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Through our years of serving our clients in business travel, meetings & events, and hotel distribution, we know that delivering a truly memorable experience doesn't stop with our clients - it's all about their employees. We call this concept B2B4E: “business to business for employees”.

What we do for the employees of our clients is what we strive to do every day for our own people through our culture. In everything we do, we seek to be performance-driven, innovative, empowered and customer-focused. These four attributes form the foundations of CWT culture and they shape the daily experiences of our employees, as well as those of our clients and travelers.

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Amex GBT Agrees to Acquire Carlson Wagonlit Travel for $570 Million

Photo: Amex GBT 

American Express Global Business Travel (Amex GBT) is acquiring corporate travel agency Carlson Wagonlit Travel (CWT), for $570 million, marking a new chapter for one of the industry’s longtime corporate giants.

The deal is expected to close sometime in the second half of 2024. The transaction will be funded by a combination of stock and cash.

CWT, which says it serves 4,000 global customers, has been undergoing major changes in recent years, including taking on new equity owners in 2021. As recently as November, CWT underwent some balance sheet recapitalization aimed at deleveraging its balance sheet and strengthening its financial position. At that time, CWT said it had a “strong financial foundation and capital structure.”

In Monday’s announcement, CWT said that moving under Amex GBT will help its long-term vision and that it was “confident” in the future of the company.

“Joining forces with Amex GBT helps accelerate our vision of a tech-enabled future for business travel, where people and technology combine to deliver an exceptional customer experience. We are highly confident in the value creation of the combined company,” CWT CEO Patrick Andersen said.

It also said that, when the deal closes, its clients would have access to Amex GBT’s proprietary software, including programs like Neo1, Neo, and Egencia, and Amex GBT’s professional services.

TMR reached out to CWT to ask about the evolution of the CWT brand when the company does move under Amex GBT, and whether or not the CWT will remain. A spokesperson told TMR that "it’s very early in the process to discuss CWT as a brand. We are all proud of the name we have built in the marketplace and our ancestry. Today, we remain CWT."

Amex GBT’s CEO Paul Abbot said on Monday that bringing CWT under the Amex banner will “create more choice for customers, more opportunities for people, and more value for shareholders.”

CWT traces its roots back to 1872 when a Belgian innovator Georges Nagelmackers, who went on to create the Orient Express, founded Wagons-Lits, which means "sleeping cars."

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Carlson Wagonlit Travel

With more than 3,000 offices in more than 140 countries, Carlson Wagonlit Travel (CWT) is the second-largest travel agency in the world. Although the combined name is relatively new, the company's roots go back to the oldest travel businesses in Europe and America. Wagonlit Travel's founder was the creator of the legendary Orient Express, while the Carlson Travel Network was based on Ask Mr. Foster Travel, one of the first travel agencies in the United States. Carlson also operates a separate, wholly-owned leisure and franchised travel agency network in North America under the Carlson Wagonlit Travel Associates name. In addition, Accor manages separate CWT Leisure operations in Europe.

Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits et du Tourisme was founded in 1872 by Georges Nagelmakers, a Belgian, to market rides on railway sleeper cars (wagons-lits) of his own design. This culminated in the richly outfitted carriages of the legendary Orient Express, officially inaugurated in 1883. A network of Wagons-Lits travel agencies appeared in Europe in 1928.

Carlson Wagonlit's origins in the United States date back to the country's first travel agency. Ask Mr. Foster Travel began with a souvenir shop Ward Grenelle Foster opened in St. Augustine, Florida, in 1888. As a child in New York, Foster had been hospitalized for tuberculosis. While confined, he developed a passion for travel literature. He became sought after for travel advice, leading to a career as the father of the travel agency in the United States.

Foster started by publishing travel guides. During the 1920s, his travel agency grew to 70 offices in the United States. This era saw the professionalization of the business with the appearance of Foster Girls, who were dedicated to the travel business full time. Men did not begin working as travel agents in the United States until the 1940s.

Paxton Mendelssohn of Detroit bought Ask Mr. Foster in 1937. Within a few years, the outbreak of World War II curtailed leisure travel. After the war, demand was great--so great that the railroads did not need to advertise with Ask Mr. Foster, so the agency began to switch to a commission-based system.

