People are becoming increasingly obsessed with the science of sleep. Smartwatches and rings track both sleep stages – light, deep, REM – and sleep quality; wellness schemes like Discovery Vitality encourage and reward it; and supplements promise it in a bottle. Sleep tourism, meanwhile, is one of 2026’s defining luxury travel trends, with hotels building entire itineraries around a good night’s rest.

It’s great news for business travellers. Especially as recent Booking.com data shows that roughly 60% of business travellers report some level of sleep disruption on the road, driven partly by the “first night effect” – the brain staying semi-alert in unfamiliar surroundings – and worsened by ambient noise, uncomfortable beds and rooms that run too hot or too cold.

For Herman Heunes, GM at Corporate Traveller South Africa, the sleep conversation is just as important as, if not more important than, discussions around flight classes.

“Travellers spend 8 to 12 hours on an airplane and a few days in a hotel. Obviously, a lie-flat seat on a plane makes a difference, but a good sleep environment at a hotel, including heavy drapes or block-out blinds, cool temperatures and acoustic insulation, is priceless,” says Heunes.

What “sleep-friendly” actually looks like

While you may have heard of sleep or pillow menus – where guests can choose from a selection of pillows (including soft, medium, firm, hypoallergenic or memory foam), the fundamentals are less glamorous: darkness, quiet, temperature control, comfortable bedding and enough uninterrupted time to sleep.

Sleep-friendly hotels have actually re-engineered their rooms to make sure they measure up, including commercial blackout curtain systems, soundproofing (because lifts, housekeeping stations, kitchens, function venues, loading bays and rooftop equipment can all create intermittent noise) and consistent climate control.

From pillow menus to sleep menus

Hotels are expanding their sleep offerings to include calming teas, lighter evening meals and snacks suited to late arrivals.

For example, Westin Hotels and Resorts’ global Sleep Well Programme centres on the brand’s Heavenly Bed – a custom pillow-top mattress with layered bedding and down pillows – alongside a bedside lavender balm to calm the senses, and a Sleep Well Menu for in-room dining built around amino acids and vitamins linked to better sleep.

Four Seasons has developed a customisable bed with mattress-topper preferences at participating properties, including Four Seasons Hotel The Westcliff Johannesburg. These mattress toppers (with three distinct levels of firmness) can be swapped out by hotel staff in a matter of minutes to match a guest’s specific preferences.

The red-eye problem

Of course, none of this helps if a traveller lands at 05:00 but can’t access a room until 14:00. Standard check-in windows were never designed around overnight flights, and “early check-in requested” is not the same as guaranteed early access – it simply means the hotel will help if a room happens to be available.

This is where a travel management company (TMC) earns its keep. As Heunes explains, the most dependable options are booking the room from the previous night, flagging the traveller’s arrival time so the room isn’t released as a no-show, negotiating guaranteed early access into the corporate rate, reserving a day-use room, or confirming showers, lounge access and luggage storage as a fallback.

“Chat to your TMC about negotiating early check-in or late check-out as part of your hotel programme,” says Heunes. “If you don’t have a TMC or hotel programme, consider booking an additional night. It may look wasteful on a spreadsheet, but it can be a sensible investment before a negotiation, presentation or other high-value meeting. A good TMC will identify potential issues, like an unfriendly arrival time, ahead of time and suggest practical solutions rather than leaving the traveller to negotiate at reception.”

A handful of hotel groups are ahead of the curve, but mostly for elite loyalty members: Marriott Bonvoy Ambassadors get “Your24”, a self-chosen 24-hour check-in/check-out window; IHG Platinum and Diamond Elite members get early check-in (subject to availability); and World of Hyatt Globalists get a guaranteed 4pm check-out. The catch is that none of this helps an SME traveller booking direct with no status to leverage – but TMCs can help.

Jet lag is only part of the problem

Not every exhausted traveller is jet-lagged. Jet lag is a temporary sleep disorder that happens when your body’s internal clock is out of sync with a new time zone; sleep deprivation simply means you have not slept enough.

To counter this, travellers and TMCs should ask for:

• Full-blackout curtains
• A room away from lifts, functions and street noise
• Individually controlled air-conditioning
• Suitable pillow and bedding options
• Guaranteed rather than requested early check-in
• Late-night food or early breakfast
• Reliable airport transfers
• Day-use or shower facilities if the room is unavailable

These preferences can be stored in traveller profiles and used when selecting preferred hotels.

“Companies should also track traveller feedback on noise, darkness, temperature and early room access, not only room rates, Wi-Fi and breakfast,” says Heunes. “Direct feedback from travellers is gold.”

For SMMEs, prioritising sleep on the road doesn’t require a bigger budget. In fact, Heunes keeps the checklist short: identify the right hotels, confirm blackout curtains, soundproofing and privacy, ask whether a pillow or sleep menu exists, and secure early check-in at the booking stage for any red-eye arrivals.

“Many hotels have done the hard part,” says Heunes. “The average room is quieter, darker and better designed than it’s ever been. What’s left is choosing the right flight, class and ground transport to get your people there – prioritising ease and rest from end to end.”

Carmen Hidalgo, Customer Success Team Leader at Corporate Traveller South Africa, says the framing is where most people go wrong.

“The biggest misconception is that lounge access is a luxury perk,” she says. “For frequent business travellers, it’s a practical tool, one that cuts travel fatigue, improves comfort during delays and helps you make better, more productive use of time spent in airports.”

Once you see the lounge as a high-functioning co-working space, and a chance to rest and breathe, things start to look a little different.

