Make Business Trips Easier with These 4 Travel Hacks
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MAY 2016 NEWSLETTER American and United Will Soon Offer PAGE 3 No-Frills Fares Southwest Raises EarlyBird Check-In PAGE 4 Make Business Trips Easier With These 4 Travel Hacks 1 INFocusPAGEPAGE Newsletter 22 Make Business Trips Easier With These 4 Travel Hacks By Brit Tulloch Travelling frequently for work can be 2. Stress less with a travel stick the bag to the back of the seat in draining, on you and your wallet. But it checklist front of you. You can watch what you want doesn’t have to be that way. without straining your neck. It may seem obsessive, but creating There are a few travel tips you can use a travel checklist before you jet off will 4. Save time with the rolling to save money on business trips, making do wonders for your stress levels. You technique your travel experience a little more no longer have to worry about packing pleasant. enough socks or a spare laptop charger. Ever wondered how soldiers fit all their provisions into one backpack? They have 1. Feel more at home with a Use this free app to organise your a special technique for rolling and folding serviced apartment packing, scheduling and other details. their clothes, to allow for maximum space. Staying in hotels every time you travel 3. Create your own inflight With this technique, you can save time can be a downer. The sterile surrounds entertainment at the baggage carousel by travelling with lack the warmth and character of home. only one suitcase. Instead, find the next best thing by staying Smartphones and iPads offer better in a serviced apartment. picture quality than any plane television. Take a look at this YouTube tutorial on But holding the device in your hands to how to save space. With a starting price of $50 a night, watch your favourite movies can give you they’re cheaper and you get to enjoy the a headache. comforts of home (like free movies and decent kitchen). Instead, pack a snap lock sandwich bag and place the device inside. Then simply 2 INFocus Newsletter American and United Will Soon Offer No-Frills Fares By Steve Johnson United and American will soon be seat mile fell by 8.9 percent, while United’s their no-frills fares will look like. They will following the lead of Delta Air Lines by dropped by 7.4 percent compared to the most likely come without the ability to make launching their own no-frills economy first quarter of 2015. Both airlines have changes or get any sort of cancelation fares. These very basic tickets are meant seen their share prices drop in recent refund. Seats will probably be assigned to compete directly with ultra-budget weeks because of this issue. at the gate based on what is available. carriers like Spirit, Allegiant and Frontier. So, essentially, a basic fare will be a non- The low revenue numbers are due to refundable, non-changeable middle seat. Both United and American should airlines expanding services while also launch these fare options by the end of lowering fares in order to compete with Ability to upgrade this year. Delta has already rolled them one another and with the likes of Spirit and out on some routes. Frontier. Once United and American adopt these fares, they will have one very important Competing with ultra- Appealing to budget advantage over Frontier and Spirit. budget airlines travelers They will be able to offer basic economy passengers the ability to upgrade to The move is a competitive response Of course, low-cost carriers have to something better. to low-cost carriers trying to compete on deal with some disadvantages. Their price. Because of their higher operating fees are higher and their service is often There is another dynamic at play here costs and the higher expectations of inferior. Full-service airlines are able to as well. Once they see that extra perks their shareholders, matching the no- offer more than their budget competitors. are available for a slightly higher price, frills fares of the ultra-budgets is difficult However, a fraction of the flying public still many fliers have the tendency to skip the for the legacy carriers. By adding basic searches for fares based on price alone. base fares anyway. The so-called “wine- economy fares, American and United can By offering basic economy fares for some list effect” actually puts people’s attention compete directly with Spirit and its peers seats, American and United can, like Delta on higher priced fares (regular economy on price while still offering full fares on does now, still appeal to this segment of or even premium economy) because they the same flight. the market without having to put the same think these tickets offers better value rock-bottom price tag on every seat on the overall. So adding basic economy fares For the legacy carriers, defeating entire plane. could actually help American and United Frontier and Spirit on competitive routes fill more regular and premium economy is a necessity. During the first quarter of Neither American or United have seats. 