Before the advent of the government travel credit card most Temporary Duty (TDY) travel was limited to a small cadre of individuals.  Service members often could not afford the added expense of traveling without an advance payment.  Travel advances created a series of challenges that were difficult to overcome: the major challenge of travel advances was that the system was labor intensive, it often resulted in more overpayments, and it was less secure for service members to travel with cash.

The lengthy travel advance process began with the service member completing a DD Form 1610, Request and Authorization for TDY Travel of DOD Personnel. The disbursing clerks were required to verify the requested dollar amount in order to ensure that it was in accordance with the Joint Federal Travel Regulations (JFTR) and the Marine Corps Travel Instruction Manual (MCTIM) prior to processing the advance for payment.  After the voucher was approved by the auditor for payment, the disbursing clerk created a DD Form 1351-6, Multiple Payments List. The member was then paid via cash or check depending on where s/he was located.  The government travel credit card eliminated the tenuous advance process; service members were able to receive funds for travel with the credit card. The new system reduced the number of indebtedness due to overpayment from advances. It also improved the security and safety of the service member, and reduced the disbursing work load required for advance payments.

The second major evolution for the Department of Defense was the elimination of the paper vouchers, and the conversion to the computerized DTS.  With the old system, the paperwork was completed by the service member, turned in to the administration office, and hand carried to the disbursing office where it would be logged in to an internal tracking system. The travel voucher package included an Original DD Form 1351-2, the original DD Form 1610 (travel order), airline itinerary and final stub, lodging receipts and one copy of all other receipts for expenses greater than $75.00.  Completed packages were difficult to obtain, and often a series of problems developed in the movement from service member to auditor.

If the travel voucher package was not logged into the disbursing system the service member would have no means of tracking the travel voucher package. Assuming the travel voucher package was logged into the internal tracking system properly, the next hurdle was ensuring the entire package made it to the disbursing clerk’s desk, was computed properly, and then sent to the auditor intact. If the entire process did occur, and the service member did not claim expenses that were not in accordance with the JFTR or the Joint Federal Regulation (JTR), then the claim was complete and the service member would be paid.

With the advent of the Defense Travel System (DTS), the service member is able to track his/her voucher from beginning to end on his/her office computer.  All receipts are loaded into the system electronically, and are maintained for six years and three months. Lost or misplaced items are no longer an issue.  When a member completes a voucher, DTS cross checks it against the Joint Federal Travel System for compliance, and problems with claims that are not in compliance with regulations are also eliminated.

It is not necessary to have lived through the previous stages of government travel to understand the current system, but it does help to have an understanding of the history of travel to better deal with the challenges of the future implementation of government credit cards and DTS.  As Fredrick Allen said, “Only fools who do not heed the lessons of History, are doomed to repeat it!” Travel professionals need to be aware of where we have come from in order to better facilitate the future.  Understanding the obstacles of the old system may circumvent challenges in the new one.

By G.W. McCurtis

Airlines developed Computer Reservation Systems (CRS) to help them manage their bookings and yields.  These systems developed later into powerful Global Distribution Systems (GDS) with 3 major GDS’s around; AMADEUS (based on the old System One), SABRE (based on American Airlines system), TRAVEL PORT (includes Galileo {based on United Airlines Apollo} and recently added Worldspan {based on Delta Air Lines System}.  These GDS’s are under the DOT supervision in order to prevent biased toward one carrier over another.

Through these powerful GDS’s systems, reservations progressed, not only booking a flight and making a ticket (lately tickets became electronic) was possible but in addition you can book a particular seat on the plane, book a special meal, a wheelchair for people with special needs, book a hotel room and Rent a Car.  In one action you could do all the above and serve your customer well.

The Government removed the prohibition on using travel agents to procure travel services in 1984 and started using Lodged Credit cards to pay for their purchases to alleviate the burden on travel agents who usually pay the ARC every week since the airlines now will have to charge the credit card for the value of tickets instead of agents.