When it makes financial sense

For business travellers, the most common options are lounge memberships such as Priority Pass, airline loyalty programmes, purchasing day passes as needed, or accessing lounges through corporate travel agreements and company credit cards. For occasional travellers, day passes are often the most cost-effective. For more frequent travellers, membership programmes generally provide better value over time.

Hidalgo believes that if a traveller is flying every month or making 10-15+ lounge visits a year, a membership or bundled access option starts making more financial sense than buying day passes ad hoc.

Of course, it also helps to know what the passes cost. Walk-in rates at the general-access lounges, Bidvest among them, run from about R300 to R700 a visit, while premium co-branded bank lounges (like SLOW) do not allow general walk-ins and instead require specific bank card tiers or partner programmes.

The door price is only part of the calculation, though. What you’re really paying for is the quiet productivity of a well-considered space.

“The biggest value is in reliable connectivity, comfortable seating, charging facilities, a quieter working environment and complimentary refreshments. These are the features that help business travellers stay productive,” says Hidalgo. “The high-end touches like spa treatments or shower facilities are nice to have, but they’re rarely the reason an SME traveller sees a return on investment.”

That return is easiest to see when things go wrong: your flight is pushed back, your phone needs a charge and the terminal is heaving. You can brave a noisy coffee shop, or move to the lounge, plug in and clear your inbox before you fly. Six or seven trips a year can easily add up to the better part of three working days in airports, and lounge access gives you some of that time back.

A lounge reality check, and how to maximise your time

While lounges were once a quiet refuge for the select few, premium credit cards have thrown open the doors. Now lounges across the world are coming under fire for snaking queues and crowded floors, especially over peak periods. To control numbers, operators have pushed back with restrictions: entry windows that open only a few hours before departure, higher walk-in rates, caps on guests per cardholder and, in some cases, a charge to pre-book a seat. All of it chips at the overall experience, and it’s fair to ask whether a busy lounge is now simply a glorified waiting room.

Hidalgo doesn’t dodge the point. “Overcrowding has reduced some of the productivity benefits travellers used to expect,” she says. “So, we tell clients to treat lounge access as one part of the trip, not the whole experience. And you do need to be intentional about it.”

As Hidalgo explains, customers commonly allow lounge access for frequent travellers, longer layovers, delays, or trips where employees are travelling directly into meetings. The objective should be helping travellers make the best use of their time while maintaining sensible cost control.

“A managed travel programme gives businesses greater visibility and control over traveller benefits, including lounge access,” she says. “Depending on the programme, access may be linked to negotiated supplier agreements, traveller status, or internal travel policy guidelines. The best travel policies treat lounge access as a structured and managed benefit rather than an ad hoc traveller expense.”

When it comes to maximising your lounge experience, a few simple steps make a big difference:

• Check in before you arrive. Use the airline app and travel with hand luggage where you can, so you clear the landside queues and head straight through security to the lounge.
• Mind the fine print. Some lounges, SLOW among them, only let you in 90 minutes before boarding a domestic flight, while international departure lounges have different windows (for example, three hours before boarding).
• Don’t overlook arrival lounges. At the bigger hubs you can shower and press a suit after a red-eye before walking into a client meeting.
• Use the Wi-Fi for the heavy lifting. The private network will carry a video call or a large upload that terminal signal tends to drop.
• Find the quiet corners. Phone booths and work suites, where they exist, are for the calls and pitch prep you’d rather not have overheard.
• Eat before you board. A proper meal in the lounge frees the flight itself for sleep or focused offline work.
• Claim a plug early. Grab a seat near a charging point and get everything topped up before you leave, so you land ready to go.
• Check what else is included. Many lounges offer showers, printing or a fast-track security lane, so it’s worth knowing what your access covers before you pay for it elsewhere.

So, is it worth it?

For all the grumbling about crowds and cost, most travellers still answer yes. Airport Dimensions’ Airport Experience 2025 study, which surveyed more than 10,000 regular flyers worldwide, found that 97% were unwilling to give up their lounge access, and 45% would switch banks to keep card-linked lounge privileges. With terminals busier than ever, 62% said they would pay for premium services to get some breathing room, treating the lounge as a travel essential.

The top end of the market is reading the same signal and spending accordingly. Etihad’s First Class Lounge and Spa in Abu Dhabi has a gym with cardio machines and weights; Finnair’s Platinum Wing in Helsinki runs a traditional Finnish sauna; and from September 2027, San Francisco International will offer private bedrooms, showers and a speakeasy for travellers waiting out a long layover.

For most business travellers, though, the appeal is more grounded. “They can be impressive,” says Hidalgo of the flashier offerings, “although most business travellers still place the highest value on quiet spaces, comfort and the ability to work efficiently.”

It’s evidence of an invisible itinerary: the planning, coordination and caregiving responsibilities that happen behind the scenes, before a single flight is booked. Think school runs and lift clubs, dog walks and vet visits, stocked fridges and pre-cooked meals, medication schedules for elderly parents or kids, emergency contacts briefed well in advance, and detailed instructions so everything runs like a military operation.

Gen X and older Millennials, in particular, feel the strain. The modern “sandwich generation” find themselves juggling dual caregiving responsibilities that directly impact professional obligations, including work travel.

The encouraging part of the research is what follows – clear evidence that the right organisational support and policies ease the load and support traveller health and wellbeing.

“The first fix is making sure every trip has a clear purpose, for the business and for the traveller,” says Elize De Jager, Operations Team Leader at Corporate Traveller South Africa, a global travel management company (TMC) that specialises in providing tailored business travel services to small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs). 

