This week: A quartet of key SkyTeam airlines operating in Canada hosted top tier agencies at a gala in London; TTAND partners with Farenexus; Uniglobe expands; American Express Global Business Travel helps clients reduce carbon emissions; and Virtuoso homes in on its ever-expanding Hotels & Resorts portfolio; and Direct Travel enhances its technology platform.

Delta Air France, KLM, and Virgin Atlantic

Delta Air Lines, Air France, KLM, and Virgin Atlantic, hosted an exclusive three-day Agency Elite event in London recently (banner photo) to honour the partners’ top-tier agencies. The journey began with a luxurious Virgin Atlantic Upper Class flight to London Heathrow and included access to Virgin Atlantic’s Clubhouse and partner lounges.

The highlight of the event was the Agency Elite gala dinner at The Londoner hotel in Leicester Square. The evening included an awards ceremony and a lavish dinner in the exclusive Green Room, where agency representatives and airline executives shared stories and insights, celebrating the spirit of collaboration that defines this trans-Atlantic partnership.

Agency Elite 2025 award recipients included Air Miles Rewards Program; Airline Ticket Centre Ltd.; American Express Global Business Travel; BCD Travel – Voyages BCD; CWT; Direct Travel Canada; Flight Centre Travel Group; Huntington Travel Group; International Travel; Maritime Travel; Mondee Canada Inc.; Multi Culture Travel World Ltd.; Royal Scenic; Sky Bird Travel & Tours Canada; Skylink Voyages Inc.; Skyroute | Voyzant Travel; TravelBrands; Voyages à la Carte

TTAND 

The Travel Agent Next Door (TTAND) has partnered with Farenexus to streamline its booking process by integrating Farenexus’ smart and advanced agent portal, nexusWind. The partnership will provide TTAND’s 1,500+ agents with an intuitive, all-in-one platform to easily book flights, hotels, and car rentals, further enhancing their ability to serve clients efficiently.

nexusWind, the flagship product from Farenexus, offers a comprehensive solution by integrating New Distribution Capability (NDC), Global Distribution System (GDS), and net fares on a single screen. This feature enables agents to find and secure the best flight options for their clients with ease, ensuring seamless customer service.

Moreover, TTAND will be the first agency to benefit from Farenexus’ Client Link integration. This innovative feature will allow TTAND agents to log in directly from their Client Link page into nexusWind, providing a streamlined, unified interface to manage client bookings without the need for multiple systems.

Amex GBT

American Express Global Business Travel (Amex GBT) has launched a sustainability recommendations feature designed to allow Amex GBT customers using Egencia to access customized, data-driven recommendations to help reduce their carbon emissions based on their travel behaviour and actual carbon footprint.

Developed in response to direct feedback from travel managers, the feature provides customized guidance on how to make travel programs more sustainable by explaining the impact on carbon emissions and travel costs. It equips companies with a comprehensive view of their travel program’s carbon emissions, actionable recommendations to help address and mitigate emissions, and cost impact. The recommendations include:

• Air versus rail: A combination of the air vs. rail feature and a travel policy that showcases relevant rail options. Travel managers determine when it’s reasonable to take the rail alternative, such as for shorter trips.
• Carbon efficient flights: Highlights flights that are more efficient than average. Travelers can easily compare and select these in the flight results search page.
• Cabin class preferences: Travel managers can steer travelers to less carbon intensive cabin classes based on the length of the flight.
• SAF (Sustainable Aviation Fuel): Travel managers can see SAF lifecycle reductions in their travel program and access insights information from Avelia, one of the world’s first and now most established SAF procurement platforms.

Travel managers can then easily implement the recommendations through a direct link to their policy page, giving them seamless control of their program through self-service. Additional details are available in a new sustainability recommendations dashboard in the travel managers’ personalized analytics studio.

John Sturino, SVP of Product and Engineering, Amex GBT, said: “We understand companies are concerned about managing all impacts of their travel. In addition to having a competitive marketplace that gives them the best choices of content and prices, we’re also making it easier for them and their employees to make better choices. Our integration of personalized recommendations will give travel managers greater control of the environmental impact of their travel program and empower them to make data-informed decisions that can drive progress towards achieving their company’s sustainability goals.”

Uniglobe Travel

Canadian-based Uniglobe Travel has recently completed an extensive expansion, adding over a dozen TMCs spanning Asia-Pacific, Middle East, Africa and Europe. The expansion was primarily through the acquisition of the contracts of the ITP Network, the global agency consortium centered around account networking and a global hotel program.

The ITP members that are now part of Uniglobe Travel will benefit from expanded technology and supplier offerings, a much larger global network of partner agencies and more robust support from the Uniglobe Travel head office in Vancouver and regional office in London. The regional team in London will be bolstered by the addition of Hans Rudbeck Dahl and Kristel Ruinet, both formerly from ITP.

This move expands our network by adding agencies in a number of key markets, which benefits our existing member agencies, the members we’re welcoming from ITP and their collective clients” said Martin H. Charlwood, President and COO of Uniglobe Travel International. “We’re also pleased to be able to add two key staff members to both facilitate this transition and enhance our support teams for the long term.”

Virtuoso

Virtuoso reports it has added over 100 hotels and resorts into its preferred partner portfolio over the past year for a total of over 1,800. Virtuoso’s distinct Hotels & Resorts program encompasses a diverse variety of accommodations, ranging anywhere from expansive properties such as onefinestay’s more than 5,000 villas and residences and the 4,750-room Wynn Las Vegas, to intimate stays like Ladder, a Ted Turner Reserve in Caballo, New Mexico, and Moto Nao Nao, a private island with three villas in French Polynesia.

Almost half of Virtuoso’s preferred hotels have fewer than 100 rooms and over a quarter of them have less than 50.

This year, the network anticipates over 20 top properties to be added to the Virtuoso Preview Property program – a pre-opening partnership that provides early access to Virtuoso’s advisors for training, networking as well as sales and marketing efforts.

According to Virtuoso’s proprietary data on luxury travellers across 17 global markets, suites and villas are a hot commodity, with 38% of global respondents citing their intention to book a suite and 27% of respondents intending to book a villa.

Direct Travel

In a move designed to simplify the booking process for its travel advisors, Direct Travel has announced a significant enhancement to its proprietary Direct Lift technology platform.

Launched in 2022 to enable its advisors to reserve, ticket, change, cancel, and invoice air transactions, the tool can now provide agents with access to its leading hotel agreements in an easy-to-use interface that can be accessed 24/7 across the globe.

“Post pandemic, we are seeing a huge surge in the demand for FIT travel,” says Stephen Smith, Direct Travel’s SVP of Strategy & Marketing. “Having access to exclusive rates and complimentary amenities and benefits, such as airport transfers, upgrades, daily breakfast, early check-in and late check-out makes using a Direct Travel advisor invaluable.”

Best of all, he adds, Direct Lift is extremely user-friendly and perfect for the advisor not familiar with the GDS. “With a quick and intuitive search, our 900-plus leisure advisors can access the best pricing in a straightforward interface.”

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