business

Lisa Buckner, a senior vice president at Carlson Wagonlit Travel, works with corporate customers in Minnesota and Wisconsin. From her office in Edina, she discussed issues currently facing business travelers. Here is an edited version of her interview with the Star Tribune.

Q Many people are concerned about the health of the overall U.S. economy. Are you seeing a softness in business travel bookings? How are your clients reacting to what has been occurring, especially since problems have cropped up in the housing market?

A They are in a budgeting cycle. Many of them are going to be flat for [bookings] next year. Some of it depends on the business sector. The manufacturing environment is looking pretty much flat.

Some of the investment companies that we are working with are predicting some growth in [travel] transactions. Retail is very conservative.

The difference that they are experiencing is in global travel. With India and China, we are seeing lots of opportunities there in working with customers.

Q During the first three quarters of 2007, what type of year has it been for business travelers using Carlson Wagonlit?

A It has been a good year for us. Travel is up. Many of the companies out of the Twin Cities that we work with have done some acquiring or been acquired. We see some growth there. Out of Minneapolis, from a [travel booking] standpoint, it's about a 5 percent increase.

Q What do you expect for 2008?

A [Carlson Wagonlit] is budgeting for transactions to increase 2.5 percent.

Q Many of the largest Twin Cities-based businesses are global. What are their major international travel destinations? Are they shifting more of their overall spending to international travel?

A I wouldn't say that it is shifting more, but we definitely have some growth there. In the Asia market, for sure. India has really surfaced for some of our customers. Europe has always been strong for us.

We did spend quite a bit of time in the [business advisory] board meeting talking about managing international travel. There was a lot of discussion about who goes business class and who goes coach.

Q During the summer of 2007, major airlines faced a high number of delays and Northwest Airlines struggled with cancellations. What did Carlson Wagonlit do to help those travelers survive a tough summer?

A The first thing we did was call Northwest and say, "Hey, we have a serious problem here. We need the ability to see when these flights are being canceled and what the opportunities are to rebook."

Anything canceled within seven days, they call it an "unscheduled cancellation" and they would not send the information to the travel management companies.

Q The passengers directly affected would be notified. But were you unable to see the cancellations in your computer system?

A Right. That was a real problem. It was a programming issue for them, but our customers expect us to know this. [Northwest] turned around very quickly. They did some programming. So the next time around when the cancellations came through [in July], we were able to get those changes immediately. They were very attentive.

Q Northwest Airlines left bankruptcy on May 31 and is now placing a renewed focus on customer service. Based on what you hear from business travelers, what does Northwest need to do?