SOUTHLAKE, Texas–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Jan. 11, 2005–Showing a continued shift by many corporations to a new breed of corporate travel agency, Travelocity Business(SM) today announces it is providing all travel management services and traveler support for Aetna’s employee travel. With more than 5,000 travelers and approximately $40 million spent annually in travel, Aetna’s is one of the largest travel programs to date to exclusively use a full-service, online travel agency. This move offers an example of how a leading-edge company can transform its travel to maintain high levels of service, while driving down costs.
“Aetna is excited to be partnering with a leader in the travel services market,” said Coreen Marcroft, director of Aetna Travel Services. “Travelocity Business’ experience in corporate travel and commitment to creating a better travel experience makes it an ideal partner to help us transform our corporate travel program. Aetna selected Travelocity Business based on its commitment to best-in-class customer service and its focus on delivering full service and significant savings.”
In addition to providing its powerful online technology, Travelocity Business is offering Aetna a complete range of standard and VIP services to help manage travel and support travelers around the clock. It is also providing a wide array of exclusive Travelocity Business deals that complement Aetna’s own negotiated discounts for flights, car rentals and hotels.
“In business, there are a few leaders that show the rest of the world how to be more productive at a lower cost,” said Scott Hyden, general manager of Travelocity Business. “We are thrilled to be working with an innovator like Aetna that shares our philosophy of focusing on how we can break convention to deliver greater value to customers. We believe this relationship offers significant evidence that many corporations are moving to a new way of managing travel – one that leverages technology to lower costs, while offering the best possible travel experience.”
As one of the nation’s leading providers of health care, dental, pharmacy, group life, disability and long-term care benefits, Aetna puts information and helpful resources to work for its approximately 13.6 million medical members, 11.6 million dental members, 8.3 million pharmacy members and 13.3 million group insurance members to help them make better informed decisions about their health care and protect their finances against health-related risks. Aetna provides easy access to cost-effective health care through a nationwide network of more than 646,000 health care professionals, including over 385,000 primary care and specialist doctors and 3,908 hospitals. For more information, please visit www.aetna.com.
About Travelocity Business
Travelocity Business is a full-service corporate travel agency that helps companies easily manage travel and reduce costs, while providing more choices to travelers. Travelocity Business combines the savings and convenience of online with the full service of dedicated agents available 24/7 who typically answer the phone in 20 seconds, and within 60 seconds guaranteed (see site for guarantee details.) Companies can cut travel costs through flight deals, Web fares, hotel discounts and service fee savings — representing an average savings of more than $100 per trip, including airfare savings averaging 26 percent per ticket and service fee savings of up to 84 percent (see site for savings details.)
Travelocity Business combines the expertise, service and travel choices of Travelocity with corporate experience gained from serving more than half of the Fortune 200. For more information, companies can visit www.travelocitybusiness.com.
Cautionary Statement
Statements in this release which are not purely historical facts, including statements about the expected increased use of full service online travel agencies by corporations or other statements about anticipations, beliefs, expectations, hopes, intentions or strategies for the future, may be forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements are based upon information available to Sabre Holdings Corporation on the date of this press release. Sabre Holdings Corporation undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Any forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from the events or results described in the forward-looking statements, including risks or uncertainties related to competition from established and emerging travel distribution channels and structural changes within the travel industry, such as competition from alternative travel distributors such as online vertical search engines. Sabre Holdings Corporation may not succeed in addressing these and other risks. Further information regarding factors that could affect our financial and other results can be found in the risk factors section of Sabre Holdings Corporation’s most recent filing on Form 10-Q with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
CONTACT: VOLLMER
Mary Kate Smither, 972-488-4790
marykate@vollmerpr.com
or
Lisa Pollack, 972-488-4790
lisa@vollmerpr.com
SOURCE: Travelocity Business
