SECURITY EXPERTS aren't anticipating wide-scale bans on carry-on luggage in the wake of the recent British terrorist crackdown, but closer inspections are probably here to stay.

1. September 2006 Vol 3, no 13
Carry-on confusion
By Allan Leibowitz
SECURITY EXPERTS AREN’T
anticipating wide-scale bans on
carry-on luggage in the wake of
the recent British terrorist crack-
down, but closer inspections are
probably here to stay.
Among those predicting tighter
pre-boarding security is Edouard
Maze-Sencier de Brouville, sen-
ior travel security consultant with
the Control Risks group. “More
iJET Intelligent Risk Systems, cial impact, according to Interna-
security means more and better
there are also rumblings in the tional SOS regional security di-
scanners, more trained personnel
security community about possi- rector, Tony Ridley.
to man these (and) larger search
ble restriction on passengers car-
areas, all of which have financial “Airline companies and airports
rying electronic devices capable
implications for the airport au- have successfully passed on an
of transmitting a signal.
thorities,” he notes. array of increased costs by the
The risk, highlighted by incident addition of line item surcharges
According to John Thorn, trans-
at Schipol in August, is that a ter- (fuel, taxes, administration, An-
portation industry analyst with
rorist could transmit a signal to a sett surcharge, security) over the
bomb planted in checked lug- past few years. A similar cost re-
Inside this issue: gage. covery method is likely to be im-
plemented and apportioning the
Still an enabler 4 “This situation could end the de-
responsibility of the increase to
bate over allowing in-flight cell
those service elements. The in-
Lessons from Lebanon 6 phone use and lead to a perma-
convenience is more likely to be
nent ban,” he says.
Commissions 8 borne by travellers,” he says.
Whatever measures are adopted,
Harbouring eventsan 10 travellers won’t escape the finan- To page 2
btTBulletin is published by PUBLISHER: Nigel Wardropper EDITOR: Allan Leibowitz
BTTB Marketing Pty Ltd nigelw@bttbonline.com editor@bttbonline.com
ACN 088 536 903 PO Box 825 Paradise Point Qld 4216 P O Box 389 Kenmore Qld 4069
www.bttbonline.com T: +61 7 5529 3892 F: +61 7 5529 3893 T: +61 7 3374 3792

2. Page 2
Carry-on confusion
From front page “not sustainable in the long term,
and have since been altered to
Chris McGoey, a director of
something close to the previous
McGoey Security Consulting,
level”.
observes that some airports are
“reaching the breaking point to “The current size restriction of
through-put all the passengers cabin luggage in the UK does not
onto a flight in a timely manner”. appear to bring anything in secu-
“Many airports are poorly de- rity terms, but is already an im-
signed and don’t have the space provement on the all-out ban,” he
for staging all the new and ever- says. “The inevitable knee-jerk
changing security requirements,” reaction will have to be followed
he says. aviation security policy post-9/11 by better security, maybe along
has been “to prevent another air- the lines of passenger profiling
French security analyst, Alain
craft from ever again being used already in place in some coun-
Establier, of Airport Security
as a weapon of mass destruction”. tries with some high-profile air-
Consulting, is even more
lines, but this obviously opens a
alarmed, believing that “It could be argued that this mis-
new, contentious human rights
“everything could be transformed sion was accomplished a couple
debate on how this profiling is
into an explosive item”. This, he of years ago,” he says. However,
undertaken, by whom, following
says, means that authorities have Mitchell cites cynics who have
what criteria, and so on.”
to re-examine current detection criticised the billion-dollar ‘front-
technology – and, more impor- of-house’ spending spree as The call for passenger profiling is
tantly, the skills of security per- “mere window dressing” and un- echoed by Establier who also
sonnel, many of whom he be- necessary. wants to see airports investing in
lieves are incapable of accurately better scanning technology and
reading the scanner images. “The opportunity now is to fi-
operators and more rigorous
nally get aviation security right,
screening of ground staff whom
Establier fears the worst when at the policy level, and in the ap-
he identifies as the next line of
terrorists follow the lead of drug propriate overall context,” says
threat.
smugglers and begin ingesting Mitchell. However, he notes that
explosives. He points out that security is more like a moving “We drew a ‘Maginot Line’ in
“99.8% of the airports are today target. “Close one gap and the front of boarding while neglect-
unable to detect a piece of Sem- bad guys exploit another. Box ing the back and the sides: cater-
tex (plastic explosive) carried (on cutters one day, explosives in ing, ground staff, private security
the body)”. shoes the next, shoulder-fired and police forces, connecting
rockets, then sports drink con- flights, etc,” he points out, noting
Kevin Mitchell, chairman of the
tainers.” that criminals are already using
Business Travel Coalition, hopes
accomplices with airside access.
that the recent scare will lead leg- De Brouville points out that the
islators to more viable, enduring measures including the ban on If airlines and airport authorities
security arrangements. He notes carry-on luggage imposed at the do decide to curb carry-on lug-
that the mission of the US federal height of the British scare were gage in the future, this raises

