2017 U.S.-Booked Air Volume: $93 million
Principal Air Suppliers: Delta,
American, Alaska, Avianca, Copa, Cathay Pacific & Air New Zealand
Principal Hotel Suppliers: Marriott,
Choice & La Quinta
Principal Car Rental Suppliers:
Enterprise Holdings & Hertz
Principal U.S. Online Booking Tool:
e-Travel Management
U.S.-booked air volume for The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-Day Saints rose $3 million in 2017, and the church projects a $2 million
increase in U.S.-booked air spend for 2018. Forty-nine percent of U.S.-booked
airline tickets went through approved online booking tools in 2017, 75 percent
of those completed without an agent. While LDS does not have a consolidated
global agency, CWT handled 15 percent of its U.S.-booked air volume in 2017.
The church, which has a travel program of more than 65,000 missionaries and
other travelers who go to nearly every country in the world, has a single
global travel policy.
In 2017, the church performed several regional RFP's for
airline volumes throughout the world and completed a global rental car supplier
RFP. In recent years, the church has put a particular focus on evaluating
airlines not only on cost but also on the quality of service they provide. Last
year, the travel team introduced a metric called quality cost per mile rather
than using the standard cost-per-mile metric. That has boosted traveler
satisfaction and spurred deeper cooperation between the church and its airline
partners, which the metric helped consolidate.
The church last year significantly strengthened the duty of
care coverage of its travelers and had more than 60,000 visas processed or
renewed worldwide. In terms of travel policy changes, LDS strengthened its global
duty of care policy and added an official policy regarding ridehailing
services.