Business travel, the CrowdStrike outage and the ongoing leakage battle

Thousands of flights canceled, travelers around the world stranded in airports far from home, millions of dollars in financial losses and an industry completely caught off guard by a crisis that happened in the blink of an eye. The fallout from July’s CrowdStrike outage does not make for pretty reading.  

The impact of the CrowdStrike outage were felt far and wide, with more than 2,200 flight cancelations on day one and thousands more in the days following as the travel industry grappled with getting itself back online and travelers clamored for any way to get to their destination.

This state of play has naturally resulted in endless questions about the travel industry’s immediate response to the crisis. But perhaps what is more worrying has been the realization that the travel industry – particularly business travel – has not made the strides forward that it thought it had in the wake of another unprecedented crisis nearly four years ago: the COVID pandemic.  

In both instances, the significant inconvenience business travelers faced as they tried to navigate a mad dash to re-book canceled flights, transition hotel and rental car bookings and re-coup money spent on a trip they couldn’t take, dominated headlines. But this is only part of the story.

For employees who opted to circumvent designated corporate travel channels, the consequences were far more dire as they were forced to sort the mess out themselves, creating an indirect financial burden stemming from this off-channel rescheduled travel, or “leakage” – the full extent of which may never be completely known.  

Leakage has long been “public enemy #1” for corporate travel managers not only because of the bottom-line issues it creates, but also because of the employee duty of care risks it presents. These issues are troubling enough when it is only a handful of employees facing delayed flights, but when “Acts of God” occur, the headaches, potential losses and risks to organizations are truly staggering.

If there is any upside, it is that this “one in a million” event once again has thrust the issues around leakage center stage and is affording businesses and travel industry stakeholders with a prime opportunity to revamp their operations so that they can cut down on leakage and provide a better experience for their travel managers, service teams and employees alike.  

With that in mind, here are the core considerations that businesses and travel industry stakeholders need to keep in mind to help ease business travel leakage issues and solve these longstanding issues once and for all. 

Outdated systems lead to frustrated travelers  

Between the airline industry’s outdated and overworked infrastructure and corporate travel management company’s slow and hard-to-use systems, travelers are often stuck with limited options in the middle of a crisis.  

In the wake of this summer’s CrowdStrike outage, airlines had to grapple with technology flaws that ground their systems to a halt. Fragile and outdated computer systems, crew scheduling software, air traffic control technology and even gate check-in and check-out systems, have caused ongoing issues for airlines over the past several years.

In lieu of overhauling their infrastructure entirely airlines should think about working with technology providers and solutions that offer greater connectivity. For example, New Distribution Capability (NDC) has the potential to better connect airlines to corporate travelers and make personalization of options and services, such as re-booking, more seamless for both parties. 

Similarly, because of their company’s outdated corporate booking tools, business travelers often opt to book their travel plans outside of the managed travel channel altogether, which in a crisis, can leave them to deal with re-bookings across air travel, hotels, and rental car services all on their own – an often-frustrating process that distracts them from their actual job. Companies also face the risk of financial “leakage” if travelers aren’t able to secure a refund on impacted bookings. 

To eliminate this problem, companies should start by understanding why their employees are booking off-channel to begin with. Typically, better choice, greater convenience, and full control over the booking process draws travelers away from corporate travel management platforms to the consumer travel sites they’re familiar with.

Additionally, some online booking tools are notoriously frustrating for users and have fallen behind when it comes to innovation and ease of use. By circumventing their corporate booking tool altogether, travelers see this as a way to avoid a headache, but as this outage demonstrated, they ultimately create many more headaches for themselves. The corporate travel space must evolve with consumer-grade systems as good as the leisure travel sites to ensure travelers are brought back into the booking fold.  

A connected journey 

Corporate travel managers must prioritize the technology they are mandating their people use and move away from tools that continue to give a poor customer experience and a disjointed booking process. Instead, managers should embrace modern technology platforms that connect the entire travel experience online.

The right technology pulls together all travel channels in alignment with corporate policies, under a unified platform to ensure that managers can keep travelers safe and assist in the event of cancellations. Upgraded technology allows travelers to have greater ease, choice and flexibility and eliminates the reasons that employees book off-channel in the first place.  

Other innovations, like artificial intelligence, are starting to automate and elevate the connected journey by offering personalized booking options for travelers, aligning with their personal preferences, company policy, travel patterns, and helping to streamline the process overall. Plus, this technology allows for full oversight from travel managers, allowing them to see the complete picture – from the individual traveler’s level to the corporate level.  

A path forward 

As the airline industry, businesses, and corporate travel managers emerge from the global IT outage, there is a compelling opportunity to initiate the process of updating old tech offerings, bring in updated systems and emerging technologies, and connect the travel experience from start to finish.

Those in the industry who adapt now will benefit from smoother traveler experiences, have less risk of financial loss, and enjoy a path to a future with less friction in the corporate travel value chain – while the rest will continue to struggle with both frustrated travelers and unnecessary financial loss.