings by capitalizing on constant monitoring of flight inventory and availability. The team sourced extra hours, and staffing provided more than 600 changes in those critical three days.
With decisions that Bishop-McCann makes—like pushing the lowest logical airfare, strictly monitoring and promoting travel policy adherence, and managing unused tickets for maximum utilization of funds prior to expiration—we ensure that our clients save as much money as possible without sacrificing the value of any experience.
Because we are extremely practiced in the world of air management, we’re also experts in change management. For example, we handle last minute changes due to weather, such as Winter Storm Jonas.
Outcome/Result
Because we strive to provide exceptional customer service and have the people to do it, our travel team and air department were able to keep the arrival and departure dates as originally planned, despite the harsh winter weather.
While simultaneously reinforcing our expert-status, Bishop-McCann was able to partner with the client’s current corporate agency with VIP changes. This added bonus to the client was possible, even with the many changes that occurred in just 72 hours.
