Month: June 2015

Categories
Business and Leadership Travel News

Christopherson Business Travel Named No. 1 Woman-Owned Company in Colorado

Christopherson Business Travel has been ranked as the No. 1 Woman-Owned Company in Colorado by ColoradoBiz Magazine.

Three members of the Christopherson team (Allyson Cross, Business Development Executive; Jess Bautista, Account Manager; & Krista Maurer, Marketing Manager) attended a reception honoring the Top 100 Woman-Owned Companies to have made the list, on behalf of Christopherson’s owners Mike and Camille Cameron. Christopherson was also an associate sponsor of the event where the rankings were unveiled.

Christopherson team members L-R: Allyson Cross (Business Development Executive), Krista Maurer (Marketing Manager), and Jess Bautista (Account Manager) attended the award reception and had a great time being “on the cover” in the ColoradoBiz photo booth.

The reception was held at Redline Gallery in downtown Denver and featured a panel discussion on branding and marketing. Members of the panel included Nadine Pietrowski, CEO of Crowe GHP Horwath; Natascha Hubert, CMO of Crowe GHP Horwath; Lida Citroen, Principal at LIDA360; and Robin Ashmore, Principal at Amélie Company.

Christopherson is honored to be numbered among so many successful and thriving companies, including Vladimir Jones, one of Christopherson’s valued clients, who was also ranked on the list at No. 3.

ABOUT CHRISTOPHERSON

Christopherson Business Travel was founded in 1953 and was purchased by Mike and Camille Cameron in 1990. The company, at that time, had two employees and booked $1 million in travel. Today, Christopherson ranks as the 11th largest business travel agency in the United States, operating from five full-service locations as well as 35 client-dedicated on-site locations, maintains a successful leisure travel division (Andavo Travel), and booked more than a half-billion dollars in travel in 2014 for more than 900 organizations across the country including private businesses, Fortune 500 companies, non-profits, government entities, and universities.

Categories
Business Travel Travel Tips

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles: How to stay safe and where to sit?

Safety while traveling is always an important topic and transportation, whether on a plane, train, or automobile, involves a certain level of risk. Here are a few tips to keep you safer.

Airplanes

While air travel continues to be safer every year, travelers who watch the safety briefing, sit as far forward from the rear of the plane, and wear seat belt even when not required decrease their chances of being injured in the event of an accident.

Trains

Trains are nine times more likely to derail from the front than they are to hit another train or car head-on or to be hit from behind. The safest seat on a train is a rear facing aisle seat one or two cars back from the center of the train.

Automobiles

The rear of the car is generally the safest place due to the fact that driving is a forward motion and most car crashes occur with frontal impact. Wearing your seat belt and sitting in the rear middle seat is the safest and gives you extra protection in the event of a side impact accident.

Categories
Business Travel Travel Management Travel Technology

What’s Your Status? See United’s New MileagePlus Tracker

united MileagePlus Tracker

United Airlines has created a new MileagePlus Premier Status Tracker, which allows travelers to see their qualifying miles and other account activity such as waivers and exemptions. It also helps track progress towards Premier flyer status and will notify you when you’re approaching new status.

How to use United’s MileagePlus Tracker

  1. To access the tracker, visit MyStatus.United.com, or download the MileagePlus X app on your phone.
  2. Log in with your MileagePlus credentials and see your current status at-a-glance.
  3. From here you can also set your status goal, learn the requirements for each Premier level, and track dollars spent on your Chase credit card.

United will also be adding direct links from the My Account page on United.com (so as to eliminate the need for logging in twice) and hopes to expand the MyStatus site to be a “digital membership kit” complimenting the regular kit members receive in the mail. The site will also provide greater detail on benefits and special offers.

Categories
Company News and Announcements

2015 TMC Report: Agency Universe Grows Total Volume; Consolidation Remains at the Forefront

BUSINESS TRAVEL NEWS | JUNE 15, 2015

2015 TMC Report: Agency Universe Grows Total Volume; Consolidation Remains at the Forefront

Categories
Company News and Announcements

2015 Business Travel Survey

BUSINESS TRAVEL NEWS | JUNE 15, 2015 

2015 Business Travel Survey

Categories
Business Travel Travel Industry

Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) Convention 2015

GBTA 2015Christopherson Business Travel is pleased to announce our continued sponsorship of the annual GBTA Convention to be held this year in Orlando, Florida, July 25-29. This year’s convention is estimated to draw more than 6,000 attendees from 58 countries, making it the largest business travel event in the world. In addition to key note speakers and educational opportunities, the convention hosts a tradeshow with more than 300 companies exhibiting, including Christopherson Business Travel.

If you are attending the GBTA Convention this year, please plan to visit the Christopherson booth (#363) to learn about the innovative business travel technology solutions we have been developing for release at the convention. Each attendee who participates in a 3-minute product demo of those technologies will have the opportunity to draw for a $5 to $100 gift card. We look forward to seeing you at GBTA!

Categories
Business Travel Travel Management

Guarantee Success in Your Travel Program

Screen shot 2015-06-05 at 5.09.14 PM
15 Key Concepts for Travel Program Excellence

At the Rocky Mountain Business Travel Association’s May luncheon, Bradley Seitz, owner, President and CEO for Topaz International, presented 15 Foundational Concepts for Success of a Travel Program. His remarks provided valuable advice for travel managers building a new travel program or enhancing an existing one.

Three of his concepts I found particularly important were:

1. Connect and Listen to Your Customers

  • Is there a way for them to provide you with feedback?
  • You should have multiple vehicles for travelers to reach you.

2. Measure Performance

  • Performance measurements are vital to gauging success.
  • Measurements lead the way for improvement.

3. Efficiency and Quality

  • A quality program begins with service.
  • Speed enhances value.

To review his full presentation and learn more about building a successful business travel program, click here.

Categories
Business Travel

Business Travel Fun Facts

As frequent travelers, many of us think we know all about the travel industry, but here are nine travel facts I bet you didn’t know:

Fun facts: business travel

  1. Delaware is the only U.S. state without a major commercial airport.
  2. A plane takes off or lands every 37 seconds at Chicago O’Hare International Airport.
  3. Pilots and co-pilots are required to eat different meals in case one of them gets food poisoning.
  4. Lufthansa is the world’s largest purchaser of caviar, buying more than 10 tons per year for their in-flight caviar service available in first class.
  5. The average service life of a jet airliner is approximately 30-35 years.
  6. On a three-hour flight, the human body can lose up to 1.5 quarts of water.
  7. In 1987, American Airlines saved $40,000 by taking out one olive from each salad they served.
  8. Turbulence, which is the biggest cause of in-flight injuries, can actually happen in clear, cloudless weather as well as bad weather.
  9. TSA collected more than a half million dollars in unclaimed change at security checkpoints in 2014.
Categories
Business and Leadership Business Travel

KPIs vs KPMs: What’s the difference?

When communicating to your stakeholders, it is important to know three key items:

  1. Know your audience.
  2. Know your metrics.
  3. Know your message.

In this post, I would like to focus on No. 2–know your metrics–as it’s important to correctly measure and report the value of KPIs and KPMs.

Below is a helpful graphic from BCD Travel to help distinguish the two.

Screen shot 2015-06-02 at 4.32.11 PMUltimately, you should focus on the measurement that will have the most impact on your stakeholders and create the most value.