3. Page 3
a number of challenges for
business travellers.
line guidelines, minimize carry-
on goods such as electrical
Take
a look
(items) and toiletries, allow addi-
Frontier Solutions & Strategies
tional time for check-in and
director Paul Hughes points out
monitor news services for any
that while the carry-on ban meant
in the
changes to the security and avia-
electronic gadgets such as lap-
tion environment,” advises SOS’s
tops, MP3 players, mobile phones
Ridley.
and even cameras were diverted
mirror
to the hold, typical laptop cases McGoey’s advice is to arrive at
or cabin bags offer little protec- the airport early. “Maintain a
tion from damage or theft . positive and friendly attitude
when dealing with airport secu-
and
His company distributes a range
rity protocols,” he adds.
of protective cases which can be
used as carry-on or check-in lug- According to Establier, this is a
you’ll
gage. But the risks aren’t limited good time to compare the secu-
to physical damage. “Our per- rity preparedness of various air-
sonal data and identity informa- lines – and “choose the company
tion on our laptops, PDAs and according to this benchmark”.
see
mobile phones are also at risk. It’s also important, he says, to
However, these can be protected select airports which are able to
using encryption, biometric fin- balance the need for security with
your
gerprint recognition and pass- efficient baggage handling and
words so that even if our prized traveller processing. And when
electronic gadget does fall into travelling in Europe, he says,
the wrong hands, our secrets and consider rail as an alternative.
new
personal data will not be re-
“The current climate is difficult,
vealed,” he advises. “And of
but corporate travellers still need
course, keeping copies of the
to go about their work, holding
boss.
most important information is
meetings, striking deals and win-
paramount, whether it is a paper
ning business,” says Control
copy or an electronic copy of
Risks’ de Brouville. “It is a good
your data files (from your laptop,
opportunity for companies to re-
PDA, MP3 player or mobile
view their incident management
phone) which has been saved to a
plans, their travel security and
portable storage device.”
information security policies.” Looking for your travel career
While travellers can’t do much to take-off? TravelManagers offer
In similar vein, iJET’s Thorn says you the freedom, the flexibility and
about the security environment,
travellers should increase their the independence you’re looking
they can take steps to reduce the
situational awareness and work for. See our web site for details.
inconvenience of some of the
toward becoming more security
heightened measures. www.travelmanagers.com.au
savvy. “Proper preparation is
“Ensure all baggage is within air- key,” he says.
TravelManagers

4. Page 4
Travel still an enabler
AMERICAN EXPRESS COM- rate Travel Executives found that tion, business efficiency and the
MERCIAL Card vice president nearly 92% of chief financial of- bottom line.
David Reimer recently told the ficers plan to spend the same or
Talent Retention:
Australian Business Travel Asso- more money on travel this year –
ciation conference that travel primarily because they are travel- Travel is highly emotive. It takes
should be seen as a key part of ling more often, but also due to a lot out of people, yet it still car-
the business process. Here is a the higher costs of business ries a degree of prestige. Poor
summary of his address: travel. Interestingly, value for handling of travel can affect key
money topped the list of travel talent and contribute to dissatis-
Our industry, which has often
concerns for these finance execu- faction, which ultimately impacts
looked at business travel as an
tives, and nearly 68% were also business productivity.
expense, is starting to treat travel
worried about the potential for
as a business enabler – an input Today, the battle to retain talent
world events to affect the safety
that helps a business be more is fierce enough without the
of their travellers as employers
profitable. added burden of having to man-
recognise their duty of care to
ensure the health and safety of age travel effectively.
Organisations can underestimate
their employees. As a result, in the area of safety
the value travel creates, such as
and security, American Express
driving business growth, generat-
At American Express, we under- is seeing more interest among
ing sales or allowing the transfer
stand how insights such as these prospective clients, including
of knowledge.
can have a massive impact on an mid-sized businesses, in what we
A survey conducted earlier this organisation – especially in three offer by way of insurance for
year by the Association of Corpo- key areas. These are talent reten- their employees who go on the
road. Providing such duty of care
is now seen as an integral part of
Aberdeen survey results now available a company’s governance pro-
A number of BTM readers gramme.
recently participated in an Business Efficiency:
expense management sur-
Another important area of focus
vey by AberdeenGroup. for travel is obtaining business
In appreciation, the re- efficiencies.
searchers have made their The ability to help staff focus on
results available online at their core tasks has always been a
http://www.aberdeen.com/ feature of successful organisa-
tions.
link/sponsor.asp?cid=3378
One such example is our Global
Get in quick because the link Card Benchmarking tool which
will soon be removed. u t i l i s e s d a t a t o
help our clients identify and