Changing Hands in the 1970s

Peter Ueberroth, future Major League Baseball commissioner, acquired Ask Mr. Foster through his Los Angeles travel company, First Travel Corp., in 1972. Ueberroth paid $1 million for the agency, which had 29 branch offices. He placed his brother, John Ueberroth, in charge of its expansion.

In 1979, Ask Mr. Foster was sold to the Carlson Companies, Inc., which Curt Carlson had built up from a small trading stamp company to one of the biggest privately held firms in the United States. Ask Mr. Foster then had more than 100 branches and more than $100 million in sales a year.

Carlson entered the travel market just as deregulation of the airline industry was getting underway. With their newfound freedom, airlines introduced thousands of airfares using complex formulas to make the most profit from every flight. Corporations with large travel accounts turned to agencies like Ask Mr. Foster Travel to find the best deals and to provide reporting of travel expenses.

John Ueberroth remained with Ask Mr. Foster after it was acquired by Carlson and continued to direct its expansion. He eventually became president of Carlson Travel, which grew by acquisition through the first half of the 1980s, picking up Canada's P. Lawson Travel and leisure travel agencies Cartan Tours and First Tours. Carlson acquired a 70 percent holding in P. Lawson in 1983 and had acquired the remainder by 1992.

Mixing Corporate and Leisure Travel in the 1980s

By the mid-1980s, Carlson Travel Group had become one of the largest travel companies in the world by focusing on corporate sales. It had 600 offices and accounted for nearly half of Carlson Companies' 1986 revenues of $3.5 billion. The group's only near rival was American Express Travel Management Services. The company owned 18 agencies inside Neiman-Marcus department stores (Neiman-Marcus Travel Service) in addition to its Ask Mr. Foster units.

Company head John Ueberroth was trying to replicate this success on the leisure side of the market. CTN began an associates program from U.S. agencies in 1984. The number of participating agencies exceeded 600 in 1990. Ask Mr. Foster acquired Don Travel Service Inc. in 1986. This regional agency based in New York had annual sales of about $200 million.

Northwest and TWA's PARS computer reservations system was installed in 80 Ask Mr. Foster offices in early 1988. Carlson acquired Gelco Travel Management Service Inc., a unit of GE Capital, in the same year. Gelco, a $250 million travel company with 660 employees, was folded into Ask Mr. Foster.

Going Global in the 1990s

In 1990, Carlson Travel acquired a 76 percent interest in the A.T. Mays travel agency chain, the fourth-largest in the United Kingdom. A.T. Mays had more than 300 offices, more than 2,400 employees, and annual revenues of $576 million. It was eventually renamed Carlson Worldchoice. Mays was Carlson's first major overseas acquisition. A wave of consolidation had begun among travel agencies in the United States and United Kingdom.

The Ask Mr. Foster name was retired in April 1990, replaced by that of Carlson Travel Network. The new name conveyed both the connection to the Carlson-owned restaurants and hotels as well as the existence of a global distribution network. Also in 1990, operations at the company were restructured into commercial and retail sides, while computing and accounting operations were centralized at its Minneapolis headquarters. Carlson had acquired a company specializing in travel management software, CompuCheck Corp. Carlson Travel Network's system-wide revenues rose 42 percent to $5.1 billion in 1990.

Travis Tanner was named president of Carlson Travel Group, which included the Carlson Travel Network, in January 1993. He was returning to the unit after four years as head of Walt Disney Travel Co. Carlson Travel Network soon underwent a restructuring aimed at delegating more decision-making to local and regional offices. The unit had about 6,000 employees at the time.

The next year, in March 1994, Carlson Travel announced the merger of its business travel operations with those of Paris-based Wagonlit Travel (Compagnie Internationale des Wagon-Lits et du Tourisme), a unit of the Accor Group SA, a French tourism and business service conglomerate that also owned Novotel, Sofitel, and Motel 6 hotels and car rental agencies. Accor was the largest travel and hospitality company operating outside the United States.

A global travel enterprise, named Carlson Wagonlit Travel (CWT), was formed with annual revenues of $10.8 billion. This was large enough to re-take the industry lead from American Express Travel Related Services (TRS), which till then had been the largest travel company in the world with 1993 sales of $8 billion. Carlson's independent foreign franchises were not included in the deal. Carlson Wagonlit had 4,000 offices in 125 countries; 2,300 of these came from Carlson Travel. The combined operations booked 24 million airline and train tickets a year, plus seven million hotel stays and six million days of car rentals.

