top of page
Search
    • Oct 21, 2020
    • 5 min read

STM Travel News - October 2020

October 21, 2020

STM hosted clients to an interactive Travel Talk, Taking Action While Travel Recovers, aligning survey results with our initiatives. You may now view the presentation here.

STM to Sunset STO

As many of you have experienced first-hand, this pandemic has dramatically changed the travel landscape over the past 7 months and for the foreseeable future. COVID-19 has led to a variety of strategic discussions within our executive team, including an evaluation of how STM can best serve our clients during this volatile time and beyond. As part of this evaluation, STM has decided to suspend further development of our proprietary online booking tool STO as well as any further client migrations from STO version 4 to STO version 5. As we look to ride out this storm and remain a strong and viable travel management company for our clients, we've made the difficult decision to sunset STO, partner with other reputable booking solutions in the market, and focus any in-house developmental efforts on unique products that will be more impactful for our clients.

While we have been a long-time partner with Concur and will continue to offer this booking tool as an option; we have recently added partnerships with Deem and Upside as well. We are in the process of our internal implementations with Deem and Upside to ensure that we can be a valuable partner and support our clients who choose to use these new booking tool offerings. Though we are discontinuing our STO booking tool, we remain focused on continuing to be a preferred travel partner to our clients as the industry emerges from this downturn.


Short’s Travel Signs with Deem To Offer An Additional Travel Booking Solution For Clients


Short’s Travel Management (STM) announced today that it selected Deem, a leading mobile and cloud technology provider for the corporate travel industry, to include in its new offerings of travel booking solutions for its clients. As it plans to sunset its own proprietary booking tool (STO), later in the year, STM chose Deem as an additional travel booking solution to offer to its medium and enterprise-level clients. Adding Deem to STM’s arsenal of innovative technology solutions will give STM clients an additional intuitive, secure, and powerful choice when selecting online booking software. More


Short's Travel Management Elevates the Customer Experience, Signs with Upside Business Travel


Upside Business Travel ("Upside"), the one-stop-shop corporate travel platform, this week announced Short's Travel Management ("STM") as the latest travel management company to sell a private-label version of Upside's technology. The partnership brings Upside's user-friendly digital travel experience to STM's clients and continues to expand Upside's TMC distribution strategy. More

 

Emerald Club Promotion for STM Clients


Enroll in Emerald Club for a faster, more convenient experience that comes with special privileges. From now through December 31, 2020, we’re offering complimentary Executive status, good through February 2022. (To maintain, rent 12+ times in 2021.)

You'll receive:

Have elevated status with another car, hotel or airline program? Once your Emerald Club profile is linked to your company contract, click here and we will match your status with the equivalent tier in Emerald Club.

 

STM COVID-19 Resources


In light of COVID-19, STM has created and updated a resource page on our main website. The information on this page will assist in making informed decisions when booking travel during this volatile time. More


American Launches Group Travel Platform in Europe, with U.S., Canada to Follow

On Thursday, October 15th, American launched a group travel platform in Europe, with the U.S. and Canada to follow.

Travel Advisors to receive real-time visibility into every aspect of group travel

  • New groups booking platform now available for European points of sale.

  • The platform streamlines the booking process and provides enhanced customer service.

  • Advisors for United States and Canada points of sale to receive access in 2021.

Ahead of the curve, Short’s Travel Management (STM) has already signed up our Travel Agents that book group travel for this platform so they will be ready when it is available in the US in 2021. More


Southwest Business Sees Corp. Demand Stirring as Carrier Braces for Long Recovery

Although corporate travel levels remain deeply depressed, Southwest Airlines during the past few weeks has started seeing a few encouraging signs, Southwest Business VP Dave Harvey told BTN. While corporate business is "definitely still lagging leisure," Southwest Business since Labor Day has seen a "nice pickup" in corporate travel, Harvey said. Government business represents the most activity, followed by the health care industry and transportation and logistics. Overall, however, absolute corporate bans on business travel are becoming less common. More


United Airlines Adds New Winter Routes, Additional International Flights

United Airlines announced a winter international schedule expansion that includes eight new routes and additional flights to 19 destinations in Mexico, the Caribbean and Latin America. More


Carriers, Organizations to Test International Covid-19 Digital Travel Passport

Switzerland-based non-profit The Commons Project Foundation and the World Economic Forum this month plan to start trialing a digital pass that certifies incoming travelers' Covid-19 test status, the organizations announced Wednesday. The trials will be conducted with Cathay Pacific and United Airlines. Called CommonPass, the pass will enable travelers to use their mobile phone to show their Covid-19 test status to crossborder authorities and airline staff in a manner compliant with privacy regulations, including the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation. Covid-19 test results for crossborder travel currently are shared typically on printed paper, or photos of the paper, often from unknown labs and without a standard format or certification. More


TSA Crosses Million-Passenger Threshold in Daily Screenings

Daily passenger screenings by the U.S. Transportation Security Administration passed the 1 million mark on Sunday for the first time since mid-March, the agency reported. For the full week since the previous Monday, TSA screened 6.1 million passengers in the United States, also the highest weekly volume since the pandemic began. Total volume remains significantly down from pre-pandemic levels, however. For the same seven-day period in 2019, TSA screened nearly 17 million passengers, according to the agency's data. More

Aviation Officials Find Low Risk for Coronavirus Transmission on Planes

According to research performed by The International Air Transport Association (IATA), the possibility of being infected with the coronavirus while on an airplane is extraordinarily low. IATA, the umbrella group for most of the world’s airlines, found that since the start of 2020, only 44 cases of COVID-19 were thought to have been transmitted as the direct result of a flight journey. That includes confirmed, probable and potential cases. More

ARC: Sept. Monthly Agency Air Ticket Sales Surpass $1B, First Time Since March

Total air tickets sold in September by U.S.-based travel agencies reached $1.2 billion, the first time sales surpassed $1 billion since March 2020, representing a 56 percent month-over-month increase, according to the Airlines Reporting Corp. Compared with September 2019, however, air ticket sales were 85 percent lower. More

Expired Driver’s License and REAL ID Extension

If your driver's license or state-issued ID expired on or after March 1, 2020, and you are unable to renew at your state driver’s license agency, you may still use it as acceptable identification at the checkpoint. TSA will accept expired driver’s licenses or state-issued ID a year after expiration. DHS has extended the REAL ID enforcement deadline to October 1, 2021.


42 views0 comments

Recent Posts

See All
bottom of page