5. Page 5
evaluate savings opportunities
against peer group comparisons.
More than 50% of our largest
customers have enrolled, and
nearly all are receiving reports
via their American Express ac-
c o u n t m a n a g e r s .
The improved forecast accuracy
and budget planning of the tool
helps validate travel policy and
investment decisions. And it
communicates Travel & Enter-
tainment programme perform-
ance more effectively.
The Bottom Line:
When it comes to money and the
bottom line, ask yourself this As a result, it was no surprise to sations seeing the world as their
question: why do people in your find that more than half the CFOs marketplace and ignoring borders
organisation travel? The core rea- American Express polled this to transact globally, it is more
son for business travel is to get year from our corporate base in important now than ever before
people meeting face-to-face with the US indicated they are focus- that we all continue to examine
colleagues or with clients. Hav- ing on cost-control. Their priority and demonstrate the relevance of
ing your people relaxed and is to get employees behind their any travel investment – be it do-
ready to perform is an essential spending rules and build buying mestic or international.
product of the travel investment. leverage with airlines, hotels and
Yes, business travel is emotive.
car rental firms to turn travel into
The consequences of poor T&E Yes, it can be contentious. But it
a competitive advantage.
management can damage your does not have to be a chore or a
bottom line. And with more and more organi- financial drain.

6. Page 6
Lessons from Lebanon
By Ira Russ
THE RECENT WAR between
Israel and Hizballah dominated
the world's attention, left hun-
dreds of people dead and thou-
sands injured, and trapped thou-
sands of Arab and Western tour-
ists in Lebanon for weeks. But
the war’s impact on companies
operating in the Middle East was
minor compared with its geo-
political implications.
Companies operating in Leba-
non encountered numerous diffi-
culties but most were able to
ruption to business was minimal. workers were able to perform
quickly regroup their personnel
Booz Allen also arranged for their duties elsewhere in the
and resume operations with only
office support personnel to relo- country.
minor setbacks.
cate from Beirut to other loca-
Many manufacturing plants re-
Many organisations provide ser- tions in Lebanon where they
mained open. US-based Limited
vices that can be performed al- could continue to operate nor-
Brands closed its office in Car-
most anywhere, such as consult- mally. Such a minor setback to
miel – a city 15 km from the
ing, marketing and publishing. operations was typical for most
Lebanon border that was hit by
Booz Allen Hamilton, a global companies operating in Leba-
more than 100 missiles – but the
strategy and technology consult- non, as the flexible workforce
company’s factories remained
ing firm, evacuated most of its was able to work in other loca-
open with only a minor drop in
consultants from its Beirut office tions in Lebanon and throughout
production reported. Limited
within five days of the start of the Middle East.
Brands was also able to shift its
the war.
The war’s impact on operations shipping from Haifa port to Ash-
Using information from sources in Israel was also minimal and dod port with no negative re-
like Overseas Security Advisory largely confined to areas north sults. Bill Archer, Limited
Council (OSAC) and iJET Intel- of Haifa. While many compa- Brands’ global security director,
ligent Risk Systems, Ray Tho- nies halted travel to Israel, they says while the Carmiel office
mas, senior manager for busi- allowed employees already in closed for 34 days and some of
ness assurance, was able to help Israel to stay. the workforce relocated to cen-
arrange for the evacuation of tral Israel, he was able to main-
Companies with operations in
most employees from Beirut to tain contact with employees and
northern Israel were forced to
other locations in the Middle operations continued normally
close their local offices for the
East. Thomas says that with help for the most part. Archer lever-
duration of the war, but many
from other regional offices, dis- aged information from iJET