Two other programs followed; in 1986 SDDC was tasked to handle the Rent a Car issues like discounted rates, unlimited mileage & CDW.  Responsibility for the rent a car agreement has been assigned to Defense Travel Management Office (DTMO).  The 2nd program also followed with regulations for the hotel industry by issuing the “Hotel and Motel Fire Safety Act of 1990”.

In conclusion we can say that the government has succeeded in revamping the government travel to its advantage by using all of the above mentioned programs and facilities.

By Metri Altwal

In Customer Service, we are primarily focused on providing our SSP customers with helpdesk support for the travel system software. This includes walking them through creating authorizations, assisting with basic reservation questions for airfare, hotel, rental car, and rail, and the creation of vouchers and local vouchers. Aside from the helpdesk, there are other functions within Customer Service that are performed by other employees. These include:

• Changes in Routing Lists/Groups
• Invitational Travel
• Exit Clearances
• Agency Travel Software Training in a Classroom Environment
• Registration Access to the Travel System
• New Agency Implementation
• Profile Updates/Changes
• Report Creation
• Post Payment Audits
• Travel System Issues that Require Further Research

These are just a few of the travel functions that our Customer Service group is responsible for but the main point is that it takes many subject matter experts to adequately service travelers. This flows into the other two areas of our Temporary Duty Services Branch, which are Accounting and Charge Card.

Our accounting area, also known as Systems and Accounting Support, is responsible for making sure travelers receive their travel reimbursements in a timely manner. There is an automated process that travel accounting technicians run every morning to process the documents from the travel system into the accounting system. Most documents post to the accounting system without issues but some will require additional assistance. For instance, if a traveler receives an advance in the authorization, it becomes a manual posting to the financial system. The same applies after the trip when the voucher is processed so that the advance can be deducted from the total cost of the trip.

As all document types (authorizations, vouchers, and local vouchers) are interfaced to the accounting system, many ‘checks’ are in place to ensure timely payments. Accounting technicians are proficient in running different reports throughout the interface process so that travel payments are issued to the traveler and charge card vendor to make sure that the payments are accurate. Travelers’ payments are directly deposited into their bank account within three to five business days after the voucher is approved in the travel system.

There are many factors involved to ensure that all runs smoothly from the beginning of the travel process to the end result. It takes all areas of our office to accomplish the following process.

When a new employee is hired by an agency, the first thing they must do in order to travel is to apply for a Government charge card and supply their direct deposit information to our office. Their profile is built in the travel system and the charge card information is added as well as the other pertinent information that leads to a successful payment. After a profile is built and the traveler creates their ID and password for the travel system, they create a travel authorization before traveling so that the funds can be obligated in the financial system.

After their authorization is complete with reservations and the other information such as accounting code, expenses, and proper routing, the document is electronically signed. It then follows the electronic path and is ultimately approved by an approving official. Some agencies route documents to an Examiner before it is approved so that a budget officer can review the accounting information to ensure the funds are available to cover the trip. After the authorization is approved, it is interfaced to the accounting system in our office. When the traveler returns from the trip, he/she creates a voucher.

The voucher is created from the authorization in the travel system. All information that was previously entered in the authorization populates into the voucher. The traveler updates the voucher to reflect the actual expenses incurred on the trip and they attach the required receipts to the voucher by either faxing or scanning. After reviewing the voucher for accuracy, it is routed electronically. It must first be signed by the traveler and then proceeds to route to the approving official. Our office interfaces the document to the accounting system and then the reimbursement will be deposited in the traveler’s bank account.

It takes all areas of Travel to accomplish a successful trip for a traveler. I have covered what it takes from my office’s perspective but other offices are involved as well. We all work as one big team from the traveler, the travel management center, our office, and many others to make the whole experience an enjoyable one.

By: Cindy Moore Pomrenke

The contents of this message are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the Government or my agency.

