Rosenbluth International may not be a household name, but the Philadelphia-based travel agency has made the lives of corporate travelers across the country much easier. The nation's fourth-largest travel agency prides itself on helping trim the travel budgets, estimated to account for about a third of most companies' annual budgets, of over 1,500 major corporate clients including Kodak, Compaq, and Westinghouse. And, despite the company's unorthodox mantra that the customer comes second, high rolling clients continue to line up for Rosenbluth International's services.

Sending Cousin Pavel to America

Like the salmon assumed as the company's logo, Rosenbluth has prided itself on bucking trends and swimming upstream since its 1892 founding. Over 100 years ago, Marcus Rosenbluth set up shop in Brewerytown, PA as a makeshift bank, steamship ticket office and hospitality office. Rosenbluth would accept money of all currencies from clients in the area. When they had saved up $50 worth, Rosenbluth would arrange for the immigration of a relative of the customer from Europe to Ellis Island.

Taking flight

With the advent of the airfare wars in this century, Rosenbluth established itself as a invaluable service for corporate clients. Ever since, the company has sought to grow into a national force in the travel industry. In 1993, Rosenbluth formed MPower, a company to market its incentive travel services. Responding to low airfares, the company launched a major reorganization effort in 1994, breaking up the company into over 100 independent branches and cutting 10 percent of its workforce.

From intermediary to advisor

Airlines have been attacking Rosenbluth's (and other travel agencies') traditional business by slashing commissions and encouraging customers to book over the Internet. In response, Rosenbluth has slowly been moving away from its role as intermediary between airlines and passengers to a new role as corporate travel advisers. The company now prides itself on helping its clients reduce travel costs with alternative solutions like teleconferencing.

"Don't just watch it, live it"

In 1999, the company formed a partnership with media giant Discovery Communications, launching Discovery Travel. The project aims at creating and marketing vacations inspired by Discovery Networks' programming, which includes shows on the Tavel Channel, Discovery Channel, TLC, and Animal Planet. These vacations go to 14 exotic areas of the world, including Alaska, Australia, Egypt, Israel and the Galapagos Islands.

Launching planes and web sites

A partnership with Continental Airlines, Marriott, Sun Microsystems, British Airways, and Excite@Home led to the 1999 purchase of Biztravel.com, which is run by subsidiary Rosenbluth Interactive. The site books travel arrangements for individuals as well as corporations, and offers such services as 24 hour tollfree support, fare adjustments on already-booked flights if prices drop, and contact by pager or phone if a flight is delayed or cancelled. In the summer of 2000, Biztravel.com began offering refunds if a flight is late ($100 for 30 minutes, $200 for an hour, and a full refund beyond two hours) or if designated seats are not available.

The customer comes second