“It’s a principle that matters for any company watching its travel spend, particularly SMEs, but it carries extra weight for the person weighing up whether a trip is worth the disruption at home. Few will say that part out loud, though. Admitting to the caregiving and coordination happening behind the scenes takes a genuinely safe workplace, and not everyone has one. In the wrong environment, the cost of staying quiet can be steep: with women turning down worthwhile trips – for their personal development, career and for the business itself – simply because of what’s happening at home. That’s not ideal.”

Better policies and systems

De Jager’s view is a practical one: the fix isn’t asking people to share more about what they’re carrying. Visibility only helps, she says, if a workplace receives it well – and in the wrong culture, disclosing too much too soon can do more harm than good. Instead, it’s about fixing outdated policies.

“Some workplaces can feel as if they’re structured around an imaginary worker who has no caregiving responsibilities and unlimited availability,” she says. “That person is increasingly rare – and was probably never the norm.”

Douglas’s research with the University of Pretoria touches on how important organisational support is when it comes to traveller wellness and wellbeing. Put simply, higher levels of organisational support lead to higher levels of employee engagement. This could mean offering employees an opportunity to recover after a trip; providing the necessary training and coaching ahead of key trips (including cultural awareness guidance, which can help travellers navigate unfamiliar environments with greater confidence and reduce unnecessary risk); allowing more comfortable travel (including premium economy or business class for long-haul flights); and ensuring that all the travel arrangements run smoothly. And of course, this shouldn’t just be understood – it should be written into policy.

De Jager says this might include:

• Giving travellers a say in flight timing, particularly for early departures or late arrivals.
• Giving travellers a choice in ground transport, i.e. a pre-booked shuttle or transfer instead of defaulting to the cheapest option, especially after dark.
• Choosing accommodation with safety in mind, including 24-hour reception, security and security cameras, key-card access to lifts, safe locations and positive reviews.
• Building in recovery time after long trips, rather than an immediate return to a full schedule.
• Canvassing cross-departmental input into policy design, so travel policy reflects real working lives.
• Flexibility to extend a trip so the family can join, where workable. Excursions, outings and leisure activities all play a role in employee morale and satisfaction.

For De Jager, none of these are radical. They’re achievable, and TMCs can help draft the policies, vet accommodation and transport suppliers, and negotiate corporate rates to help make it happen.

Closing the gaps

“A policy that books the cheapest available flight without factoring in who’s collecting children from school or covering an elderly parent’s evening care, isn’t neutral; it simply shifts a cost from the balance sheet onto the traveller’s household,” says Christelle Louw, Operations Team Leader at Corporate Traveller and mother of three.

“Companies must recognise that women bear a disproportionate share of caregiving,” says Louw. “But many men are caregivers too. If HR policies are routinely built around flexibility, and reflect the realities of the world today, it becomes a choice for everyone – not a special favour for a woman in a man’s world.”

This Women’s Day, the business case is simple: sustainable corporate travel is fair, flexible and designed for real life and real people.

As Mummy Mafojane, GM of FCM South Africa explains, when it comes to domestic hotel rooms, South Africans are accustomed to a certain size and standard. In contrast, European city hotels are notoriously compact, often squeezed into historic buildings with decidedly small rooms and limited amenities. And in secondary, satellite cities in developing regions, water, power and connectivity can be hit and miss.

For the travel manager approving the trip, the rating suggests a known quantity: a decent bed, working Wi-Fi, breakfast and a front desk that answers. For the traveller who checks in, the reality behind those stars depends entirely on who awarded them, and in some markets the answer is nobody at all.

“Our latest FCM Insights Report shows that businesses are becoming more cost-conscious and more deliberate about where their accommodation spend goes, with more corporate volume moving into the 3- and 4-star tier,” says Mafojane. “Across Africa, corporate demand is holding firm, and our top African destinations are Mozambique, Zambia, Ghana, Botswana and Zimbabwe, all corridors where South African business is growing. The only catch is that a 4-star rating can mean something different in each of them, and that’s where a managed hotel programme earns its keep.”

Who stands behind the stars? Hotel classification in FCM’s top destinations

“When a company tells us a traveller had a bad stay somewhere on the continent, the booking almost always said four-star. Nobody lied about the rating. There was just no authority behind it,” says Mafojane.

How the international list stacks up

FCM’s top international destinations for South African corporates are Germany, the United Kingdom, the United States, the United Arab Emirates and China (2026 FCM booking data), and even in these mature markets the stars don’t necessarily align, as the table shows.

Which brings us to what the rating actually buys. In South Africa, a 4-star property typically comes with extra space, room service, TV, secure parking and a proper breakfast. By 5-star, you’re looking at round-the-clock staffing, valet parking, 24-hour room service, luggage assistance, a business centre, and exceptional on-site facilities like fine dining and a spa.

A room in a 4-star hotel in central Paris or London is much smaller, and the traveller is paying considerably more for it. Corporate travellers paid an average of US$349 a night in London and US$531 in New York in the last quarter of 2025, against US$233 in Cape Town and US$196 in Johannesburg (FCM Consulting Insights Report 2026). A Johannesburg traveller landing in New York pays more than double the rate for a fraction of the space; the rating stays the same while the experience shifts.

What to look for beyond the star

In markets without enforced grading, the questions that actually predict a good stay have little to do with thread counts. Does the property have genuine backup power and water, meaning generator and borehole capacity that covers guest rooms rather than only the lobby? Are transfers and parking secure? Is the Wi-Fi reliable enough to run a video call, since connectivity in a business hotel is a working tool rather than an amenity? Will the card machine work, and can the rate be billed back rather than settled in cash? What are the real cancellation terms? And does the property appear in your travel management company’s duty of care picture at all?