However, crowded airports, overbooked flights, and delayed flights have travelers believing that our nation’s air transport system is not functioning very well. When in reality, it is evidence of how well deregulation has worked to substantially lower fares, provide better passenger service, and provide passengers with more flight options.  Today, airplanes are fuller than in the past, which slows down boarding and deplaning times, and provides a perception of lower quality service by reducing empty space.  Other problems passengers may experience are likely due to airport congestion, and not deregulation.

Airline deregulation has been a success, and some people believe that additional deregulatory policies may further the gains. The Federal Government still owns, manages, or regulates the air traffic control system, airport facilities, and foreign carriers’ access to U.S. routes.  It seemed that further deregulation might be the answer, particularly at the airport level with improved access to landing slots at airports and for privatizing air traffic control to better manage the increased volumes.  However, after the events of September 11, 2001, this may no longer be a viable option.

The Government understands that aviation is a driving force in America’s economic growth and that our air traffic system must be able to meet future demands in order to accommodate changing business models or the cost to our nation will be dramatic.  The Joint Planning and Development Office (JPDO), a mulit-agency organization has developed the vision and is building partnerships for the successful implementation of the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen).  This is much more than just a vision.  The FAA has taken this vision and developed the NextGen Implementation Plan that provides funding and attainable goals for leveraging technologies that already exist.  The vision for NextGen is a system that is based on satellite navigation and control, digital non-voice communication, and advanced networking. It will shift decision making from the ground to the cockpit and provide flight crews with increased control over their flight trajectories.

Two major contracts have already been awarded that will reshape the nation’s air traffic control system.  The first contract worth as much as $1.8 billion over 18 years was awarded to ITT to develop the agency’s new Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast System in a partnership with XM Satellite Radio.  The tool uses location and navigation data provided by a Global Positioning System (GPS) network of satellites to update air traffic controllers every second, compared to every six seconds under the current radar-based system. GPS units in airplane cockpits will broadcast and receive location data so pilots can avoid collisions.  The second, a 10-year, $437 million contract, was awarded to Raytheon Co. of Waltham, Mass., to support air traffic controller training. This contact will replace two agreements about to expire for initial training with one vendor and in-the-field training with another.  The belief that consolidating the contracts would make it easier to adjust training methods for younger employees and new systems by updating training continuously, even after controllers are out in the field.  It is expected that this will shorten training time. Under the new contract, Raytheon will be responsible for managing and updating the materials used in controller courses, supporting classroom instruction and simulator training in the field, and providing administrative support for FAA. The agency will maintain control of content and verifying controllers’ aptitude.

The next installment of the NextGen Implementation Plan is scheduled to be published in January 2009 and it will be exciting to see what is next on the horizon for our aviation system.

By: Angela Williamson

“The contents of this message are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the Government or my agency.”

As Director of National Sales for Carlson Hotels Worldwide, my subject matter expertise is hotels.  I feel some of the points made in this document could perhaps be the most valuable contribution I have given to my fellow SGTP affiliates.  As a result, the strategies outlined in this manuscript will be strictly from a hotels sales perspective.

Three highly under-rated values (intangibles) that a supplier/hotelier can offer a federal government buyer that meet important government criteria are diversity, security and corporate responsibility.

DIVERSITY

Today, every government organization has diversity as one of its goals.  If your company can help a potential government buyer reach its diversity goal, your offer becomes a far more valuable asset to that government buyer.  There are several government recognized categories of diversity.  In many cases, the federal government will specifically “set-aside” solicitations for which only the business classifications listed below qualify.  Below is general list of diversity categories.

