The challenge
CWT’s life sciences customer was very concerned about the risk of the $47.2M spent during the Covid-19 period with airlines. Under financial stress, some airlines implemented refund restrictions.
Given the complexity, traditional refund-tracking technology was not enough to mitigate the financial impact of travel disruption.
The solution
The first step was to validate the exact status of the $47.2M ticket spend using CWT reporting. We then hosted calls with all top 30 airlines to confirm the status of every ticket: used, refunded, or open for follow-up.
With the airlines we agreed to urgently refund open tickets, prioritizing the most expensive. Together with several US airlines, we managed to setup UATP accounts for tickets that would normally expire, to be used at a future date. We presented our progress in monthly dashboards to monitor and adapt as needed.
The result
The value of all tickets issued during the first Covid-19 period was validated and maintained.
The client was able to use or reuse $28.6M worth of tickets issued and received a refund of $15.6M for unused tickets, including negotiations with airlines to release funds.
By having clarity on these categories, CWT and the client team were able to focus efforts on securing $3.0M of funds to be reused via the UATP solution, maintaining the value of expired tickets for direct savings.