2016, American’s passenger revenue per provided too much information about what May 2016 3 Southwest Airlines Raises EarlyBird Check-In Fees By Donald Wood The EarlyBird Check-In feature offered by Southwest Airlines has become popular with travelers, but the company has increased the price of the option by 20 percent. According to FoxNews.com, Southwest Airlines has increased the cost of the EarlyBird Check-In feature from $12.50 to $15 for a one-way trip. When the program was originally introduced, Southwest charged only $10. In a statement, Southwest officials said, “Every few years, we review the price of our services in order to align with market EarlyBird Check-In feature, passengers Check-In feature extremely valuable to and operational conditions as well as can start checking in up to 24 hours ahead frequent fliers. uphold the quality of our offerings.” of their flight’s scheduled departure. While the price increase is bad news Southwest Airlines has an open The earlier customers check in, the for travelers, Southwest Airlines is still the seating policy which puts passengers into better the chance that they’ll be assigned only major U.S. carrier that doesn’t charge boarding groups — A, B or C — instead to Group A and get first selection of their additional fees for the first two checked of assigning specific seats. Using the seats on the plane, making the EarlyBird bags. Survey: Senior-Level Employees Still Most Frequent Expense Fraud Offenders By JoAnn DeLuna Executives and upper "The correlation between survey is "not intended to gauge management account for authority and loss most likely occurs the absolute trends in overall more incidents of expense because high-level fraudsters tend occurrence of fraud," explained reimbursement fraud than any to have greater access to their ACFE director of research Andi other type of employee, according organizations' assets than lower- McNeal. Instead, it is designed to to a new study from the Association level employees, as well as a examine "the details of a sample of Certified Fraud Examiners. better ability to evade or override of fraud cases during a particular anti-fraud controls," according to period." Top executives account for about the report. 24 percent of reimbursement Global expense reimbursement fraud, according to the survey of Accounting department fraud accounted for 14 percent of certified fraud examiners from 114 employees were the second-most all cases of "occupational fraud" different countries who submitted likely category to commit expense reviewed by ACFE, and represented to ACFE details of 2,410 cases reimbursement fraud, as they a median loss of $40,000 per case. that they investigated between account for about 16 percent of ACFE defined occupational fraud January 2014 and October 2015. incidents, according to the report. as "the use of one's occupation The finding is similar to that of for personal enrichment through ACFE's 2014 Global Fraud Study. As in past years, the biennial deliberate misuse or misapplication 4 INFocus Newsletter companies "not only incur losses [men] to commit a larger portion of SURVEY CONTINUED as large as bigger organizations, occupational frauds," according to they typically have fewer resources the report—but it did not account for with which to combat this threat," the entire difference. Loss amount, according to the report. "The fraud type, behavioral indicators of the employing organization's combination of these factors leaves and position of power also played resources or assets." In the United small businesses particularly roles. States, expense reimbursement vulnerable to occupational fraud." fraud accounted for about 16 Men also were responsible for percent of the 1,038 U.S. fraud Expense reimbursement fraud causing larger average fraud losses cases. lasted a median of two years before ($187,000) than women ($100,000). it was detected, according to the Expense reimbursement fraud survey, which noted that "the longer According to the report, the older was most common in the technology an occupational fraud scheme goes the fraudster, the more expensive sector, where it occurred in 27 undetected, the greater losses tend the fraud amount tended to be. percent of cases examined. to be." "Fewer than 3 percent of frauds Reimbursement fraud appeared on were committed by people over the 25 percent of cases in the religious Offender Profile age of 60, but these cases had a charities and social services sector, median loss of $360,000, which while manufacturing (22.9 percent), was much higher than any other Globally, men committed 69 construction (20.9 percent), and age range." percent of occupational fraud health care (20.1 percent) each incidences, while in the United experienced more than a 20 percent States, men accounted for about incidence of such fraud.