The merger made Carlson Wagonlit competitive for large multinational businesses, such as GE, that were beginning to switch to single vendors for their travel needs. The merger created new possibilities for monitoring global spending trends for these clients. The process of integrating Wagonlit Travel's information systems with Carlson Travel's was a five-year endeavor.

A London-based joint venture, Carlson Wagonlit Development Co., was created to develop markets in Australia, Singapore, and Hong Kong. Carlson and Accor agreed to each invest $45 million in the joint venture over three years.

Carlson Wagonlit soon unveiled a branded Visa credit card for 85,000 of its accounts, intensifying its competition with American Express (AmEx). In September 1994, AmEx leapfrogged Carlson Wagonlit in size by acquiring Thomas Cook Ltd.'s North American operations. Carlson Travel president described the consolidation trend in Business Week: "In 1985, you had to be national. In 1995, you have to be global."

CWT acquired Sweden's third-largest travel agency group, Resecenter, in October 1996. Resecenter had 1995 revenues of $90 million and 110 employees, compared to $13.3 billion for CWT, which had more than 20,000 employees.

Expanding Online and in the UK in late 1990s

CWT introduced enQuest, its Internet-based travel agency in September 1997. Around the same time, it rolled out Mercavia, an extranet for providing travel agents with information that included video clips.

CWT's online debut lagged behind the Travelocity and American Express Travel on the Web by more than a year. The first online travel agency had been rolled out in 1995, and the field was already crowded, including offerings from Microsoft Corp. and other technology-based companies. However, CWT executives believed their bricks-and-mortar agencies offered unparalleled customer service opportunities.

CWT continued to expand in Britain. It acquired Inspirations, a packager of summer holidays, for £42 million. In October 1998, CWT merged the British package holiday interests of Thomas Cook with its own UK operations. This tied it for third place among UK tour operators. The merger also included Cook's travel businesses in Canada, Australia, and India, financial services operations, as well as Carlson's Caledonian and Peach Airways charter airlines and the tour operator Inspirations. Thomas Cook, which was owned by Westdeutsche Landesbank, had annual sales of more than £23 billion. It had been founded in 1841.

Jon Madonna, a former executive with the Travelers Group and KPMG Peat Marwick, replaced Travis Tanner as CWT CEO in late 1998. Tanner had left to join the Atlanta-based leisure start-up Luxury Travel Co. CWT was reorganizing around customers' needs, rather than geographical divisions.

Herve Gourio, president of Wagonlit Travel at the time of the merger with Carlson, returned to lead CWT after the departure of Madonna in October 2000.

Scaling Back After 2000

CWT cut several hundred positions in early 2001 due to a softening economy. CWT employed 15,000 people around the world, including 6,000 in North America. About 200 telephone reservationists were let go. Airlines were also suffering from a downturn in the travel business even before the September 11, 2001 terror attacks and were reducing commissions to travel agencies by as much as 60 percent. Overall revenues fell 8.3 percent in 2001, to $11 billion, mostly due to a slump in the U.S. market, which was down 20 percent.

In early 2003, Carlson Wagonlit announced a joint venture with China Air Service, the leading corporate travel management company in the People's Republic. A joint venture with the Japan Travel Bureau had been formed in 2001.

Principal Competitors: American Express Company; Kuoni Travel Holding Ltd.; Rosenbluth International; TUI AG; WorldTravel BTI.

Source: International Directory of Company Histories , Vol. 55. St. James Press, 2003.

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This company is probably going to end up in a class action lawsuit for labor violations. During the month of December, they are offering leave without pay to employees while at the same time they deny paid leave to employees who EARNED paid vacation and/or personal time. Why would the company do this? Incompetent managers? Or is it because denied employees will permanently lose their earned leave due to the company policy that automatically expires all unused personal/vacation leave that is not used by the end of the year. Personal and earned vacation leave is not allowed to be carried over from year to year, and employees do not get reimbursed for their unused leave, but the company is offering leave without pay during this slow BUSINESS travel holiday season! Merry Christmas CWT Employees! So if you get an unhappy agent on the phone, maybe its because their vacation was stolen from them?

