Methods | Traditionally done through Offline Booking (phone call, email), where the employee relays their request to the agent. Increasingly, modern platforms allow for "blended" bookings where an agent takes over from an online tool. |
Contrast | Directly contrasts with Self-Service Booking (using an Online Booking Tool, or OBT), where the traveler handles the entire transaction themselves. |
Typical use case | Complex itineraries: Multi-city trips, intricate international connections, or specialized requirements (visas, group bookings). Exceptions & policy violations: Requesting approval for an out-of-policy itinerary. Disruptions: Needing immediate, expert assistance during flight cancellations or emergencies. |
Business value | Provides travelers with dedicated expertise, personal service, and support during travel disruptions, helping ensure complex itineraries remain compliant and efficient. |
Agent-assisted booking (AAB) is when a traveler uses a travel agent to research, build, or confirm a trip instead of booking fully online.
This matters because not every trip is simple. Multi‑city routes, group travel, last‑minute changes, and VIP needs can be stressful to handle alone. For example, if a sales leader needs to visit three countries in five days with tight connections, they might call an agent to design the whole itinerary.
In business travel programs, AAB is one of the main booking channels, alongside online self‑booking tools. A smart program lets travelers use self‑service for simple trips and agent support for complex or high‑risk ones, while still enforcing policy and capturing data.
Travel agent or consultant: A trained expert who knows fares, rules, routes, and supplier contracts. They often sit within a travel management company (TMC). |
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Communication channel: Phone, email, chat, or in‑app messaging. Many modern platforms, including Navan, let you message support right in the app. |
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Booking content: Agents use global distribution systems (GDS), direct airline and hotel connections, and your negotiated corporate rates to build the trip. |
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Policy and profile enforcement: The agent applies your travel policy, traveler preferences, loyalty numbers, and company payment methods during the booking. |
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Booking record: The final itinerary is captured as a passenger name record (PNR) and stored in both the TMC and your travel platform. |
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Companies turn to agents when expertise, speed, or risk management is critical. Common scenarios include:
Even in digital-first programs, a defined share of bookings will be agent-assisted. The goal is to route only the right trips to agents with clear rules and service levels.
Agent-assisted booking began as the default for corporate travel. Employees called or emailed a travel management company for every itinerary, and agents handled policy checks, ticketing, and changes. As online booking tools emerged in the late 1990s and 2000s, simple point-to-point trips shifted to self-service, while agents concentrated on complex itineraries, international travel, VIP support, and disruption management.
Today, leading platforms such as Navan blend both models in a single experience. Travelers book straightforward trips quickly on their own, then tap in app chat or phone support for expert help when needed. Policy, approvals, profiles, and negotiated rates apply consistently across channels, and all bookings flow into one system of record for reporting and duty of care. The result is faster self-service for routine travel, high-touch service for edge cases, and cleaner data for finance and safety teams.
What Are the Most Common Misconceptions About AAB? |
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“Agent bookings are always more expensive.” Not necessarily. Agents can often surface better routing, corporate fares, or alternatives you might miss. “Agent support is only for VIPs.” Many programs allow any traveler to use agents when trips are complex or disrupted. “If we use AAB, we lose control of policy.” Good programs have agents trained on your policy and tools that enforce rules even on agent‑made bookings. |
Companies that use AAB wisely typically see higher traveler satisfaction, better risk management, and smoother handling of complex trips.
Here is why:
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Modern platforms like Navan combine fast self‑booking with 24/7 agent support in one system of record. The result is efficient self‑service for simple trips, expert help when it matters, and clean data across the entire program.
The traveler or arranger contacts an agent by phone, email, chat, or in-app message and provides dates, destinations, purpose, preferences, and charge codes such as project or cost center.
The agent confirms the trip purpose, budget, and policy limits such as cabin class, hotel cap, and advance purchase rules. They review the traveler profile for frequent flyer numbers, seating preferences, loyalty IDs, passports and visas, and payment details.
The agent searches flights, hotels, trains, and cars through the GDS and any direct connections, applies your contracted rates and preferred suppliers, and evaluates fare rules, changeability, and total trip cost.
The agent sends one to three options with total prices, key restrictions, and policy status. Any out-of-policy elements are flagged, and reason codes are captured if needed.
The itinerary routes to the manager or budget owner for approval in your travel platform or via predefined workflows. Holds and fare time limits are managed during this step.
The agent issues tickets, secures hotel and car reservations, and uses the approved payment method, such as a company card or virtual card. The PNR is created with the correct cost center and traveler ID and is synced to your travel system.
The traveler receives confirmations, and the trip appears in the app. Ongoing support is available for changes, disruptions, or reissues, and duty of care tracking updates automatically.
Booking data feeds reporting dashboards, invoices are matched to PNRs, and receipts flow to the expense system so finance can track compliance, cost, and agent-assisted booking share.
Scenario 1: Complex Multi‑City International Trip |
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A project manager needs to visit New York, London, and Berlin within a single week for tightly scheduled client meetings. They message an agent through the travel platform to coordinate the trip. The agent assembles a three-segment itinerary that minimizes jet lag and connection risk and books hotels near each client office. The company’s travel policy is applied throughout, including cabin class rules, hotel rate caps, and preferred airlines. |
Scenario 2: Flight Disruption During a Conference |
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A team traveling to a major conference is disrupted by a storm that cancels multiple flights. Instead of waiting in airport lines, the travelers contact agents directly via chat or phone through the travel platform. The agents quickly rebook and reroute the team while adhering to company policy, securing alternative flights and adjusting hotels as needed. Managers and the travel team see updated itineraries in real time and can monitor traveler status throughout the disruption. |
Scenario 3: Blended Online and Agent Model With Navan |
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A company uses Navan as its primary travel platform. Employees book everyday domestic trips online through Navan Travel, and when they need help with complex routing or a disruption, they contact Navan’s travel experts in the app. All bookings, whether self-service or agent-assisted, appear in the same dashboards for finance and travel managers. |
Why it happens: Human time costs more than self-service. How to fix it: define clear eligibility rules for when AAB is appropriate (complex itineraries, international, VIP, disruption), encourage self-booking for simple point-to-point trips, set approval or fee thresholds for AAB use, and track AAB share versus online bookings with a target to optimize over time.
If agents are not fully aligned with your policy, out-of-policy bookings rise. Fix this by training agents on your policy and keeping a current policy brief on file, embedding policy rules and preferred suppliers in the agent desktop, requiring reason codes for exceptions, and reviewing out-of-policy AAB bookings regularly to adjust guidelines or coaching.
When agent bookings sit in a different system, reporting breaks. Use a single system of record that integrates both self-service and AAB (for example, Navan with TMC feeds), ensures real-time data sharing, and standardizes required fields such as cost center, project, traveler ID, and approval status. Reconcile PNRs and tag AAB bookings so they roll up cleanly in dashboards.
Queues clog when travelers default to agents for basic itineraries. Make the online booking experience fast and intuitive, educate travelers on when to self-book versus call an agent, add in-app triage that routes simple trips to self-service, and set tiered SLAs so complex or urgent cases get priority agent response.
Mixed messages lead to misuse or underuse. Publish clear eligibility and use cases, include concrete examples such as multi-city, international, major disruptions, and group travel, and reinforce the rules in onboarding, policy, and the booking tool. Align with HR and managers so expectations are consistent across teams.
Understanding agent-assisted bookings is easier when you know these related terms:
Stop relying on fragmented systems and start managing all your travel (simple or complex, self-booked or agent-assisted) on one unified platform. Get started. |
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