What is a Topaz International Audit?

Topaz International is a third party company that specializes in real-time travel policy auditing. Their services provide transparency into the bookings of a travel company, and the results show how these bookings compare to the competition.

We wanted to answer the question: Are we getting the lowest price available?

The Answer: A resounding YES.

Topaz International provided airfare auditing services for the University of Wisconsin from May 8th, 2017 to June 8th, 2017 for both airfare booked through an agent and online booking services.

Process:

  • All tickets issued by Fox/Concur were sent to Topaz International automatically and were audited by Topaz within 24 hours of ticketing.
  • The airline ticket was sent to Topaz along with full documentation outlining any additional fare options that were lower and declined by the traveler/travel arranger. This was done for all online and agent booked reservations.
  • Topaz then audited the reservations, searching for the lowest fare within the UW policy.
    • The goal was to see if there were any other options lower that weren’t offered to the traveler/travel arranger

The results were exceptional, and we are happy to show a summary of Topaz Internationals audit results.

Agent Booked Airfare

  • Percent Correct (lowest price offered): 100%
    • National Benchmark: 99.61%
  • Total Bookings Audited: 1,109
  • Errors (lower price available): 0
  • Average Cost per Ticket: $828.47, domestic and international trips combined
    • National Benchmark: $941.61

Online Booked Airfare

    • Percent Correct (lowest price offered): 100%
      • National Benchmark: 99.61%
    • Total Tickets Audited: 2,068
    • Errors (lower price available): 0
    • Average Cost per Ticket: $567.47, domestic and international trips combined
      • National Benchmark: $941.61

Group Block Fares Study

Along with the audit results shown above, the University of Wisconsin also contracted Topaz International to conduct a study of the University’s negotiated block airfare pricing against standard published fares.

The study took place on negotiated block fares booked from May 1st through June 30th, 2017. Here are the results Topaz International found from the study:

  • # of Negotiated Trips: 45
  • # of Pricing Attempts: 721, each individual fare was repriced up until 3 days prior to departure
  • # Times the Public Published Fare was Higher than the UW’s Block Price: 649 / 90%

The UW’s negotiated Block Space airfare was Less Expensive 90% of the time on the repricing attempts.

  • Topaz found lower published rates 4.7% of the time
  • Unable to price: 4.99%
    • Fares may be unable to price due to fares being sold out, flights changed or cancelled

If you are interested in reviewing the audit findings or group block study papers, please contact UWS Travel Office at uwstraveloffice@uwsa.edu .