A reader shared yesterday that he received an email from Concur, the expense and travel tool his company uses, flagging that his American AAdvantage number was linked to his account. He had seen that happen before with other airlines — Triplink features become enabled, and corporate fares become bookable on an airline’s website. This works, for instance, with United and British Airways.
Now his corporate rates are searchable at AA.com as well. This is an option for linked customers, not for everyone. The corporate rate box does not show up without being logged in, and it does not show up for me when I log in. So there’s not just an opportunity for anyone to type in a corporate discount code and book online.
Where corporate rates are available those will then show up.
Interestingly though many corporate booking tools are going to suppress basic economy fares, those are available here (albeit without a corporate discount).
This may be useful for many of you in managed travel programs, and if yours isn’t yet available it may roll out soon.
So does that mean you could use your corporate rate for personal travel…? Just get it linked, and then go on aa.com (or the other airlines) whenever booking on your own dime, but still use the corp rate?
I second Dude26’s question. That has always been a big no-no, but I would love it if that was changing. I imagine that’s a function of your company’s contract with AA.
@Dude26 @Ryan The company I work for allows employees to benefit from corporate rates on travel, hotels, etc. We have a designated travel service tied in with Concur which we have to use when booking company travel. To get the rates for personal travel we have to call rather than booking through our company’s travel portal, as portal booking has to be okayed by our supervisors…calling lets them book the rates for us without needing a supervisory approval. We pay the travel service’s fees, which are objectively reasonable. I typically search flights on the corporate booking site, then call the service to book them (assuming I can’t find something better elsewhere).
Having the corporate rates available for direct booking would cut down on the time investment and the service fees, though it would also eliminate support from the travel service in case of last-minute needs. Rebooking, 24/7 worldwide support, medical or social unrest evacuation, etc. I’d probably book directly for domestic travel, and use the service for international.
There’s a minor hazard to this functionality, all. I missed the invitation email; so, the first family trip I booked via aa.com showed up in Concur. (I hadn’t seen that ‘Corporate Booking’ is checked by default.) Took an army to get the travel receipt removed from our Concur system. Would have been worse if I’d booked a flight to interview with another firm, right?
Is there a way to get the option to default to not selected ? I asked aa.com and they referred me to Concur. But it is their site !