GBTA GTP key terms

A specialized agency that books, tickets, and supports a company's business travel under an agreed service model, often providing policy enforcement, reporting, duty-of-care data, and a dedicated account team.

A written set of rules defining what employees may book, how they book it, approval thresholds, and expense rules, designed to control cost, ensure safety, and set consistent expectations across the organization.

The degree to which travelers book and spend within written rules, measured through booking data and expense reports; low compliance usually signals unclear policy, weak tools, or misaligned incentives.

A reservation that breaches one or more written travel rules, such as a higher cabin class or a missed advance-purchase window; it may be permitted by exception but should be captured and explained in reporting.

A workflow requiring a manager or budget owner to authorize a trip before booking, typically triggered by cost thresholds, destination risk, or cabin class, giving control before spend is committed.

The documented process for handling requests that fall outside policy, including who may approve them, what evidence is required, and how exceptions are logged and reviewed for patterns over time.

A web-based system where travelers or arrangers search, compare, and book air, hotel, and rail inventory, usually connected to policy checks, traveler profiles, and corporate negotiated rates.

A computerized network such as Amadeus, Sabre, or Travelport that aggregates airline, hotel, and car inventory and lets agents and booking tools shop, price, and issue tickets.

An airline-led data standard that lets carriers sell rich, dynamic offers through modern APIs instead of legacy channels, changing how content, ancillaries, and servicing reach corporate buyers.

The record in a reservation system holding a traveler's itinerary, name, contact details, ticketing status, and special service requests; it is also a key data source for traveler tracking.

An alphanumeric airline code identifying the fare rule attached to a ticket, including its booking class, validity, change conditions, and minimum-stay requirements; it governs what flexibility the traveler actually bought.

A charge for an airline or rail extra beyond the base fare, such as checked baggage, seat selection, or onboard meals; ancillaries are a growing and often poorly captured share of travel spend.

A non-refundable ticket, or the unused portion of one, that retains value after a cancellation; tracking and reusing these credits prevents the organization from paying twice for the same journey.

A price agreed between a buyer and a supplier, usually in exchange for volume commitments or marketing support, and loaded into booking channels so travelers see it automatically when eligible.

A supplier selected through a sourcing process to receive a larger share of company bookings in return for better pricing, amenities, or service commitments, and promoted through policy and tooling.

A structured document inviting suppliers or TMCs to bid on defined requirements, pricing models, and service levels, forming the basis for comparison, negotiation, and eventual contract award.

A contract schedule setting measurable performance commitments, such as booking response times, telephone answer rates, or reporting deadlines, together with remedies when those targets are missed.

A quantified measure chosen to track whether the travel program is meeting its goals, for example cost avoidance per trip, policy compliance rate, or average ticket price against a benchmark.

Comparing the organization's fares, rates, and program costs against peer or market data to judge competitiveness and to set realistic targets for negotiations and budget planning.

The full expense of a journey including airfare, lodging, ground transport, meals, ancillaries, and the internal cost of managing it, used instead of fare alone when judging value.

The discipline of capturing, categorizing, and analyzing all travel-related expenditure so leaders can see patterns, negotiate better, forecast budgets, and target savings where they matter most.

Matching booked travel against supplier invoices and employee expense claims to confirm what was actually paid, recover credits, and close the gap between booked and settled spend.

A company-issued payment card scheme, often with individual or central billing, that captures travel spend automatically, simplifies reconciliation, and provides data for policy monitoring.

A stored record of a traveler's identity, documents, preferences, loyalty numbers, and cost center, used to speed booking, apply entitlements, and support the traveler during disruption.

The organization's legal and ethical obligation to protect employees traveling on business, covering risk assessment, communication, insurance, and a response plan when incidents occur abroad.

The practice of knowing where employees are and where they plan to go, using PNR, booking, and mobile data, so the organization can locate and assist them during a crisis.

Identifying, rating, and mitigating threats to travelers and to the program itself, from destination instability and health outbreaks to supplier failure and data protection breaches.

Movement of booking volume between suppliers, often tracked as a program metric because negotiated discounts usually depend on delivering an agreed share to the preferred vendor.

Managing the environmental and social impact of business travel, typically through emissions measurement, modal shift to rail, efficient routing, and supplier selection criteria.

The person accountable for designing and running the corporate travel program, balancing policy, supplier contracts, traveler experience, safety, and budget while reporting results to stakeholders.

A measure of how well the program serves the people who travel, gathered through surveys and feedback; poor satisfaction often drives travelers to book outside channels.

A commercial link between a buyer or booking channel and a single supplier's own inventory system, bypassing a GDS; it can improve content access but complicates servicing and data consolidation.

Combining booking, card, and expense data from multiple sources into one view so the program can be measured consistently and negotiations are supported by complete volume figures.

A scored assessment of a destination's safety at a given time, covering crime, health, weather, and civil unrest, used to trigger approvals, briefings, or travel restrictions.

A curated set of hotels with negotiated rates and amenities, promoted to travelers through booking tools and policy, and monitored for rate availability and actual booking share.

A supplier charge for altering or voiding a booking after ticketing or confirmation; understanding these rules helps buyers weigh flexible fares against the risk of disruption costs.

Official or supplier-issued guidance warning about conditions at a destination, such as security threats or weather events, which the program uses to decide whether travel should proceed.