Carlson Wagonlit’s booking analysis points way to more personalised travel

Women book their business flights 1.9 days earlier than men and pay an average of around 2% less for their tickets as a result, a new study reveals.

Women book their business flights 1.9 days earlier than men and pay an average of around 2% less for their tickets as a result, a new study reveals.

For companies with 1,000 business travellers, the difference – and the potential saving – is almost $50,000 a year. That rises to $1 million for a traveller base of 20,000, according to the research conducted by Carlson Wagonlit Travel.

The analysis of 6.4 million air booking transactions also found that people tend to book flights further in advance the older they are.

Additionally, as people’s flying frequency increases, they typically book flights closer to their departure date.

However, the gender gap almost disappears among the most frequent travellers.

CWT Solutions Group senior data and analytics director, Catalin Ciobanu, said: “This analysis technique opens up a whole new range of opportunities in the quest for personalised travel.

“It can also be applied to many other types of traveller segmentation, including geography, booking channel used, or individual business unit, for example.

“Ultimately, by knowing our travellers better we can improve both their experience, as well as the effectiveness and efficiency of corporate travel programmes.”