Despite asking not to have a seat on the backward train direction ( 5h train) this company gave me just such seat. Also plane seats are the worst ones when the reservation is through this company. Bad customer service!

On the phone with a woman now because my 800$ concur expense repayment report was lost. 20 minutes to get her on the phone. 40 minutes in and she has no idea how to assist me. This is the WORST travel booking agency on the planet. Horrible online web system that is completely broken and clueless phone support. I may never get my 800$ repayment with this level of incompetency.

Utter incompetence that you overpay for over and over again. Unfortunately, I am forced to use this incompetent company by my employer. In my latest booking, the flights were reserved but the tickets were not actually purchased for some reason... that was a $30 phone call to their service line and achieved only part of my trip (they did at least reserve the hotel). After discovering that my tickets had not actually been purchased when I wanted to try to select seats, I called again (and was charged another $30), this time I was told the tickets would be purchased. They were not. After calling a third time (another $30), I finally got the tickets purchased but at a 25% higher cost than originally quoted... this was later rectified by CWT, but I never received a receipt with the corrected amount, making it impossible for me to correctly file my post-trip expense report. I have now notified CWT "travel counselors" three times via their online Messaging system that I need the final receipt. Each time I have been told that they have looked it up and "notified the concerned team and I will receive the receipt within 24-48 hours." (Why should it take a different team and 24-48 hours to simply email me a receipt?) So far I have received nothing twice and am once again awaiting a receipt. When I asked why I should expect anything to be different this time after they failed to send me the receipt the first two times I received this message: "Dear Alex, Just now i have raised request for complete invoice for both ticket , So within 478 hours , You will receive on email." Really confidence inspiring. I'm guessing I will now have to make yet another $30 phone call to this inept organization and god only knows what will happen when I eventually run out of time to file this $3000+ expense report because they CANNOT HANDLE SIMPLY EMAILING A RECEIPT. I would advise anyone who has a choice to stay as far away from this company as possible.

Worst experience in 35 years of doing business with anyone in the travel industry. Do NOT submit your families or employees to this company.

My company pays for 24 hour suppose yet they don't answer the phones for urgent travel. Guessing whoever manning the phones taking a fat nap.

They claim that the "new" wait times for their "emergency help" line are due to covid.... This is a lie they have always had a 2 hour wait and are some how always "experiencing greater then normal call volumes" I have been on hold for 1hr 19min

Probably the worse Travel Mgmt Co ever. Them losing their AMAZON contract says it all.

We got rid of AmEx business travel and went to CWT. I hate them. HATE! The online system is awful and forget about trying to call to speak to a human. I have been on hold for 1 hour and 45 minutes and am still waiting. Non-existent customer service. To any corporation who is thinking about using CWT - DO NOT!!!

Why do companies sign up with the services of CWT is beyond me. Instead of booking direct, we use them with a convoluted process. I've just had a flight un-confirmed and it's unclear why. If I book direct with the airline this never happens. The booking process is heavy, and then I have to call and wait on the phone (no email God forbid). Terrible, terrible, terrible.

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Carlson Family Gives Up Control of Namesake Agency CWT in Refinancing Deal

Matthew Parsons , Skift

September 15th, 2021 at 11:00 AM EDT

A new chapter that will help the agency focus on the future, but will an opaque ownership structure hinder its recovery plans?

Matthew Parsons

Corporate travel agency  CWT  hopes to draw a line under a tumultuous 18 months with a major financial restructuring, which will see the family-owned  Carlson  group switch from majority to minority stakeholder.

CWT, which up until 2019 was  known as Carlson Wagonlit Travel , has entered into an agreement with its equity owners, as well as firms that represent more than 90 percent of the company’s outstanding debt, to recapitalize the business.

Terms of the agreement, entered into with financial stakeholder  Barings , among others, include adding $350 million of new equity capital into the business, and eliminating almost $900 million of debt by replacing its existing $1.5 billion in debt with a new first lien debt of $625 million and an undrawn revolving credit facility. First lien debt holders are paid back before all other debt holders in the event of a default.

As a result of these manoeuvrings, the Carlson holdings ownership will be diluted, according to CWT CEO Michelle McKinney Frymire,  who replaced Kurt Ekert in May .