• Small Business:  Small business size standards are based on the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS).  The guidelines are industry specific based on either dollar volume and/or number of employees.  A small hotel, motel and/or casino hotel is defined as one not exceeding more than $6 million in gross annual receipts or total income. This total income includes all affiliate average over a firm’s latest three fiscal years as reported on the firm’s federal income tax.
• Woman Owned Business:  A business that is owned and controlled (51% or greater) by a woman or a group of women.
• Veteran Owned Business:  A business that is owned (51% or greater) by a veteran or a group of veterans.
• Service Disabled Veteran Owned Business:  A business that is owned by one or more disabled veteran or veterans.
• Small Disadvantaged Business:  A business that is owned (51% or greater) by a person(s) who is/are socially or economically disadvantaged.  These include: African Americans, Asian/Pacific Islander Americans, Hispanic Americans, Native Americans and Subcontinent Asian Americans.
• Hub-Zoned Business:  A business in a distressed area defined as a “Historically Underutilized Business” (HUB) Zone.

SECURITY

Obviously, security at lodging destinations is top concern for government organizations.  Guaranteeing the safety of military personnel and all people is unarguably the most valuable objective for any business.  In recent experiences, I have discovered hotels which offer outstanding security services and solid security protocols/procedures have proven to be viewed as true intangibles by government decision makers.  Below are some examples of worthwhile and advantageous security features.

1. Video surveillance covering all entrances and exits of the hotel.
2. “On property” security that is visible and frequently “walks” the hotel.
3. Signs at all entrances advising those who enter about property security and high-tech video surveillance.
4. Only one accessible entrance for the hotel in the late evening.
5. The monitoring of all buses, vans and other large vehicles parked at the hotel over night.
6. The registration of all vehicles at the front desk.
7. The training of all employees and executive staff to report suspicious activity.
8. The hotel’s participation in monthly meetings with area hotels and law enforcement officials to discuss best practices and all recent illegal activity in the area.

CORPORATE RESPONSIBILTY

All businesses both new and existing should serve as models for a healthy workplace with minimal negative environmental impacts.  In order achieve true corporate responsibility, work places need to be environmentally safe, ethically sound, community oriented, and they most also put strong priorities on learning and culture.

Today, most federal government organizations put very high emphasis on the environment.  Collectively these agencies are starting to strictly adhere to EPA standards.  Although specific EPA features and practices can vary from state-to-state, I recommend being proactive and listing all of your environmental initiatives on government solicitations.

Ethics is also clearly a serious initiative, and very strong policies pertain to all government employees.  Businesses that promote scrupulous ethics guidelines usually find themselves in very good graces with government contractors and key constituents.  In short, success is often found by those who promote solid principles and ethics as a matter of course.

Lastly, proper training, learning, professional development and continuing education are huge factors that play into the role of corporate responsibility.  Following these guidelines in chorus with those mentioned above will certainly help any business better solidify a consistent, long-term partnership with the U.S. Government.

Charles H. Green once wrote, “The biggest difference between selling ‘things’ and intangible services is the pivotal role of trust. Trust is even more critical to selling intangible services than it is to selling things.”  In the final analysis, being a leader by proactively understanding what is important and offering those important intangibles to your best customers will speak volumes about your integrity, and thus build trust.  Without a doubt, trust is a very important commodity to the government and will unquestionably prove to be advantageous to your business.

by Chris McLaughlin

These rates are published annually, adjustments to the rates are made throughout the year, and may change as often as monthly.

A study is conducted every 3-5 years on Meals and Incidental (M&IE) expenses, in an effort to obtain more accurate prices charged by restaurants in the areas frequented by federal travelers.  In the last study the M&IE for FY10 tiers was increased from $46.00 to $71.00.

Included in incidental expenses are fees and tips given to porters, baggage carriers, bellhops, hotel maids, stewards or stewardesses and others on ships, and hotel servants in foreign countries.  Transportation between places of  lodging or business and places where meals are taken, if suitable meals cannot be obtained at the temporary duty site.  Mailing cost associated with filing travel vouchers and payment of Government charge card billings.

If lodging is not available at your Temporary Duty (TDY) location, your agency may approve up to 300% of per diem for the location where lodging is obtained.  On the first and last day of travel federal employees are only eligible for 75 percent of the total M&IE rate for that TDY location.

