Carlson Wagonlit Travel named American Express its preferred credit card supplier in 21 countries, marking the first time the travel management company has had a preferred-card agreement on a global basis.
Mike Koetting, CWT executive vice president of global supplier management, said the agency previously had preferred relationships with different card vendors on a country basis, but not in all countries.
In the U.S., he said, CWT had relationships with a variety of cards and still has them but did not have a traditional preferred-supplier arrangement.
CWT, No. 2 on the 2008 Travel Weekly Power List, said it would promote and distribute three American Express products: the Business Travel Account, Corporate Card and Corporate Meeting Card.
Sister company to a rival
The deal partners CWT with a sister company to a major travel-management competitor; American Express Business Travel ranked No. 1 on the 2008 Power List. Koetting said, "This does not change our competitive relationship with American Express. We will compete vigorously."
He said, "Our evaluation was all about how to bring significant value to our clients, and we believe American Express does that best." In addition, he said, "we have very well-documented rules of engagement and client confidentiality requirements."
Koetting said that "a very significant percentage" of CWT clients already use Amex as their corporate card, and "that was one reason we selected American Express."
He said clients had not pressed CWT to tap Amex as its preferred card vendor, but one criterion in CWT's "thorough and lengthy RFP process" centered on the ways current clients would benefit from any CWT deal, Koetting said.
CWT offers clients its proprietary Agency+Card Reporting program, which lets customers match real spending on their corporate cards with CWT transactions. It currently marries data from Amex and any other customer cards to generate reports.
The value of the preferred-supplier relationship, Koetting said, "is the resources that each organization will devote to the advancement and evolution of the data. ... With this relationship, we will continue to enhance the data" and accelerate those enhancements, as well.
He explained that all card companies are trying to expand the e-folio -- meaning the reported detail associated with each hotel or other charge that includes many components -- as well as improve data timeliness and consistency worldwide.
In its press statement, CWT singled out Amex's "global footprint" as one reason Amex won the bid for CWT's business.
The pact is effective in Argentina, Australia, Austria, Canada, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Italy, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Thailand, the U.K. and the U.S.