The refinancing, which is expected to complete by the end of the year, doesn’t involve any new parties coming to the table — which may come as a surprise after previous refinancing and other speculation. One industry source told Skift in September last year that  CWT would make an attractive acquisition target . “I see them being a net loser unfortunately, and there are others out there who might take an opportunistic approach and make a consolidation play,” they said at the time.

Rumors also circulated that private equity firm Certares, which this week  invested $354 million in an aerospace services firm , was looking at the company.

“All of the parties involved are existing investors, and they’re all really well regarded institutional investment managers,” said McKinney Frymire. “They understand the business, and have been incredibly supportive of the company and our strategy … CWT will remain an independent standalone company, we will have a number of debt holders who will become equity holders, many of whom already have some small portion of equity.”

McKinney Frymire also doesn’t envisage job cuts in the future. “Optimizing the operational footprint of the company, flattening the organization, we’ve done a lot of that work already,” she said.

CWT has been radically slimming down over the past few of years. In 2019 it axed several country director roles, and later transferred other regions into  cross-functional market management teams.

McKinney Frymire said there were currently 500 positions the company was looking to fill around the world.

Meanwhile, the restructure leaves CWT with a generous $400 million of available liquidity on the balance sheet. It claimed this is the largest amount among its peers, but the money won’t be directed towards acquisitions,  which has been a major trend  during the pandemic.

“We’re focused on our people and technology,” McKinney Frymire said. “That’s not to say we wouldn’t take advantage if we thought there was an opportunity that made sense. But it’s not an intentional focal point.”

Beyond the Pandemic

Now the calculations have been made, McKinney Frymire said she wants to put the business in a position to take advantage of the recovery in business travel. She’s been out talking to her biggest customers, where the news was “universally and very positively received.”

Yet it marks a significantly different chapter with its former namesake taking a back seat. Carlson was founded in 1938 in the U.S. state of Minnesota by Curt Carlson, with Carlson Wagonlit Travel formed in 1994 following its partnership with France’s Wagonlit Travel, which was owned by Accor.  Accor sold its share in the company in 2006.

But CWT is keen to point out that its rebrand in 2019 meant the company was no longer called Carlson Wagonlit Travel, despite the initials. Now, Carlson will retain some stake, but the exact percentage is still to be determined.

“Having over 90 percent of the debt holders in this agreement is really remarkable, and demonstrates the support our financial stakeholders have for the business,” McKinney Frymire added.

That show of support for the ailing travel agency also demonstrates a certain level of faith in the corporate travel sector’s potential to rebound. So much so, they’re literally banking on it.

The Daily Newsletter

Our daily coverage of the global travel industry. Written by editors and analysts from across Skift’s brands.

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Tags: carlson wagonlit travel , certares , cwt , travel management

Photo credit: CWT is headquartered in Minneapolis in the U.S. Gregory Hayes / Unsplash

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Our history

Milestones in our journey as an industry leader

2010 - 2019

2000 - 2009, 1900 - 1999, 1872 - 1899, appointments, 2020 - now  .

• November CWT significantly strengthens financial position through balance sheet recapitalization.
• June CWT forms strategic partnership with Spotnana to provide next generation global travel solution to customers.
• May CWT partners with Booking.com for Business to provide expanded content and 24/7 servicing.
• April CWT Meetings & Events launches carbon calculator to help reduce customers’ carbon footprint.
• February CWT announces its 2023 product investment focus and issues $90m of equity to help scale strategic value-enhancing opportunities. CWT publishes tenth annual sustainability report now organized under Environmental, Social and Governance framework, previously known as Responsible Business.
• October CWT adds new trip planning, management and collaboration functionalities to its myCWT platform.
• July CWT included in America’s Best Employers for Women. CWT signs PACT's (formerly ECPAT) Code of Conduct for the Protection of Children in Travel and Tourism.
• June CWT launches 24/7 English-Mandarin bilingual hub service.
• March CWT launches Real-Time Carbon Footprint Indicators to help customers make more sustainable choices.
• February CWT unveils initial focus of $100m technology, innovation, and product investment plans.
• January CWT commences celebrations of 150 years in travel. A heritage that traces back to 1872 when Belgian engineer and industrialist, George Nagelmackers, sold the American concept of sleeping cars to European rail operators.
• November CWT to invest $100m in technology and innovative products as recapitalization plan is approved. CWT exceeds 2021 messaging integration targets with 1,000th customer adoption.
• June Commitment to significantly reduce CWT's environmental footprint by signing the Science Based Targets Call to Action Standard Commitment Letter.
• October CWT Meetings & Events launches CWT easy meetings, a direct-booking platform for small meetings. The platform gives meeting organizers access to over 250,000 meeting rooms in hotels (both independent and chain) as well as unique venues & event spaces in more than 90 countries . 8th annual Responsible Business Report published, showing continued momentum, including being awarded the newly established EcoVadis Platinum sustainability rating and maintaining the United Nations (UN) Global Compact Advanced Level.
• September CWT Solutions Group creates a new responsible travel consulting framework.
• April CWT is awarded Platinum status for responsible business by EcoVadis – top rating for the fourth successive year.
• February CWT partners with Timeshifter to offer jet lag solution for traveling employees
• January CWT launches the first open API-based global travel management platform for China. CWTSatoTravel partners with US Defense Department’s Military Spouse Employment Partnership (MSEP). CWT Energy, Resources & Marine (ERM) have signed a preferred global agreement with The Visa Team, a specialist in visa-handling services for the oil and gas, mining, and marine industries. Business Travel On the Fly podcast is launched.

