For companies with annual travel budgets below $200,000, our Preferred Team is the way to manage cost-effective travel planning and arranging. Our Preferred Team manages the travel of 350 client companies - 27,000 air transactions amounting to $10,000,000 in annual volume. Contact us to find out more information.

Our Commitment

When we manage your travel, you get our commitment to a long-term relationship with your company. You get our commitment to provide the kind of quality service that all of our customers, large and small, deserve - and then we'll do more.

Our Fees

We have two fee structures for clients with travel budgets below $200,000.

1. $10 per trip for any trip you book on your own using our Internet-based, self-booking tool, Trip Manager, without agent assistance.
2. $20 fee per trip if we do all the work.

For $20:

• You get unlimited use of ACCESS--our toll-free, 24-hour, emergency reservation and help service--from anywhere on Earth. So if you're standing in a long line at an airport in Pittsburgh, or running late in a meeting in Montreal, or relaxing on a beach in Bangkok, call us. We strive to answer all calls to our Preferred or ACCESS agents within 20 seconds or less and, in fact, we do 89% of the time!
• You get automated low-fare searches right up until the time of your departure, and you get our Double-The-Difference-Money-Back guarantee that we have found you the lowest fare in your window of convenience.
• You get friendly, experienced agents who use your own personal profile to speed the reservation process and who are backed up by our Specialists in Tariffs and Research: STAR agents specializing in the complexities of international faring.
• You get our negotiated off-airport parking rates at MSP, and group/meeting air-only reservations, and special air, hotel and car discounts from our partnership with Radius, the world's largest consortium of travel agencies.
• You get electronic tickets when applicable, and you get standard travel documents, i.e. invoice paper and ticket jackets with every ticket.
• You get free ticket/travel document delivery to anywhere.
• You get important and timely industry news via fax or email from us, and you get Travel Light, a newsletter for companies with lighter-volume travel budgets.
• You get, on request, basic month-end travel management summaries of your travel.
• You do NOT get charged extra for ticket voids or refunds. You do NOT get charged extra for car or hotel only reservations. You do NOT get charged extra for international bookings, faxes and long-distance calls.

For $10:

• For Any Trip You Book On Your Own Using Trip Manager Without Agent Assistance, Your Fee Is Just $10.

Trip Manager is a managed, Internet-based, self-booking product that allows corporate travelers to make their own reservations 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Trip Manager provides a customized individual profile with personal travel preferences. Trip Manager bookings are automatically queued to a Northwestern Travel Management Preferred Team agent for ticketing and fulfillment.

Managed self-booking means you do the up front booking: we do the backend ticketing, quality control, fulfillment and reporting. The general book-it-yourself products available out in cyberspace are unmanaged.

Why do we cut your fee in half?

Because when you complete Trip Manager's blank fields -- flight number, fare, seat, car, hotel, etc. -- you save our agents' time. If you do not ask us for assistance before or after you book that trip then, for your efforts, we cut your fee in half.

And there's more we do for you after booking.

After you complete your self-booking steps, the reservation you have created in Trip Manager is automatically queued, through the Internet, to Northwestern Travel Management agents. We take the remaining steps:

1. Quality Control: e.g. checking if a lower fare could be waitlisted for your chosen schedule, or making sure two hotels have not been booked for the same night
2. Ticketing: checking if any previously unused non-refundable ticket could be used for your chosen schedule
3. Fulfillment: back office accounting, payment, data collection
4. Reporting: i.e. if you request month-end travel management summary reports

Because of the steps we take, you get the peace-of-mind that your self-booked reservation is accurately and efficiently managed.

And what if you ask for assistance?

If you need agent assistance or need to change a ticket before or during your trip, the fee for that trip goes back up to $20.

What's the value of being able to call Northwestern Travel Management anytime, 24/7, from anywhere to get help?

Change happens. Managed self-booking means you have immediate and constant access to a trusted travel partner, so you can deal with changes quickly and easily.

Unmanaged self-booking means you're on your own no matter what happens - and that's the cost of "free."

For business travelers who value the peace-of-mind from having access to a cost effective, trusted traveling partner, like Northwestern Travel Management, managed self-booking with Trip Manager is the best choice and the best value.

Benefits of using Trip Manager:

• Cut your transaction fee in half
• Get world-wide access 24-hours/7-days a week
• Reserve new air, car and hotel options, at your leisure
• Book Radius car and hotel discount rates
• Review existing air, car and hotel reservations and fare information
• View seat maps and reserve seats
• Request special airline meals
• Get instant access to flight numbers, departure and arrival times
• Get our negotiated off-airport parking rates at MSP
• Get Northwest Airlines' BizPerks Points on Trip Manager bookings

Learn how to get started with Trip Manager. Please contact Angela Rogers, Manager of Northwestern Travel Management's Online Service Center. Angela can be reached at or arogers.