Flexibility at the core of future business travel
The way we travel has changed drastically and has become significantly more precarious and complicated.Check-in times have increased, travellers often need to factor in time (and money) and international travel, in particular, has become quite difficult as every country has its own travel restrictions and requirements in place. It has become common practice to check the requirements and FAQs of your destination country’s travel website multiple times as your trip nears closer.Flexibility has therefore become a must-have for both business travellers and leisure travellers seeking a much-needed getaway from the stresses of the current reality. Restrictions are continuously tightened and loosened as the world rolls out vaccination drives while simultaneously dealing with newer mutations of the virus such as the delta variant.In response to this, many travel service providers have adapted their policies to make it possible for travellers to alter or cancel their bookings for free or for a small fee. Even low fare airlines like JetBlue have applied a temporary waiver to such fees due to the pandemic.The shift towards more flexible travel options for corporate travel had begun well before the Coronavirus pandemic. As Perk’s co-founder and CEO, Avi Meir wrote on EU-Startups.com,“travellers have long been seeking less rigid booking policies and fares from airlines, for example. The pandemic simply made this non-negotiable. At this point, I think that travellers and travel managers will continue to demand the flexibility to change or cancel any aspect of a trip, no matter the reason, and no questions asked.”:format(webp))