Women Business Travelers Plan Ahead, Saving Their Companies Money on Airfare

“The early bird gets the worm,” as the saying goes. If the worm is cheaper airline tickets, then the early bird is a female.

Findings in a new report titled “Gender Differences in Booking Business Travel” from travel consultant firm CWT Solutions Group found that female business travelers spend, on average, $17.30 less for airfare than their male counterparts. That’s an estimated 2 percent off the average ticket price.

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Lower prices for tickets seem to be connected to booking farther in advance. CWT found that women tend to book flights almost two days, or 1.9 to be exact, farther in advance than men. Women between the ages of 25 and 30 booked 20 days in advance, whereas men in the same age group only booked 18 days in advance. Interestingly, the older the traveler, the farther ahead of time he or she books a ticket. Women and men who fell into the 65 to 70 age demographic booked 25 and 23 days in advance, respectively.

It’s also worth noting that those who travel less often book farther in advance than those who travel frequently.

Though the difference is less than $20 per ticket, it adds up quickly for businesses. For instance, if a company has 1,000 traveling employees and 70 percent of them are males who take on average four work trips each year, that company could save more than $48,000 a year if men had the same booking patterns as women.

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The results are based on 6.4 million air-booking transactions from 1.8 million travelers who went through CWT in 2014. The gender breakdown for the travelers was 30 percent women and 70 percent male.