“A star rating tells us what a hotel thinks about itself,” says Mafojane. “We look at backup infrastructure, secure transfers, payment, cancellation terms and whether we can reach a decision-maker at the property directly. Those are the things that decide whether a trip works.”

Hotel development in Africa has long followed colonial and linguistic lines, with French brands clustering in West Africa and Portuguese investment shaping Angola and Mozambique. Yet Mafojane says many of the most consistent properties on the continent are local chains.

“They build for the realities of their own markets, so a generator, a borehole and a driver who actually arrives are standard rather than selling points. In several of our top destinations they are simply the best-performing option, and traveller feedback confirms it trip after trip.”

The conclusion for travel managers is clear. Where the star rating cannot carry the weight placed on it, the managed programme does that work instead: verified properties, negotiated rates with consistent inclusions, traveller feedback that flags a slipping property early, and duty of care visibility across every booking. FCM now goes a step further, advising buyers to write travel policy around hotel brand types rather than star ratings, because brands describe the actual product more reliably (FCM Consulting Insights Report 2026).

“Companies that spend time interrogating and building their hotel programme will sleep better – and pay less – than those defaulting to star ratings in their travel policy,” says Mafojane.

What then are the barriers to adoption? Some are practical. AI tools come with costs that need to be justified, and it takes a dedicated team to keep pace with how quickly the technology is advancing. Training matters too: an AI assistant is only useful if travellers and bookers actually use it, and adoption inside a business takes deliberate effort.

But speak to the people who sign off on these decisions and a deeper hesitation emerges, one that has less to do with time, budgets and expertise and more to do with confidence: how safe is our data, and what stops the AI from making things up? Anyone who has interacted with generative AI (like ChatGPT, Gemini or Claude) has likely watched it invent a fact, a statistic or a source with complete confidence, and a healthy wariness now follows the technology into the workplace.

Generative AI is non-deterministic by nature: ask the same question a hundred times and you can get a hundred variations of the answer. In personal, consumer settings, that’s a quirk. In corporate travel, where policy compliance, expense eligibility and duty of care are on the line, it’s a serious problem. A confident but wrong answer about visa requirements or an out-of-policy hotel recommendation creates work and risk rather than removing it.

“The hesitation we hear from South African companies is almost never about whether AI is quick enough or clever enough,” says Mummy Mafojane, General Manager of FCM South Africa. “It’s about trust and accountability. If an AI assistant gives one of your travellers the wrong answer – that’s your traveller stranded and your problem to fix.”

So, what should trustworthy AI in managed travel actually look like? The emerging consensus points to a handful of markers, and none of them are glamorous.

The first is controlled information. A general-purpose chatbot draws on the open internet, which is precisely why it can be confidently wrong. AI built for managed travel should work differently, drawing its answers from defined, verified sources: the company’s own travel policy, its booking data and its traveller profiles. The answer to “can I fly business class on this route?” should come from the organisation’s policy document, never from a general source, because the question isn’t really whether a traveller can. It’s whether they may.

“Of course, there are different intelligence layers,” says Mafojane, referring to Sam, the AI solution (or intelligent travel companion) built into the FCM Platform, which went live for customers in more than 90 countries in June. “If your traveller wants to know the current temperature in Munich, plus a packing list, Sam draws on general sources. If a travel arranger wants the most up-to-date visa requirements,Sam will draw on specialist sources, and if it’s a question of policy, Sam will draw on pre-approved and pre-loaded documents. The guardrails are in place, and Sam is built with accuracy, security and privacy at its core.”

The second is governance. Travel managers should be able to configure how an AI assistant responds to specific types of queries, so that spend thresholds, approval workflows and supplier preferences are enforced automatically in every interaction. A traveller who isn’t entitled to a premium fare should never be shown one.

“This is where the conversation has matured,” says Mafojane. “Two years ago, companies asked what AI could do. Now they ask how it’s controlled. Can I decide which sources it uses? Will it apply my policy consistently across the board? Those are governance questions, and any provider serious about corporate travel should welcome them.”

The third marker is data privacy, and for Mafojane it’s never been more important.

“Where is company data stored? Is it ever used to train public AI models? Who can see it? In a trustworthy setup, the answers are specific: data is held in a private, secure environment, never fed into public models, with access – and information – restricted to the right people.”

The final marker is the one most often overlooked: knowing when the technology should step aside. Disruption, complex itineraries and emergencies still call for human judgement, and well-designed AI recognises the limits of what it can resolve accurately.

As Mafojane explains, the test is what happens at the point of escalation. If a traveller has to re-explain their situation from scratch to the consultant who picks up, the system has failed them at the moment it mattered most.

“Humans and AI have to work hand in hand. The technology handles the hundredth policy question so our consultants can spend their time on the situations that need experience and care. As an example, when Sam escalates a request to one of our travel experts, the consultant already has the full context in conversation. The traveller never starts over. That’s what builds trust, one interaction at a time.”

For travel managers weighing up AI this year, the practical advice is to interrogate rather than admire. Ask any provider where its AI gets its answers and how accuracy is assured. Ask how your travel policy is enforced within each conversation. Ask where your data lives and whether it ever touches a public model. And ask what happens, in detail, when the AI reaches its limit and a human needs to take over.

Providers with precise answers to those questions are ready for the realities of corporate travel. And that, rather than any dazzling demo, is what earns AI a place in a travel programme: information you can rely on, controls you can prove and people exactly where you need them.

It’s a remarkable feat of engineering. It’s also, if we’re honest, a long time to spend in seat 47E. Which raises a question: if work required it, would you strap in for the ultra-long-haul?

