Nicola Lomas spent years carefully accumulating frequent flyer points to protect her 'gold' status at British Airways as she traveled dozens of times a year for work.
As a business travel consultant, she enjoyed the perks. The queue jumps at check-in, and access to lounges and priority boarding for Gold members has helped ease the rigors of a hectic schedule.
So, I was surprised that she was relieved last year when the airline delivered the news that all frequent flyers were dreading. Lomas were downgraded to the “blue” level, meaning the lowest tier, and lost their benefits after gradually reducing business travel over the past few years.
“It's like a breakup in a relationship. And I thought, 'Well, I don't need you anymore.'” But it was a good thing. Because it made me think in a new way.”
Lomas is one of thousands of business people who have changed their travel schedules as habits have been reshaped by an increase in video conferencing during the pandemic, growing environmental concerns and employers looking to cut costs.
Some major European and US companies have cracked down on non-essential travel, while many employees are taking longer trips to reduce repeat visits.
“You have to have a real story behind the trip for it to be approved now,” says one London-based banker. Another notes that senior staff travel almost as regularly as before the pandemic, but junior staff's travel has been cut back.
Business travel is not dead. Global bookings reached 70 percent of 2019 levels in October 2023, up from 63 percent in April, according to survey data from the World Business Travel Association.
Bankers and lawyers still travel to complete deals. Salespeople continue to value face-to-face meetings, and many sectors, such as oil and gas or mining, cannot operate without moving huge workforces around the world.
But industry executives say the forced pause on business travel during Covid-19 restrictions has allowed part of the travel industry to adapt, and as a result the experience has changed.
For Lomas, the post-pandemic business landscape can be described as a new focus on “purposeful travel.”
For companies trying to cut business travel costs, this may mean getting the best value for money by making sure multiple meetings or events are crammed into one longer trip. This also helps reduce air travel, which is typically one of the largest sources of carbon emissions for businesses.
Marriott International said last year that the average length of a business trip in the United States rose 20 percent compared to 2019.
American Express Global Business Travel, one of the world's largest travel management companies, also found that travelers are taking slightly longer trips and booking in advance.
For some travelers, a changing environment means lower prices. The rethink of business travel has come as flight prices have risen sharply since before the pandemic. More than half of the companies surveyed by Deloitte said they tried to reduce travel costs by choosing cheaper accommodation or less expensive flights.
Towards the end of last year, PwC introduced restrictions on UK partners flying business class, in an attempt to reduce its carbon footprint and cut costs. Only people traveling on long-haul overnight flights or those traveling for “business critical” reasons are now allowed to sit in business class.
Marissa Thomas, managing partner at PwC in the UK, told the Financial Times at the time of the announcement that flights accounted for the majority of the company's carbon emissions. “Given that a business class seat contains approximately 50 percent more carbon than a premium economy seat, we ask partners and managers to carefully consider this matter.” [whether] “They need one,” she said.
Meanwhile, US pharmaceutical company Parexel has introduced a travel policy encouraging staff to travel by train rather than air wherever possible. In Germany, where it has more than 750 employees, the company says 96 percent of all relevant domestic trips are now made by train.
Chris Bonney, an independent travel industry consultant, has begun consciously choosing the train over the plane, even when it leads to longer journeys.
While only a small portion of flights across Europe can be easily replaced, Bonney says the train could compare favorably with air travel in terms of “cost, carbon and comfort,” especially since remote working is easier on board.
His trips included an overnight flight between Munich and Milan, which he says was “an absolute pleasure.”
“Normally I would be flying for an hour to an hour and a half [journey] on [a] Low cost airline. . . It was really good value on the train, and I arrived prepared for work in central Milan.
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With the focus on employee well-being, another growing trend is allowing employees to take a few days off on a business trip, or extend their stay by working remotely from a hotel or rented apartment and enjoying the local area.
Business travel company Navan says there has been an “explosion” in so-called “leisure” travel, thanks to flexible travel policies and an increase in flexible working. There was a 72 percent increase in mixed travel bookings in 2023, compared to the previous year.
“By extending their stay for leisure activities, travelers prioritize their physical and mental health, leading to increased job satisfaction and overall productivity,” the company explains.
The rebound in corporate travel since it stalled during Covid restrictions has been led by small and medium-sized businesses, according to Paul Abbott, CEO of American Express Global Business Travel, which manages corporate travel and corporate expenses.
He says using travel management services – rather than relying on employees to make their own plans and bookings – gives companies greater control over bookings, and more detailed information about who is traveling and when.
“Cost pressures mean more scrutiny of budgets. Collecting travel-related emissions data is also essential for those with carbon reduction targets,” he says.
Oliver Ranson, managing director of consultancy Airline Revenue Economics, points out that each company has resumed business travel in different ways, making it difficult to reach sweeping conclusions about the future of corporate travel.
“It's not sector or role specific. It's company specific. You might have a big global media company that's flying higher than ever before. At the same time, another big global media company isn't flying at all. . . . We haven't seen anything like it,” he says. “That's exactly what happened before.”
For Bonnie, the overarching message is to “encourage travelers to be more considerate when they travel, rather than just dropping a hat.”
“Sometimes you have to drop everything and get somewhere, and that's good but not every time. We all came back after Covid and saw it as an opportunity to start with a blank piece of paper and say: let's not go back to the habits we had before.