2010 - 2019  

• December CWT Meetings & Events is named to CMI 25 List for 10th year in a row.
• October First successful live NDC booking through Amadeus Selling Platform Connect. CWT and the Carlson Family Foundation host the Minnesota Hackathon to fight online child trafficking in partnership with Thorn.
• September CWT Meetings & Events is named to CMI 25 List for 10th year in a row.
• August RoomIt by CWT™ announces its first global campaign in support of the World Childhood Foundation, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year.
• June CWT publishes its 2019 Annual Responsible Business Report and reached its third consecutive annual EcoVadis Gold rating and the United Nations Global Compact Advanced Level rating for its annual Responsible Business Report.
• May CWT Meetings & Events signs an agreement with Kaplan Higher Education Academy (KHEA), part of Kaplan in Singapore, a leading private education institution, to enhance employment opportunities for students in the hospitality & MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Events) industries.
• April CWT secures a UK Cyber Essentials certification. This UK Government-backed scheme is designed to protect organizations and their data against a wide range of cyberattacks.
• March CWT reported strong growth in 2018. CWT is awarded 3rd successive EcoVadis Gold status in recognition of responsible business practices.
• February CWT rebrand and updated customer value proposition is launched.
• November CWT launched AI-powered travel reporting tool, CWT AnswerIQ
• April CWT reported strong 2017 performance.
• March Diana Nelson, Kurt Ekert and the ELT signed the UN Women’s Empowerment Principles .
• December CWT passes the one-millionth registered user milestone for the mobile app myCWT, (formerly called CWT To Go™) and began trialing air booking capabilities.
• November CWT delivers a new travel technology platform, myCWT, to drive digital products.
• July CWT becomes the first TMC to build and launch its own hotel distribution business, RoomIt by CWT.
• September CWT launches CWT 3.0 growth strategy and vision to be the leading digital TMC.
• November CWT announces its Corporate Innovation team , dedicated to further driving and developing a company-wide culture of innovation.
• June Carlson enters into a definitive agreement with JP MorganChase to acquire full ownership of CWT, heralding an exciting new chapter for the company.
• April CWT Meetings & Events announces its entry into China's rapidly growing meetings and events market.
• September CWT wins the GBTA Project ICARUS Europe travel supplier outstanding achievement award 2013 – intermediary, for the  CWT Travel Stress Index.
• January CWT celebrates 10 years in China and renews its joint venture relationship with China Air Services for a further 10 years.
• October CWT Acquires WorldMate, leader in mobile travel technology, and also wins "Best Corporate Travel Agency 2012" at the TTG Travel Awards.
• July CWT To Go  TM , our mobile app, wins the 2012 Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) award for innovation of the year in the category of "Outstanding apps" – voted for by business travelers.
• November CWT expands its presence in Latin America with two acquisitions: Centenial Group, its partner in Costa Rica since 2004, in October, and Net Tour Viagens E Turismo LTDA (Net Tours) in Brazil.
• May CWT starts its mobile services offering with the launch of CWT To Go , a free mobile services application that allows travelers to access their travel itineraries directly from their mobile devices while on their trips. 
• February CWT acquires Kaleva Travel Ltd., its partner since 1995, with operations in Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Romania.