By: Kathy Runion

The contents of this message are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the Government or my agency.

A good example is to compare Boston and San Francisco as these two cities for corporate travel rates are rather similar. Boston with seasonal rates of $203-$256 is a concentrated area with a large downtown and does not contain a suburban area containing many hotels. The majority of the hotels within the city limits are located in the downtown area.

San Francisco has a similar downtown area to Boston but also has a rather large suburban area within the city limits. If zip codes were used to identify the downtown areas, the per diem rates would then rise based on the hotels that would be compared. While raising the per diem rates seems one sided, it would actually give the government traveler significant savings.

The current highest rate allowed in San Francisco is $185 and is normally not readily offered by many of the most desired hotels. This then forces a traveler to choose a hotel outside of the downtown area which requires them to either rent a car which also incurs parking costs or travel by taxi which can easily cost $20-$30 each way from some of the more distant locations where the per diem is offered.

What we have normally said is that if you raise the per diem rates in the key cities that are most often used, we can save you money, by decreasing the number of rental cars used, parking fees, fuel costs and also save the traveler wasted time spent driving.

Having more involvement from the hotel community in the per diem setting process will make more of the most required areas for travel available to the government traveler. This will allow for better seasonality to be set by true demand and also allowing for the forecast of occupancy to be used in setting rates.

By Ted Miller, CHME, CHSP

Starwood Hotels and Resorts

Manual Model

Initially, civilian travel processing was a paper-based system where travel orders and travel vouchers were manually typed and hand-carried or mailed to approving officials for signature. Transportation was procured by means of a Government Transportation Request (GTR). The accompanying financial transactions were then manually posted to the accounting system. Transportation reservations were obtained through travel agents (now called a travel management center – TMC, or commercial travel office – CTO) at no charge to the government, as this was a time when commissions were paid by the airlines to the travel agents. In this system, all travel authorizations and vouchers were examined for compliance to travel policy up front, with errors pointed out to the traveler prior to payment. Due to 100% pre-payment audits, the reimbursement process often took weeks for the traveler to receive travel funds due to them.

Semi-Automated Model

Realizing the inherent inefficiency of this process, the government then moved to employing electronic systems for processing travel authorizations and vouchers electronically eliminating the need for GTRs. However, transportation reservations were still obtained by calling a TMC, or in some cases using a retrofitted commercial reservation system with enhancements for a traveler to self-book transportation or hotel reservations. The systems employed by each government agency were diverse with no uniform requirements. In addition, the dispirit systems did not allow for uniform reporting or policy enforcement. They did have the advantage of having an automated link to the agency accounting system in many cases that reduced the manual posting of travel documents. Another advantage was that some systems employed enough defaults and audits that travel policy began to be incorporated into these freestanding travel systems. Still, an agency needed to have a system such as this and a separate reservation method. At this time, no self-booking systems with an authorization and voucher component were available to process federal travel. Conversely, corporate entities were quick to adopt self booking systems such as Orbitz or Expedia. About this time, the travel agency commission structure was reduced and eventually eliminated; the government was then allowed to pay transaction fees to TMCs.

In both the manual and semi-automated models described above, an agency needed to select a TMC either via a GSA Travel Solutions Services (TSS) contract, or by a direct procurement action.

Fully Automated Model (E-Gov Travel)

That was the norm until the General Services Administration (GSA) coordinated the electronic process and created E-Gov Travel (formerly called eTS). This is a mandated system of three vendors that provide federal agencies electronic travel solutions.

Our agency spearheaded the first E-Gov Travel task order with GSA. We became very involved with evaluating the three vendors that received awards, and implemented not only our Bureau, but also our customer agency partners from our Franchise Fund work on the chosen vendor. This gave us the experience necessary to facilitate an Agency user group as well as a vendor user group involving other government agencies. Both are important as they discuss individual and shared enhancements to the system as well as address any subcontractor (TMC) areas of resolution.

