Book business travel at the speed of Lightning

Lightning combines a modern user experience, agile development, sustainability focus, NDC, GDS, and LCC content, plus smart policy controls to help you drive savings in your travel program. All that power and speed mean your people can book travel in 90 seconds. That’s why we call it business travel at the speed of Lightning.

Budget planning, done!

Developed in Australia, Lightning has logged over 7 million transactions globally. With a near-perfect uptime average of 99.7%, Lightning continues to evolve to serve our customers’ needs better. Today, Lightning is fully operational in CTM’s four main regions – Australia & New Zealand, Asia, North America, UK & Europe, with more countries on the way, each with localized support to make business travel work for you.

The need for speed

Fast, not furious

The biggest complaint about online booking tools is that they’re too slow. We get it – travelers don’t have time to waste clicking through a thousand screens only to get to the confirmation page and find out their choices aren’t compliant with policy, and that they need to start over.

Lightning was built for speed and simplicity, with minimal clicks, screens, and choices, making it easy for business travelers to book their travel in under 90 seconds while staying fully policy-compliant.

Award-winning innovation

Lightning has been recognized for excellence in corporate travel management – winning both the 2021 Business Travel Awards category for Best Corporate Booking Platform and SmartBrief Innovation Award.

Finally, a booking tool your people will love (and use)

• All Aboard: Save time by booking up to nine travellers on the same itinerary at once
• Perfect Pitch: View flight details before booking theWi-Fi, meals and entertainment
• Trusted Reviews: See which hotels your colleaguesrated between 1-5 stars and why
• Early Birds: Check individual flight on-timeperformance so you don’t miss that meeting
• Press Pause: Restart unfinished bookings in one click with our recent searches feature

Electronic savings when you book with Lightning

1000MTG customers know that true travel program savings come from more than just the best prices. In addition to globally sourced content, uniquely discounted rates, and your own corporate route deals, there are several ways Lightning helps our customers better balance their budgets.

Switch and save with Fare Forecaster

Using CTM Portal’s unique cost-avoidance tool, Fare Forecaster, your travelers can check alternative dates (10 days either side of their preferred travel) to identify if there’s a cheaper day to fly.

Smart filters and ranking

Lightning’s modern architecture means we can configure it to adopt intelligent lowest-logical fare ranking by excluding carriers, flights with multiple stops, non-refundable fares, and more, so you see the results most suitable for your business, like omitting basic economy with no bags, but also get the big picture of potential savings. That flexibility lets you re-sort or filter results without having to start your search over, or even just click “Cheapest Fares” and re-sort results instantly.

Power up sustainable travel

Point of search sustainability

Lightning shows your travel bookers granular CO2 calculations, hotel energy ratings, and more to make it fast and easy for your people to make more sustainable travel choices.

In flight search we show specific emissions by aircraft and cabin rather than generic route averages, making it truly actionable data rather than just post-trip reporting that doesn’t drive new booking behaviors to lower emissions.

NABERS energy ratings and eco-hotel labels help you find the perfect properties for your program. Car hire is even simpler with sort by emissions and filtering to see just Electric and Hybrid vehicles.

Empower travel bookers to go green

Thanks to the combination of CTM’s global partnership with South Pole and the power of Lightning, you can showcase client-selected sustainability projects in booking confirmations. You can either offset all trips at a company level or let individual travelers choose, building engagement and awareness of your company’s sustainability goals.

SImplify your travel program

Go with the policy flow

Whether managing travel for 100 employees in one office or 100,000 employees on multiple continents, Lightning is an essential tool that helps our clients build successful travel programs. With customizable rules, flows, and filters set to your company’s policy, Lightning intuitively guides your people to book the travel options they want that fit your budget’s needs and goals.

Easy set-up, even for complex rules

Our team configures your policy into different categories and to your exact specifications, including different travel groups. You can be confidentthat  VIPs and executives will see options available to them rather than limiting them to your biggest policy group.

Built for you and with you

Lightning’s agile development cycle means we regularly integrate customer feedback into developing new features to better meet our customers’ needs and wants. For every release, we highlight enhancements with quick videos, images, and guides so your team can get the best out of Lightning without needing regular training. Our clients deeply value the two-way relationship with
CTM and Lightning, knowing that their voice matters and influences mutual success. Here’s a reminder of Lightning’s most-loved features:

• Book up to nine unique travelers in one transaction, saving time and admin overhead
• View and select paid seats, so you never have to remember to go back to an airline’s website later
• Book or cancel Scout, our AI-powered chatbot that’s only fully available to 1000MTG customers
• If you choose to offset travel, CTM can work with you to integrate an offsetting project of your company’s choice
• Whether in the office, working from home, or on the road, Lightning is right there with you via CTM Mobile.