Travel Week in Review – June 21, 2024

Corporate travel managers surveyed this month by Morgan Stanley project their businesses’ 2024 travel budgets on average will increase 6 percent year over year, a figure slightly lower than respondents projected last fall, but still representing “encouraging” growth, according to the company. The 140 respondents, who were surveyed May 1-15 and represented firms around the world with about $5 billion in aggregate annual corporate travel spend, also projected 2025 travel budgets would increase on average 6.2 percent year over year, according to a new Morgan Stanley report, released Wednesday. Read More…

Most CEOs plan to increase their travel budgets this year, as the C-suite sees business travel as valuable not only for revenue generation but for employee morale, according to a TravelPerk-commissioned report published on Thursday. The Value of Business Travel Report—which included 2,000 company decision-makers outside TravelPerk’s customer base, 540 of whom were C-suite leaders, along with 4,600 business travelers and 625 travel managers and admins within the TravelPerk customer base—showed that 62 percent of CEOs expect a year-over-year increase of their travel budgets. Read More… 

Airlines’ baggage handling improved in 2023, according to aviation technology company SITA. Globally, airlines mishandled 6.9 bags per 1,000 last year, according to SITA’s 2024 Baggage IT Insights Report. That’s down 9.2% from a mishandled rate of 7.6 per 1,000 in 2022, even though passenger traffic increased by approximately 30% in 2023. Among U.S. airlines, the mishandled-baggage rate was 5.77 per 1,000 last year, SITA said. Baggage mishandling was far more likely on international routes than domestic ones, occurring at a rate of 12.1 per thousand for international itineraries compared to 2.4 per thousand for domestic ones.  Read More…

Marriott Bonvoy and Starbucks Rewards members in the United States can now link their accounts to earn more perks. Starbucks and Marriott Bonvoy are teaming up to make earning and redeeming points easier on both platforms. The partnership, which went into effect on Tuesday, allows Marriott Bonvoy and Starbucks Rewards members in the United States to link their accounts and earn more perks,  Read More…

As travelers prepare to hit the road for July 4th, AAA projects that 70.9 million will travel 50 miles or more from home over the Independence Day holiday travel period. AAA included the entire July 4th week, plus the Saturday before and the Sunday after the holiday, in the estimate this year for the first time. As a result, the projected total is a five percent increase compared to 2023 and an eight percent increase over 2019. A record 60.6 million people are expected to travel by car over Independence Day week, an increase of 2.8 million travelers compared to last year. This year’s number surpasses 2019 totals, when 55.3 million people traveled by car over the July 4th week. Read More…