2000 - 2009  

• February CWT received a 2009 Business Travel Innovation Award for its compliance-enhancing solution  CWT Policy Messenger  at the  Business Travel Show  held in London. This marks the second consecutive innovation award for CWT in the competition's Travel Management Services Category.
• October CWT CWT signed a global agreement with The CarbonNeutral Company, the leading carbon offset and climate consulting firm, to provide emissions management services to CWT clients and enhance its CWT Sustainable Solutions offering.
• July CWT and American Express Global Commercial Card signed a multi-year, preferred supplier agreement by which CWT will promote and distribute three American Express payment solutions to its clients and prospects in 21 countries.
• July CWT announces the addition of ground transportation (which includes rental car, black car/limo and rail) to its repertoire of program optimization services. CWT gains majority control of Indian joint venture. The transaction underscores CWT's commitment to India's corporate travel market.
• August CWT finalizes acquisition of Navigant International, doubling its size in North America and reinforcing its presence in Asia Pacific. A change in CWT's shareholding structure also occurs in August: Carlson and One Equity Partners (OEP) acquire Accor's 50 percent stake in CWT. Carlson becomes majority shareholder with 55 percent of CWT shares, while OEP holds the remaining 45 percent.
• The  CWT Solutions Group , the company's consulting division, becomes global 
• March CWT acquires Maritz Corporate Travel in the United States in March, and Onboard in Germany in October, demonstrating its continuous commitment to playing a leading role in the consolidation of the travel management industry.
• CWT opens its first eCenter in Warsaw, Poland. This new service configuration is designed to handle multinational clients with business travelers in several European cities from a single business travel center.
• CWT and China Air Service establish a joint venture operation, CWT China, headquartered in Beijing.CWT celebrates 10 years in China and renews its joint venture relationship with China Air Services for a further 10 years.
• CWT and Japan Travel Bureau create a joint venture, JTB/CWT Business Travel Solutions. 
• CWT creates the CWT Solutions Group, whose experts provide consulting services to clients, notably in the selection and deployment of new technologies and in strategic air and hotel sourcing.
• Carlson Travel Network in the United States and Wagonlit Travel in Europe merge to form the Carlson Wagonlit Travel network for business travel. The new company is the first truly global travel services company with international management.
• CWT acquires Dodwell Travel from Inchcape Group and establishes CWT Hong Kong.
• Carlson Companies, Inc. of Minneapolis and the Paris-based Accor Group combine the business travel interests of their respective companies, Carlson Travel Network and Wagonlit Travel, under the name Carlson Wagonlit Travel.
• Wagons-Lits Travel changes its name to Wagonlit Travel and consolidates its network, products and services for multinational companies.
• Accor acquires La Compagnie des Wagons-Lits.
• Ask Mr. Foster changes its name to Carlson Travel Network, to capitalize on the professionalism, strength, and synergy of the Carlson Companies.
• Carlson Companies acquires P. Lawson Travel.
• Wagons-Lits Travel is the first business travel agency in Europe to create implants or on-site locations in the offices of clients. The company also introduces the widespread use of computer reservation systems and offers global reporting to European business travel customers. It expands quickly through major acquisitions in Denmark, Spain, Germany, the United Kingdom and Eastern Europe.
• The "Compagnie des Wagons-Lits" expands its mission of serving travelers to become Wagons-Lits Travel, Europe's largest travel management company.
• Ask Mr. Foster changes hands when two shareholders, Donald Fischer and Thomas Orr, pay US$157,000 for controlling interest in the company, which had seen hard times during and in the wake of World War II.
• Full-service Wagons-Lits agencies spring up in rail ticket offices throughout Europe.

1899 - 1872

• The Ask Mr. Foster travel agency is founded in St. Augustine, Florida, making it one of the oldest travel agencies in the United States. Its unusual name is the result of one local resident, Ward G. Foster, who is the unofficial keeper of the train timetables. When tourists inquire about the time of train arrivals or departures, they are told to "Ask Mr. Foster."
• Belgian innovator Georges Nagelmackers begins a new enterprise with the sole purpose of serving the traveler. Adding sleeping compartments to trains serving the European continent, he founded the company, Wagons-Lits, which literally means "sleeping cars." Nagelmackers goes on to create the Orient Express.