Before you answer, “that’s Australia’s problem”, consider this. South African business travellers are already seasoned ultra-long-haul flyers. Delta’s Johannesburg to Atlanta service runs to over 16 and a half hours. United flies non-stop from Joburg and Cape Town to Newark – both around 15 and a half hours. Interestingly, neither breaks into the world’s top 10 longest non-stop flights, which routinely run between 17h 35m and 19h 15m (New York JFK to Singapore). As the flights get longer, the world continues to get smaller.

“South Africans are already flying 15, 16, nearly 17 hours right now, often in economy, and often going straight into a meeting upon landing,” says Herman Heunes, General Manager at Corporate Traveller South Africa. “Project Sunrise is a reminder to relook your travel policy and ask: what does a company owe a traveller it puts on a flight like that?”

A different category of travel

Here’s the thing the airlines have already figured out: ultra-long-haul is a fundamentally different product to ordinary long-haul – and they’re building accordingly.

Qantas didn’t simply order more planes. It commissioned a purpose-built aircraft, the Airbus A350-1000ULR (Ultra Long Range), with an extra fuel tank and a deliberately roomy cabin of just 238 passengers (where a standard A350-1000 typically seats 350-400 passengers). It brought in sleep and nutrition scientists from the University of Sydney’s Charles Perkins Centre. The aircraft features a dedicated Wellbeing Zone for stretching and movement, plus 12 custom lighting scenes designed around circadian rhythms to nudge your body clock towards its destination while you cruise over the North Pole.

Singapore Airlines, which holds the current record with its Singapore to New York service, made an even blunter design choice. Its ultra-long-range aircraft has no economy cabin at all. Just 161 seats, all business and premium economy. The airline that knows more about ultra-long-haul flying than anyone on earth quietly concluded that economy seating and 19 hours don’t belong in the same sentence.

If airlines are treating these flights as a separate category, travel policies probably should too.

What your travel policy should actually say

This is where the conversation gets practical, for travellers and for the people who book on their behalf. A sensible ultra-long-haul policy covers a number of things:

Lie-flat above a defined threshold. Pick a number, say 12 hours, above which lie-flat seating is standard. The math is simple: a traveller who sleeps arrives able to work, and a traveller who spends 15 hours upright arrives physically exhausted and unproductive.

Lounge access at both ends. The journey includes the hours around the flight. A shower, a proper meal and a quiet place to work before boarding (and after landing) cost a fraction of the fare and change the entire experience.

A recovery buffer on arrival. The rough science of jet lag is that your body adjusts about one time zone per day (depending on whether you’re flying east or west). Landing at 06:00 and presenting to a client at 09:00 is a big, big ask. Build in a 24-hour buffer before the first commitment.

Rest days on the return leg. For flights crossing multiple time zones or exceeding 12 hours, companies often grant one full, paid “rest day” before a return to standard duties and expectations.

Early check-in (or late check-out). If an employee lands early in the morning and must work that afternoon, travel bookers may negotiate early check-in so the traveller can sleep, shower and change before the meeting.

Flexible ground transportation. Taking public transport or driving a rental car after a 12-hour flight is another big ask (especially if a traveller is landing in a foreign city). Policies generally mandate expensing an airport shuttle, chauffeured ride or taxi to eliminate the danger of fatigued driving.

Pre-trip health screenings. Some corporate policies recommend or fund medical consultations for frequent flyers on ultra-long-haul routes to manage risks like deep vein thrombosis (DVT).

Ancillary expenses. Think preferred seating fees (nabbing extra legroom in emergency exit rows or bulkhead seats) or in-flight Wi-Fi.

“None of this is about pampering people,” says Heunes. “It’s duty of care, and it’s protecting the investment. If a company is spending tens of thousands of rands to put someone on the other side of the planet, the marginal cost of making sure that person arrives functional is the best money spent across the whole trip.”

But we’re an SME, not a bank

Fair. Blanket business class policies are a luxury many smaller travel programmes simply can’t carry. But as Heunes explains, there’s a wide middle ground between “business class for everyone” and “good luck in the back”, and this is precisely where a travel expert earns their keep: smarter routings, fare classes with upgrade potential, well-timed stopovers, loyalty programmes put to proper work, negotiated rates and premium economy deployed where it genuinely helps.

It’s also worth saying that non-stop is not automatically better. For some travellers, a one-stop itinerary with a shower and a stretch in Singapore, Dubai or Doha beats the record-breaker comfortably. A good policy allows that choice rather than defaulting to the shortest elapsed time on the screen.

“The best itinerary is the one that gets the job done properly,” says Heunes. “Sometimes that’s the non-stop; sometimes it’s the sensible stopover. What it should never be is whatever happened to be cheapest on the day, with the traveller left to absorb the consequences.”

So, are you in?

There’s something thrilling about the Sydney to London non-stop: three meal services, two sunrises and a piece of aviation history from a single seat. Plenty of travellers will board it out of sheer curiosity.

But whether it’s a bucket-list adventure or a 22-hour endurance test depends far less on your personal stamina than on what your company wraps around the flight.

“Ask questions before the trip, not after it,” Heunes says. “If your travel policy was written when your longest flight was 11 hours to London, it’s due an update. The flights are getting longer. The policy should be getting smarter.”

Governments now want your information before you even board your flight, and for business travellers running on tight itineraries and even tighter margins, that shift has consequences.

“The SARS Traveller Declaration is a fundamental change in when compliance happens. The border has moved, and it’s moved to 24 hours before departure. Business travellers who don’t adjust their pre-trip habits and routine are going to feel it,” says Herman Heunes, General Manager at Corporate Traveller South Africa.

An emerging global pattern

South Africa is joining a growing cohort of governments that have decided the old model of processing travellers at the point of entry is too slow, too manual, and too reactive.

