Emburse, a provider of travel and expense software, has added a suite of new features that, according to an announcement, deliver greater insight into air spend and increase flight re-shopping options. The solutions are provided by Tripbam, which Emburse acquired in 2023.
Emburse’s Air Contract Audit, according to the announcement, is the first third-party solution that can import a customer’s airline contracts with 100% accuracy for internal review purposes. It automatically flags any flight booking that doesn’t reflect the terms of the customer’s contract. This allows business travel program managers to easily audit all bookings made by their travelers and secure a resolution for cost discrepancies with their airline partners.
While Air Contract Audit ensures the applicability of the negotiated discount, it also identifies the inventories and fare basis codes that travelers are buying. It then flags those that are not applicable for discount, offering customers new on-demand sourcing opportunities. Additionally, Air Contract Audit monitors contract performance and highlights underperforming terms as well as the reasons why.
Emburse’s advanced Air Intelligence travel analytics now empower customers to obtain even deeper insights into their global air spend. The newest addition to the analytics platform includes “what if” scenario analysis for alternative airlines for an overall program, or specific routes, and cabin class alternatives.
Emburse is also adding NDC (New Distribution Capability) into its re-shopping and analytics solutions, to support the growing number of organizations that have adopted NDC. Customers will now have the option to enable offering NDC fares as an alternative to GDS-EDIFACT booked fares to drive even greater savings potential or calculate the savings lost by not having access to NDC at the point of sale.
Steve Reynolds, general manager of Emburse’s travel division and former CEO of Tripbam, said that with the continuing increase in airfares and airline migration to NDC, it’s more important than ever for organizations to optimize their costs and minimize wasteful spend. Corporate airline contracts, he said, can be hundreds of pages and are incredibly complex, making it exceedingly difficult for organizations to verify that every ticket complies with negotiated discounts. The new Air Contract Audit, he said, delivers the level of accuracy lacking in previous solutions, so companies can now have total visibility into fare discrepancies.
Reynolds added that Emburse is also responding to the increased airline industry shift toward NDC and the growing number of the company’s 2,000 customers that have adopted NDC.