In the E-Gov Travel environment, travel policy compliance is enforced to a great extent by the audit thresholds built into the E-Gov travel systems. This allows for uniform application of travel policy along with a faster processing time. A representative sample of paid travel vouchers are still randomly selected using statistical sampling, commonly referred to as “post payment audit sampling”. This ensures the electronic audits controlling travel policy are functioning as intended.

E-Gov Travel also allows for better reporting of travel data as the systems have standard reports and custom reports can be obtained from the vendor as well as the TMC. E-Gov also allows for faster payments as well as “split-disbursements” that allow travelers to designate an amount to be paid directly to their government travel charge card and/or the amount to be reimbursed directly to them. In addition, there is an interface into the agency accounting system that allows travelers and/or their charge cards to be reimbursed within 3 to 5 business days after submission of a proper travel voucher.

The selection of a TMC is theoretically left up to the agency deploying an E-Gov Travel system. An agency may elect to use the embedded TMC with a vendor’s product or select an accommodated TMC of their choice.

E-Gov Travel is constantly changing and adapting to new requirements in the travel industry. The systems are becoming more user-friendly and intuitive as enhancements are put in place. While it may never be as easy to use as a commercial travel system because it has to incorporate the authorization and voucher process with the reservation process, the goal is to get it as close as possible to an easy system for the traveler. Certainly frequent travelers get very used to them after a few times. Infrequent travelers may have a harder time just because of limited use, but evolving help menus, training and vendor or agency help desks (like the one we provide) guide travelers with questions.

Future Models

The E-Gov Travel products themselves may have to change as well should market conditions such as new Global Distribution System (GDS) models become viable, government contract City Pair offerings change, and new requirements in travel policy evolve.

A more far-reaching goal is to look at ways to consolidate civilian travel with Department of Defense (DOD) needs. Both groups have unique needs, but have the same mission in that they need to accomplish their respective missions when it comes to temporary duty travel (TDY). There is currently a joint study group with members from GSA, DOD and civilian agencies to look at best practices and ways to accommodate and consolidate various needs in travel policy and possibly one day having a universal system to accommodate both sets of requirements.

There is also the question of relocation travel which is unique from TDY travel. My agency also processes this type of travel and there is the overall question of whether or not relocation travel can (or should) be incorporated into any future travel solutions.

It is hard to tell with any certainty what government travel will look like in the future, but one thing is certain – as long as a civilian or DOD agency has a mission need to travel, systems will be designed or re-designed to allow it will become ever more accepted by users as the best and most cost-effective way to authorize and fulfill their travel requirement. Through continued efforts from GSA, pro-active civilian and DOD participation and involvement with associations such as the Society of Government Travel Professionals (SGTP), and their Certified Government Travel Professionals (CGTP) class, along with input from TMCs, airlines, hotels and car vendors, E-Gov Travel will continue to evolve as the best solution for federal travel requirements.

by Daniel Carozza

The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of the Bureau of the Public Debt, or the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

By Joyce Wahoski

Although the commercial airlines provided major support to the government during World War II, following the war they were generally used as a last resort for emergency movement of traffic or when a senior officer insisted on using air rather than surface transportation.

Airlines were struggling in their attempts to gain entry into this market and made significant headway in 1940. Most of the airlines serving Washington DC created and funded an entity called Combined Airlines Tickets Offices (CATO) to provide service to government accounts.

The CATO offices were also formed in other cities to service specific government markets. These programs were never part of the industry program that would eventually become Joint Airline Military Traffic Offices (JAMTO) 13 years later. On November 4, 1948, frustrated air industry decision makers concluded that getting into the military and government market was an industry problem.