The UK’s Electronic Travel Authorisation, now required for millions of previously visa-exempt visitors, must also be secured before boarding. The EU’s ETIAS system, expected to launch late 2026, adds a pre-departure authorisation layer for travellers who previously needed nothing more than a valid passport. Across Asia, countries including Thailand and Indonesia have introduced or expanded digital arrival and declaration systems (the Thailand Digital Arrival Card and All Indonesia Arrival Card, respectively) that replace the paper cards travellers once filled in on the plane. Ethiopia, meanwhile, requires all arriving and transiting passengers to complete an online Traveler’s Health Declaration Form before arrival at Addis Ababa Bole International Airport.

The architecture is different in each case (some are entry authorisations, others are customs declarations or health declarations), but the direction is identical.

Pre-travel. Digital. Mandatory.

“What we’re seeing globally is the rise of the smart border,” says Heunes. “Information moves ahead of the traveller. That’s better for governments, and ultimately better for travellers who are prepared. But it creates a new category of risk for anyone who treats pre-trip admin as an afterthought.”

What the SARS declaration actually means for business travellers

The new SARS Traveller Declaration is a manageable addition to the pre-trip checklist for leisure travellers with a suitcase of personal belongings. They simply complete it within 24 hours of departure, keep the confirmation on their phone, and proceed as normal.

However, for business travellers, it’s slightly more complex. The declaration requires passport details, travel information, contact details, and – critically – disclosure of any goods, currency, or items that fall outside personal use. Business equipment, product samples, gifts intended for clients, commercial goods, and cash above the R100,000 threshold all require declaration. Allowances cannot be combined between travellers, and goods exceeding the duty-free threshold trigger further customs assessment.

Importantly, this is not a form to rush through. SARS has been unambiguous on the consequences – failure to declare, or making a false declaration, can result in delays, detention of goods, penalties, or enforcement action under customs legislation. For a business traveller catching an early morning flight to close a deal, none of those outcomes are acceptable.

“If samples or goods get held at customs, the real cost is the stress and disruption that ripples into expos, meetings and other commitments,” says Heunes. “That’s why the declaration needs to be part of the travel workflow rather than something forgotten about until check-in.”

The compliance gap that travel management closes

The uncomfortable truth for many SMEs is that the systems designed to streamline border processing actually increase the pre-trip burden on anyone without a managed travel programme. Leisure travellers have time and flexibility; large corporates have compliance infrastructure. SMEs and smaller businesses (the ones most likely to be sending their MD on a last-minute flight to Nairobi or their sales lead to a trade show in Frankfurt) are most exposed to the gap between “booked” and “compliant”.

The new normal for business travel looks something like this: a traveller needs not just a valid passport and a booking confirmation, but potentially (depending on their passport) an ETA or ETIAS authorisation, a completed customs declaration, and documented details of any goods or currency they’re carrying – all resolved before they reach the airport.

“Managed travel was always about more than getting the best fare,” says Heunes. “It was about making sure the trip actually works. That’s truer now than it’s ever been. A good travel booker is securing flights while, more importantly, ensuring their travellers are actually ready to travel.”

The companies that will navigate this new landscape most effectively are those that treat compliance as part of the travel booking process rather than a separate responsibility left to the traveller to figure out alone.

What to do now

The practical adjustment is straightforward, even if the habit change takes time. Add the SARS Traveller Declaration to your pre-trip checklist alongside passport validity, visa requirements, online check-in and boarding pass. Complete it within 24 hours of departure, keeping the confirmation accessible. If you’re carrying business equipment, commercial goods, or significant currency, give yourself time to complete the declaration accurately.

More broadly: check entry requirements for each and every destination earlier than you used to.

“The era of the paper form at the airport is ending. The new compliance window opens long before departure, and for business travellers, that window needs to be part of the plan,” Heunes concludes.

Side bar: Corporate Traveller’s latest Travel Advisory covers everything you need to know about SA’s new Traveller Declaration, including links to SARS’ FAQs and a quick video tutorial: https://www.corporatetraveller.co.za/en-za/resources/news/sars-online-traveller-declaration-now-required

Instead, Corporate Traveller’s data points to something more interesting: a marked increase in trip duration. The insights form part of Corporate Traveller’s latest report: The smarter business travel guide for finance leaders.

As Juliette Da Silva, CFO of Flight Centre Travel Group South Africa explains, in 2024, the average business trip length was 3.21 days. In 2025 it jumped to 5.31 days – a 65% increase year-on-year.

“Companies are batching their meetings,” says Da Silva. “Travellers are visiting multiple stakeholders and combining market visits that would previously have been split into three separate trips. If you’re going to incur the cost and the traveller disruption of getting on a plane, you want to maximise the return on that journey.”

It’s also called trip stacking and Herman Heunes, General Manager of Corporate Traveller South Africa, sees the shift play out in booking patterns every day.

“The trips we’re booking in 2026 look nothing like the trips we were booking in 2023,” he says. “Clients are coming to us with bigger, more complex itineraries – multi-city, multi-stakeholder, often spanning a week or more. What used to be three separate Johannesburg-to-Cape Town hops for three different meetings has become one trip that does all three plus a client dinner and a team workshop on the way through.”

That shift has changed how Corporate Traveller’s client conversations unfold, Heunes adds.

“Five years ago, a lot of our cost conversations were around securing the best airfare. Now they’re about trip design: how you sequence meetings, where you base yourself, which hotel is actually closest to your three client sites rather than the one with the cheapest headline rate. Those decisions often save more money than a fare negotiation ever would.”

