" In May, do as you please "And it clearly pleases Lufthansa not to confine itself to air transport. Over the last few days, the German group has been diversifying its activities, announcing two new platforms in quick succession that open up new horizons. Starting with the official launch of BusinessToGothe fruit of cooperation with TripActionsin which the German group is one of the investors. " Lufthansa has decided to change its positioning and address end customers directly, offering more than just aircraft, and potentially hotels, in the very important German SME market. "explained last February Zahir AbdelouhabVice President Sales Southern Europe at TripActions. This decision was taken on 4 May with theBusinessToGo launches in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Belgium. Pending wider deployment.
This new tool explicitly targets SMESwith the promise of allowing them to manage their travel programme while earning and using loyalty points from the German group. In concrete terms, small businesses can use BusinessToGo to book hotels, hire cars, train journeys and... plane tickets of course. There is one small subtlety, however: to access airlines outside the Lufthansa fold, SMEs will have to subscribe to the Premium version of the platform.
BusinessToGo can be broken down into two versions. "Essentials gives you access to the entire range of flights offered by the Lufthansa Group and its joint venture partners, as well as a wide range of hotels, trains and car rentals offered by TripActions "say those in charge of the project. They go on to say: " Customers also benefit from improved policy and profile management, negotiated TripActions hotel rates, duty of care and CO2 reporting, real-time management information, 24/7 support and centralised billing, all enabling holistic management of an organisation's travel programme. ". A promising range of features, to say the least, to which the Premium booking outside Lufthansa, as well as access to assistance in configuring the platform. In addition, the BusinessToGo tool is set to be enhanced with further functionalities from this year onwards.
" With the launch of this new travel solution, we are offering small and medium sized non-managed business customers the opportunity to use an innovative and modern business booking platform that combines the latest technology and a wide range of flight, hotel and car hire options with the benefits of PartnerPlusBenefit. "says Stefan Kreuzpaintner, Senior Vice President Sales for Lufthansa Group Network Airlines and Chief Commercial Officer of Lufthansa Airline.
Another tool for meetings and hotels
Coincidentally - or not - two days before the launch of BusinessToGo, Lufthansa also unveiled a another booking tool dedicated to business customers. This time, the German group has entered into a partnership with Hublia specialist in booking meeting rooms and workspaces, and on the work of the Lufthansa Innovation Hub (LIH). The German group has therefore 'plugged in' via an API integration to the platform, which claims a catalogue of 185,000 sites to launch its own platform, Lufthansa Global Spaces. Business travellers can book meeting rooms and workspaces, as well as hotel stays for groups of employees.
The future of work is flexible and, in many cases, not tied to a specific location - and we want to help shape that future.
" We are always on the lookout for new opportunities in the travel sector and would like to create long-term value in a market undergoing major changes which naturally also has an impact on the Lufthansa Group's core businesssays Christine WangGeneral Manager of Lufthansa Innovation Hub. The traditional business travel have considerably decreased since the start of the COVID pandemic. At the same time, we are increasingly seeing that [the boundary between] the categories of 'work' and 'holiday' is becoming blurred. Today's travellers are often away for longer periods and sometimes work remotely. We expect this trend to continue. The offer "Lufthansa Global Spaces is the logical outcome of this observation: we want to offer travellers the smoothest, most enjoyable travel experience possible, even when they're on the move. beyond the plane. Today, this also means enable customers to work from anywhere. The future of work is flexible and, in many cases, not tied to a specific location - and we want to help shape that future. "says Christine Wang.