7. Page 7
and local sources to ensure still trapped in Lebanon. With Another security director says
his company leadership was assistance from the Garlin that the key lesson he learned
aware of the actions needed to Group, an international security was the need to develop strong
protect employees. consulting firm, the company relationships with security pro-
evacuated the family to Amman viders around the world so that
The relocation of his associates
in 24 hours. In both cases, senior they do not have to start looking
to central Israel, however, pre-
security managers had to devote for help during a crisis.
sented another challenge by ex-
significant time and assets to en-
posing them to the risk of suicide The war proved to security direc-
sure the operation succeeded.
bombings - which is not as big a tors the need for reliable traveller
concern in the north of the coun- tracking systems, and many
try. companies are now asking em-
“You cannot move into ployees to include personal
The war took place during the
Northern summer vacation sea-
the business continuity travel to high-risk destinations in
their profiles so they can be
son while many workers were phase until you have
found in case of an emergency.
away, which may have lessoned verified that your em-
the impact on business opera- As Thomas says, you cannot
tions. ployees are safe.” move into the business continu-
ity phase until you have verified
Many companies, however –
that your employees are safe.
some without operations in
Lebanon – were faced with While the impact of the war on
evacuating Lebanese nationals business operations was rela-
on vacation in Lebanon. Many of tively minor, the conflict pre-
these companies could not im- sented companies with an oppor-
mediately locate their employ- tunity to test and update emer-
ees, making evacuation more gency plans.
difficult as road conditions wors- Both Ray Thomas and Bill
ened and border crossings Archer say the crisis served as
closed. A major US technology positive reinforcement that em-
and manufacturing company ployees were flexible and capa-
with operations in the Persian ble of performing well under
Gulf region used iJET's Global pressure.
Guardian service to evacuate a
Lebanese employee and his fam- They also agree that the crisis
served as an affirmation that they Ira Russ is regional manager,
ily – including a newborn baby.
have the right systems and secu- Middle East and Africa, for
Days later, the company discov- rity providers in place to handle iJET Intelligent Risk Systems
ered that another employee was crises. (www.ijet.com)

8. Page 8
Commissions and ommissions
COMMISSIONS ARE THE other half of the
ledger in your TMC fee arrangement. Consultant
Tony O’Connor argues that the difference between
a good deal and a bad deal can be several percent
of your entire travel spend. They deserve more at-
tention.
Down But Not Out
The main thing we hear about commissions these
days is that they are falling. The word ‘zero’ is
sometimes heard, as in the “zero airline commis-
sion environment” that is meant to prevail in New you have lost control of their fees, and you have
Zealand. (It doesn’t.) Yes. Commissions, money lost control of their interests.
paid by suppliers to travel agents in return for
blocks of travellers’ business, are falling as suppli- Leakage
ers are more able to compete for business directly.
But they are still a long way from zero. There are two types of commission: those that the
TMC receives, and those it does not. TMCs do not
The commissions that have fallen most, and most receive all the commissions generated by all book-
publicly, are the base commissions; those paid by ings. Non-recovery is higher among hotels, where
suppliers equally to all agents. In some cases these collection rates from small, remote and offshore
are now zero. But over-rides and various other pay- properties are lower. Overall hotel commission re-
ments, while falling, are still mostly at significant covery rates from hotels vary from 70% to 90%.
levels. There is also leakage with some airlines. Back
when all commission revenue was indisputably the
Why They Should Be Yours property of the TMC, TMCs naturally made sub-
stantial efforts to maximise the recovery. Now that
The very spirit and purpose of a fee-for-service ar- much of the commission revenue is claimable by
rangement with a TMC is that you should receive the buyer, the buyer needs to ensure that recovery
all the commission generated by your bookings. efforts are energetic.
That is why fee arrangements replaced rebate
deals, so that you could see and measure exactly Not all commission revenue received by TMCs is
what you are paying, and so that the TMC is no passed onto the client. Your contract might specifi-
longer paid by and beholden to suppliers. Hybrid cally exclude certain commission types.
deals, whereby the TMC charges lower fees but (Unfortunate.) More likely, not all commission
retains some commissions, are still unacceptable types are specified as payable. If some but not all
from a buyer’s viewpoint. If a TMC receives any commission types are specified in the contract,
of the commissions generated by your bookings, those not specified might not be claimable. Also,