The behavioural shift is healthy for both ROI and traveller wellness, but it’s shifting where budget pressure shows up.

“Longer trips mean more hotel nights,” says Da Silva. “And South African hotel rates have been climbing steadily over the last three years – from an average room night of R1,050 in 2023 to R1,301 in 2025. So, while companies are getting better value per trip, they also need to be watching accommodation spend much more closely than they used to.”

Similarly, average international rates have climbed from R2,424 in 2023 to R2,877 in 2025. For a finance leader whose travel programme is still measured primarily on airfare savings, that’s a blind spot worth closing.

Both Da Silva and Heunes agree that travel policies need to catch up with traveller behaviour.

“The longer-trip, higher-ROI pattern should be baked into policy, not treated as an exception,” Heunes says. “If batching meetings is the new normal, your policy should actively encourage it. That means flexibility on minimum stay duration, smart advance-purchase requirements, and preferred supplier relationships that reward the kind of multi-night bookings your travellers are now making.”

Put simply, companies can save money in a number of ways: booking in advance (and as Da Silva notes, advance booking windows are already lengthening, up to 17.9 days in 2025), leveraging loyalty programmes, and exploring alternate accommodation options including guesthouses. Geographic clustering – combining multiple close destinations into a single trip – cuts airfare costs, while negotiating midweek rates lowers accommodation spend.

Da Silva frames it as a broader mindset shift.

“South African companies aren’t travelling less because business travel matters less,” Da Silva says. “The value of business travel is not in question. Instead, they’re travelling differently, stretching the return on every journey and tightening the discipline around when and how trips get booked. In today’s economic environment you have to make sure every rand counts. The companies doing this well are treating travel less as a line-item cost and more as a managed investment – and using current conditions as an opportunity to reset policies, renegotiate supplier agreements, and build programmes that flex with market volatility.”For a closer look at the data – and a practical framework for managing travel spend in volatile conditions – download Corporate Traveller’s latest report here.

JOHANNESBURG – You’re at the airport. Business class ticket in hand, you head toward the lounge only to be turned away at the door. Or your meeting moves and you try to change your flight, and discover the original ticket is non-refundable. Or you arrive at check-in with two bags, as you’ve grown accustomed to in business class, and learn you’re only entitled to one.

It’s the reality of “unbundling”: the practice of separating a standard airline ticket into its individual components. As an example, business class used to mean something fairly consistent. A lie-flat seat on long haul. Lounge access. Two bags. The ability to change your flight if the world intervened. You paid a significant premium for it, but you knew what you were getting. Those days are over.

According to Amadeus, the shift began in 2019, when Emirates introduced its special business class ticket – a stripped-down product that retained all the onboard comforts you expect (lie-flat seat, an elevated restaurant-style dining experience and top-tier entertainment system  ) but removed ancillaries like lounge access, seat selection and chauffeur services. It was a proof of concept: passengers would accept a reduced overall experience, at a reduced cost, if the seat itself remained premium.

Other airlines soon followed, with the likes of Qatar and KLM also introducing business class “lite” options. Come 2026? Tiered business class structures are fairly standard across the industry. The seat is the same. The cabin is the same. The ticket is not.

The three things most likely to disappear

Guaranteed lounge access is usually the first casualty. United’s unbundled “Base Polaris” fare includes access to a United Club lounge – not a Polaris Lounge, with its premium dining and spa facilities. Emirates’ base fare excludes complimentary airport lounge access. But as Mummy Mafojane, GM at FCM South Africa explains, for many travellers, particularly those on long-haul journeys with onward connections, the lounge is not an optional extra – it is a significant part of what they paid for.

“It’s very different for leisure travellers and business travellers,” says Mafojane. “Leisure travellers are often happy to pick and choose their perks. But business travellers rely on lounge access to work, decompress and even shower. No access can be an unwelcome surprise.”

Flexibility is the second to go. Base-tier business class tickets are frequently non-refundable and non-changeable – conditions that would once have been unthinkable at this price point.

“This is a particularly important consideration for travel bookers and travel programme managers,” says Mafojane. “2026 has already delivered a masterclass in travel disruption – at this point, locking yourself into a rigid, non-refundable ticket isn’t a saving; it’s a liability.”

Baggage is next. Finnair’s “light” business class fare excludes checked baggage unless the passenger holds elite Oneworld or Finnair Plus status. ZIPAIR, the Japanese low-cost long-haul carrier, goes furthest of all: its lie-flat business class seat includes nothing beyond the seat itself – no baggage, no meal, no seat selection. Everything is purchased separately.

The problem isn’t the product, it’s the presentation

ZIPAIR is actually a useful reference point. A lie-flat seat with each additional service priced individually and transparently, is a coherent offering. Travellers know what they’re getting. The more significant problem arises when legacy carriers sell something structurally similar, stripped of lounge access, flexibility and baggage, while marketing it under the same business class branding that has historically implied a comprehensive end-to-end experience.

For corporate travel programmes, the consequences extend well beyond a disgruntled traveller. A non-changeable ticket reissued during disruption, a bag fee at the counter, or a stranded employee with no flexibility and no recourse represents a programme failure, not just a personal inconvenience. Base fares also typically earn fewer frequent flyer miles and accrue less toward elite status – meaning the apparent saving at the point of booking may cost considerably more when the full picture is considered.

The corporate travel blind spot

For business travellers booked through a corporate travel management system, the risk is compounded. Many company travel policies were written when business class was a single, standardised product. They haven’t yet been updated to account for fare tiers within business class, meaning an employee may be booked on a base fare and arrive expecting the full experience. Travel managers, Mafojane explains, are increasingly having to specify not just the cabin class, but the fare tier, in their booking policies.

