"Hello, Betty. This is Joe calling from AB Systems.
I need to be in Chicago on Monday morning by 10:00am.
I'd like an evening flight back on Tuesday.
Please fax me the itinerary when it's ready."

Can it really be that easy to book your next business trip? Absolutely!

Egan Travel Ltd. specializes in the needs of business travelers. 75% of our bookings are business related trips. Whether you are going to a meeting in New York City, a convention in Frankfurt, a sales call in Singapore, or a remote mining camp in South America, we can get you there with a minimum of effort on your part.

No business is too big or too small. Our clients include:

• Small business owners that make one or two trips per year.
• Sales people that bounce from one city to the next.
• Large corporations with dozens of employees on the go every week.
• Head offices that want to co-ordinate and track travel patterns and expenditures for branch offices across North America and around the world.
• Companies that bring people in from all corners of the globe for onsite training.
• Schools, charities, student groups, and non-profit organizations making group bookings for their members.

See also: The Egan Travel Information Page and Establishing An Effective Corporate Travel Policy

1) Live Reception - When you call Egan Travel Ltd. during business hours, you do not get trapped in a voice mail jungle. A live person will answer the phone to handle your enquiries, direct your call, or take a message.

(In rare cases when our switchboard is overloaded, surplus calls are directed into voice mail so that you won't get a busy signal).

2) Stored Customer Profile - There's no need to give us the same information every time you call in. We'll set up a customer profile for every active traveller in your company. With a couple of keystrokes on the computer, we can pull up all of your vital information, including all those numbers you can never remember. We can have our system memorize:

• Name, address, phone and fax numbers, etc.
• Credit card numbers.
• Frequent flyer numbers.
• Corporate discount booking codes.
• Preferred airlines and seating (aisle or window)
• Preferred fare classes (business class, unrestricted economy class, or lowest available fare).
• Preferred hotels and rooms (smoking or non-smoking).
• Preferred car rental companies and size of car.
• Location of branch offices or other locations you frequently visit and any pertinent contact information.

3) Dedicated Agent - When you set up a corporate account, one senior corporate travel counsellor will be appointed to handle your bookings. This agent will be dedicated to offering you personal and professional service. In a very short time, your dedicated agent will become intimately familiar with your company's employees and travel patterns.

At Egan Travel, every customer has a name - not a number. We do not operate a giant call center with dozens of poorly trained or inexperienced agents who will be unfamiliar with your travel profile. We do not suffer from high staff turnover like some agencies. Most of our agents (and many of our customers) have been with us at least ten to fifteen years. You can be assured that the person you are dealing with today will still be there to serve you next week, next month, and next year.

The net result is that your trips will be booked quickly and efficiently and will meet the standards that you expect. A further benefit is that we become better able to help you isolate ways to manage your travel budget by selectively altering certain travel patterns.

4) Full Support Staff - If you're in a rush and your dedicated agent is out for lunch, busy with another call, or away on holidays, any of our other agents can easily handle your booking using the customer profile stored in our computers. Our head office can answer most accounting questions within minutes.

5) Free Local Ticket Delivery - Our in-house couriers make deliveries every morning and afternoon to customers in Mississauga, Oakville, Brampton, Burlington, and Etobicoke. Rush deliveries can often be accomodated at no extra charge.

6) Detailed Monthly Reports - Tell us what you need to know and we'll customize a set of reports to meet your requirements. Common choices are:

• Breakdown of expenses by department, region, or traveller. We'll help you track, manage, and budget your travel expenditures.
• Fare Savings Reports which indicate how much you are saving compared to full economy class fares. Your dedicated agent can help you maximize available discounts by using simple methods like booking in advance and staying over a Saturday night.
• Travel summaries with route and carrier data. This information can be used to isolate where your money is being spent, and to help negotiate or maintain volume discounts with scheduled airlines.

7) Electronic Ticketing - The "virtual" world has collided with the real world to create the next wave in business and personal travel.

• Call us from anywhere in the world to reserve your flight.
• We will issue an electronic ticket and then send you the invoice and itinerary by fax or e-mail.
• Just show up at the airport with valid ID and you will be issued a boarding card on the spot - no ticket required.
• Never worry about forgetting your tickets.
• Never endure the hassle and expense of replacing a physical ticket which is lost or stolen.

8) After Hours Service - It's Friday night and you suddenly realize that you forgot to book that flight you need to catch first thing Monday morning. Are you stuck trying to phone airlines and hotels at the last minute? Will you spend hours on hold trying to find the best flight at the best price? Not if you are an Egan Travel customer.

Our Oakville office is open on Saturdays (except in July and August).  Even if you normally deal with the Mississauga office, they can pull up your customer profile in the computer system to make a new reservation or to make changes to an existing booking.

If you need emergency service in the middle of the night (for example, you missed a late night connection and need to make new arrangements before our office opens in the morning), there is an emergency contact number on our ticket jackets. (Charges will apply.)

9) Competitive Prices - Don't waste time on activities that you aren't paid to fulfill and that don't generate revenue for your company. There's no need to spend hours hunting through newspaper ads, calling various airlines, and surfing the internet to find the best prices. Egan Travel will do the work for you. We are travel experts. We will find you the same price or better than what you could find on your own. While we're taking care of you, you can take care of business with the confidence that your travel needs will be met and exceeded.

10) Massive Purchasing Power - Large corporations with million dollar travel budgets often enjoy special contract rates with airlines, hotels, and car rental companies. (If you are a large company that doesn't currently have these contracts, we will help you get them).

What about the small to medium sized companies that don't have that kind of purchasing power? Egan Travel Ltd. will use its purchasing power for you. As part of the largest network of independent travel agencies in North America, we have access to special discounts and exclusive rates with numerous travel operators.

11) International Networking - It's challenging for one agency to handle the varied needs of your corporate branch offices and field sites around the world. The intricacies of local travel planning in foreign countries can sometimes go beyond the scope of the largest and most informed domestic agencies. International communication networks and time differences can further aggravate the process of serving distant customers. We can set up a network of local agencies to better serve your travellers while still co-ordinating central tracking, billing and reporting.

12) Contract-Free Service - Some travel agencies try to lock your company into long term contracts. They might even offer you some fairy tale discounts if you guarantee them a certain level of activity. Egan Travel Ltd. doesn't need contracts to keep our customers. We maintain longstanding partnerships with our corporate customers by offering consistently competitive prices and incomparably professional service.

We will immediately assign a dedicated agent to begin compiling your company's travel profile and help you make your new bookings. We can handle everything without you ever stepping foot in our office.

Need more information? Call us to arrange a personal meeting. Mr. Fergus Egan, owner and manager, will come to your office to discuss your travel needs and explain how we can meet them. Egan Travel Ltd. looks forward to being your preferred travel resource.

See also:

• The Egan Travel Information Page
• Establishing An Effective Corporate Travel Policy