Advantage Travel Partnership

COMPANY PROFILE

Key people

Julia Lo Bue-Said, chief executive officer
Guy Snelgar, director of global business travel
Sonia Michaels, head of global business travel & events
Stephen Baxendale, technology partnerships manager
John Hobbs-Hurrell, head of Advantage Global Network
Andy Boorman, head of business development

Number of members

409 (313 UK / 96 rest of the world)

Number of member offices globally

83 countries: 678 locations (UK) / 5,645 (rest of the world)

Technology offered to members

GDS (Travelport), NDC booking platform (Air Gateway), global airfare collaboration platform (eGlobalFares), carbon reporting and offset (Thrust Carbon), traveller safety and risk management (Crisis24, Securewest, GoPass Global), payments solutions (Conferma), data automation & MI reporting (Travelogix & Grasp Technologies), data capture and itinerary intelligence (Traxo), mid & back office solutions (Midoco, Procon), profile management solutions (Umbrella), mobile communication tool (Kudos), visa services (CIBT & Visa Dash), hotel commission collection (CTS Solutions), AI-powered ancillary product attachment (Grapevine), ground transportation / mobility platform Travel (Jyrney), Travel Hero training app (in-house)

Air programme

The Advantage Air programme offers access to nett fare content from up to 50 airlines supported by a centrally managed Advantage Fares Desk service

Hotel programme

The Global Accommodation Programme (GAP) by Advantage is available for all Advantage members to book via their GDS. The programme features over 30,000 properties across four exclusive rate codes and offers thousands of accommodation options from global chain hotels to independent properties and serviced apartments providers. In 2022 the programme became multichannel, allowing members to access a mixture of GDS, bedbank and directly connected supplier inventory

Biggest innovations in 2022

Advantage Financial Services (AFS) now offers business travel insurance to members. This fills a gap in the market enabling members to support their corporate customers in reviewing whether their current insurance is fit for purpose. The cover is sourced through Advantage’s own brokerage from a panel of 60+ insurers
To support member recruitment challenges, Advantage has launched an apprenticeship scheme for both business and leisure agents. Staff retention is also a key objective and Advantage has introduced work-life benefits for members to access
The re-launch of Travel Hero, a platform to help educate and train agency staff with access to information from hundreds of hotel and air suppliers, including important sustainability information