How to check before you commit

The fare tier name is your first signal. Base, Basic, Saver, or Light anywhere in the fare description is a warning to look further. Don’t rely on the airline’s general business class page, always check the specific fare conditions attached to the ticket you’re about to buy.

Confirm lounge access explicitly. Confirm baggage allowance in the booking summary, not the marketing overview. Check whether the ticket is changeable and refundable; if it is neither, you are holding something that functions more like an economy saver fare than a traditional business class ticket, regardless of what seat you’re sitting in.

“Obviously, travellers love a lie-flat seat, and all the space and comfort business class delivers,” says Mafojane. “But flexibility trumps all when it comes to a well-functioning travel programme.”

In other words, check the Ts&Cs carefully – and compare a premium economy fare with a ‘lite’ business class fare and decide which makes more sense on the day. If you hold elite frequent flyer status, check whether it restores any stripped benefits and be very mindful of which tiers you book.

What this actually means

None of this makes the tiered model inherently dishonest. For a leisure traveller with fixed plans, carry-on luggage only, and no interest in airport lounges, a base business class fare may represent genuine value – a lie-flat seat at a significantly lower price. The issue is assumption: the assumption that business class still has a fixed, reliable definition. It doesn’t. And in a managed travel programme, that ambiguity has a cost. A traveller turned away from a lounge, stuck on a non-recoverable ticket, or charged for a bag at the airport is an irritation at best and a significant unplanned expense at worst. Knowing which tier a ticket sits in, and what that means in practice, is now a fundamental part of the booking process, not an afterthought. And the onus sits squarely with the booker or travel manager.

Johannesburg – When a health crisis makes the news, the first instinct is either to cancel everything or to carry on as normal. Neither serve you very well.  Instead, start with five questions, asked before departure, not after something goes wrong.

1.Will my travel insurance actually cover this trip?

As Herman Heunes, GM of Corporate Traveller South Africa, explains, travel advisories can impact your trip cover.

“If you travel to a destination against official government ‘Do Not Travel’ warnings, insurers typically void your coverage for trip cancellations and medical emergencies related to the advisory,” says Hunes.

The timing matters too. Many insurers look at when the advisory was issued relative to when you bought your policy. If a severe advisory is issued before you booked your trip or purchased insurance, coverage is usually nullified.

“The advisory level at the time of departure determines a lot,” says Heunes. “Travellers who fly to a destination under an active advisory without checking their policy first can find themselves personally liable for medical, evacuation and repatriation costs that run into the hundreds of thousands.”

It’s an easy fix. Call your insurer or ask your travel management company (TMC) to confirm your specific cover before you book. Not after. And while you’re at it, also confirm whether your destination has any health entry requirements – including vaccinations or screening on arrival – and how your organisation will cover those costs.

2.Does my company actually know where I am?

A travel request form is not a tracking system. In a fast-moving health crisis, the difference between a company that knows you’re in a specific hotel in a specific city on a specific day and one that has you logged as “travelling in the DRC” is significant – and that gap can mean the difference between a swift evacuation and a delayed one.

Larger travel programmes have risk platforms that do this automatically. Many small to medium programmes don’t. If yours falls into the second category, ask your TMC what visibility they have (centralised booking systems and up-to-date traveller profiles make a big difference) – and what needs to happen before you fly.

Importantly, says Heunes, ask your team to register your trip with DIRCO. South Africa’s official travel registration system ensures the government knows you’re in a country if a coordinated evacuation needs to take place. It takes five minutes and costs nothing.

3.What is the health picture in the city I’m visiting?

Country-level warnings are a starting point, not the full story. An outbreak in a border province carries a different risk to one in a capital city with functioning health infrastructure, and a blanket advisory can make a safe trip look dangerous – and vice versa.

Your TMC should be able to provide destination-specific intelligence in addition to the government advisory. That’s where a global network makes a tangible difference.

“Partnering with a TMC that has a global footprint means you can access current, on-the-ground information and local support whenever you need it,” says Heunes. “Networks are a powerful advantage when it comes to duty of care.”

4.If the situation escalates and borders close mid-trip, what is the protocol?

Not “we’ll handle it” – the specific protocol. Who initiates the evacuation process in your organisation? Does your travel agent or TMC have a 24/7 emergency support line? Do you even have the number to call?

“The companies that manage crises well have done the thinking before the crisis, not during it,” says Heunes. “For smaller travel programmes, this is where a good TMC earns its keep – having those protocols already in place, already tested, so the traveller isn’t piecing it together from a hotel room.”

If your programme doesn’t have a documented escalation process, ask your TMC to walk you through what would actually happen, step by step. The answer will tell you a lot.

5.Can I leave early if I feel unsafe … and who covers the cost?

Fare flexibility is rarely top of mind when booking, but it becomes critical fast when a situation deteriorates. Many corporate fares, particularly at the economy end where SME travel budgets live, carry change fees or restrictions that make early departure expensive.

It’s also worth clarifying upfront who has the authority to make the call – whether the decision to abort a trip rests with you, your line manager, or someone further up the chain. In a crisis that moves fast, that ambiguity costs time.

Before you fly, confirm whether your ticket allows for early return, whether your company will cover the cost difference, and whether your insurance includes trip curtailment. If the answer to all three is yes, you can travel with genuine confidence. If not, at least you know what you’re walking into.

“Business travel is how small and medium businesses compete,” says Heunes. “It’s how you close deals, build relationships and show up in markets where presence still matters. The goal is never to stop travelling; it’s to travel in a way that’s informed, protected and sustainable. Ask the right questions before you fly, and you can do exactly that.”