9. Page 9
Domestically, what supplier payments do you re-
there can be ambiguity about what is a
“commission”. The term is actually becoming a bit ceive from Virgin Blue and Jetstar? What about in-
of an anachronism. Supplier payments have differ- centive payments? Do you purchase insurance? Ex-
ent names. You should therefore claim “supplier actly which and what amount of commissions were
payments”. Make sure your contract has tight word- not recovered? Why?
ing that is not open to interpretation.
Qantas
Flying Blind
It is important to note that Qantas commissions are
Most travel buyers receive a monthly lump-sum less problematic. For corporate clients with a Qan-
commission payment. Many receive some sort of tas deal, Qantas bundles up all the commissions and
breakdown as to how the figure was derived. But I delivers them directly to the buyer as a point-of-sale
have never seen a breakdown that I regard as ade- discount.
quate. Which commission types, on which airlines,
A More Transparent Future
on what routes and fare types, at what levels, ap-
plied to what base spends, generated in which
Any commissions that might be retained offset fees
month? What amounts are carried over? Ditto for
charged. And so to receive more commissions could
hotels and cars. Yes, it is detailed. But without such
result in an increase in fees. But at least then you
detail you are acting on faith, which is not good
would have a clear, measurable and assessable fi-
supplier management. If you are paying fees, you
nancial position. Discussion of this issue is difficult
have the right to precise commission reporting.
since it can be taken as criticism of suppliers. It is
not. It is an attempt to promote more transparent
Holes in the Bucket
and assessable financial arrangements. The best ar-
rangement is one in which all commissions gener-
We cannot detail all the commission types and lev-
ated are accurately reported in sufficient detail.
els in an article. There are too many, and there are
Those that you receive are good revenue that offset
confidentiality considerations. But to illustrate the
fees. Those that are retained are counted as part of
situation, let’s consider some of the less explored
the effective fee. Simple.
items. When you fly to Houston or Helsinki, you
might use two or three airlines. These inter-line car- •Tony O’Connor is principal of Butler Caroye, a
riers also generate commissions. And when it is a leading independent management consultancy
codeshare flight, what commission is applied? specialising in corporate travel in the Asia Pacific.
Up in the air?
Read about all the airline issues in the next edition of Business Travel Monthly, out next
month.
And if you’re not a subscriber, make sure you get your copy by visiting
www.bttbonline.com

10. Page 10
Harbouring events ambitions
THE SYDNEY HARBOUR
Marriott Hotel has launched a
unique events solution which
should prove popular with direct
corporate business as well as pro-
fessional conference organisers.
Realising its own in-house con-
ference limitations, the 550-room
hotel has linked up with two large
nearby venues, the Crystal Palace
at Luna Park and the Museum of
Contemporary Art for a one-stop
events solution dubbed Quay
Events by Marriott.
According to Angus Pitkethley,
the property’s marketing director, adds. “So the single touch point happy to handle all the initial de-
“the challenge we faced was that is Quay Events by Marriott, posits.
we have a large number of guest through the Sydney Harbour
Pitkethley says most meetings
rooms, but only enough meeting Marriott.”
professionals are familiar with
space for up to 180 people”.
The Quay Events team will also the facilities in the area, so the
In the past, the Circular Quay co-ordinate the negotiations with concept will be more valuable to
property had to refer larger events the venues and take the process direct corporate clients.
on to rival hotels, but it decided through to contract stage.
He identifies pharmaceutical
to look for strategic partnerships
Clients sign individual contracts companies and car companies
with its neighbouring events ven-
with each venue and a single con- who do big events as ideal clients
ues.
tact person is named at each for the concept, and has already
For clients, one of the key bene- venue to manage the event. knocked off one event for Astra-
fits of the Quay Events concept is Zeneca.
Besides liaising with venues, the
the single point of contact with
QE team can also manage logis- The Quay Events concept has not
Marriott.
tics and even transfers between been tried anywhere else in the
Pitkethley explains that the Mar- the venues. group, and other properties are
riott events booking centre fields watching with interest.
At its industry launch, a group
enquiries and then co-ordinates
was taken from the hotel to Luna Pitkethley says there is also scope
with either or both of its partner
Park and on to the MCA by char- to bring on additional partners in
venues on the client’s behalf.
ter yacht. the Circular Quay area to “add
“We’ll get the rate, space and depth”.
Billing, at this stage, is handled
technical information and prepare
individually by each venue al- “But we’re going to walk first
the proposal for the client,” he
though the Marriott team is before we run,” he says.