Southwest Airlines introduces new Business Travel portal

Southwest Airlines announced the addition of a new travel portal that makes it easier to manage business travel, dubbed Southwest Business Assist.

The self-service tool will enable corporate travel buyers, travel decision makers and travel management companies to better manage their Southwest business travel using unique dashboards, reports, automated processing of contractual benefits, receiving or requesting customer service and more.

The new portal will be available to current business partners starting on August 24.

“Southwest Business Assist is a transformational one-stop shop for our Southwest Business customers as we deliver industry-leading capabilities on one of the most advanced platforms available today,” Southwest Business Vice President Dave Harvey said.

“The on-demand self-service tool will provide easy access to real-time information, reporting, and benefits designed to improve efficiencies and communication for our business travel Partners and continues our journey of making it easy to manage business travel on Southwest,” Harvey continued.

As part of the first phase of Southwest Business Assist’s unveiling, customers will have a variety of new options, including travel funds management, enhanced insight into contractual benefits, expanded sustainability reporting and increased automation with real-time capabilities.

More features are planned as additional phases of the portal are released, including duty of care reporting, the ability for travel managers to manage eligible flight credits, and additional automated functions.

Several other carriers have made similar changes in recent weeks. Delta Air Lines announced it would rebrand its business travel tools, products and services under one, all-encompassing travel solution name: Delta Business.

United Airlines also recently announced a new platform to allow corporate customers to fully customize their business travel program contracts with the carrier.