They authorized M.F. Redfern, Vice President of Traffic and Executive Secretary of the Air Traffic Conference to negotiate with the military agencies on their behalf. As a result of these negotiations on April 20, 1949 the ATC Military Bureau, forerunner of the SatoTravel Troop Movement Section, today the oldest branch of Satotravel, came into existence. By January 1951, Joint Military Air Transportation Offices represented 31 airline carriers.

With ATC releasing a draft of the first Military Representation Resolution the way was paved for the establishment of joint airline offices on Military installations. The first Military bases to have JAMTO’s Offices were at Lackland AFB, Great Lakes Naval Base, and San Francisco-Oakland.

As a result of the Transportation offices opening on the military basis SATO Scheduled Airline Traffic Offices travel became a name that just about every Military person recognized as the travel office for the Military. This is just a small portion of the SATO history from 1940-1990, from the beginning to the early years of incorporation.

I have been employed with Satotravel for 15 years and the history for the company which originally was wholly owned by the air carrier is steeped in tradition. The “can do” attitudes, devotion, high standards and professionalism displayed by the air carrier employees and the guiding principles of the program have carried over to today’s CWT/Satotravel, and they continue to be evident in our work force.

Having worked in a Full service travel office, I have been a part of the Implementation of several government accounts, but it was exciting to learn the GSA Travel Services Solutions portion of contracting. I have worked with both the GSA TSS and full and open competition contracts that are conducted by a government entity and find them both a challenge. They are both handled basically the same except with the TSS contract the rates have already been set so that the rate isn’t as much as a factor.

You can always negotiate less than the rate posted in order to secure the business if necessary. The subcontracting plans that the large businesses are required to provide contracts to small companies makes it possible for small and minority companies to get a piece of the pie.

If this wasn’t part of the GSA service the smaller companies would become non existent and the larger TMC’s would have a monopoly on the money we pay to run our government. I know in our company there have been several times when business was awarded to a small business because of the 23% minimum small business participation goal requirement.

I was fascinated to learned that 90% of travel agencies are small businesses in communities throughout our country which was very surprising to me. In the previous chapters when I learned how the Hotel reporting worked and reported to ARC the reservations made, I wondered how they could possibly have accurate accounting of rooms and hotels that were booked for travel. Working with groups you have better control of the number of rooms blocked, but transient usage would be almost impossible to capture.

Even with groups, I have had scenarios where some of the groups who work with our homeland security may contract to go into a hotel 2 weeks from now and 2 days prior to arrival the group is cut in half or the group cancels completely because their security expertise is needed in another city. Since we move groups into very obscure locations in Alaska, the weather plays a big part on whether the traveler arrives at his destination as planned or is stranded and we have to book a hotel where they become stranded. I don’t think there will ever be a system to capture all the hotels booked and the length of stay.

One good tool that can be used is if the group has a credit card that will capture the hotel property number into a separate data base. This still would not give you an accurate number of nights used because the rate charged to the Individuals credit card may include taxes and other state/hotel charges. It would also be very difficult to capture information from some the Bed and breakfast properties that we have used in remote locations because the charge may be connected to a restaurant and not the actual property that the Government employee stayed in.

I realize that the government can’t use the Non traditional travel agencies such as Expedia, Travelocity and Orbits but what a blessing they are to the hotel, car, air and cruise companies. The fact that they are able to sell rooms that the hotels have determined would be unoccupied at a very cheap rate puts heads in beds and will keep the rooms from being empty.

I myself have used their services to book travel to a quick weekend vacation by looking to see what was really cheap at the last minute and heading to the airport to take a vacation at a preferred location at rates that are cheaper than the travel agent rate. I have had co-workers who book their cruises 2 weeks prior to the cruise and they get a suite with a balcony at rates that would normally place them in the bottom of the ship in an inside room. I say hooray for these companies that are selling the distressed inventory and helping to keep the hotels, air and car rental companies profitable. The Certified Government Travel Professional Training Course has been a lot of information that I will use it in planning and assisting my Government groups.

I have a better understanding of how the Airlines, Hotels, Rental cars, Electronic Travel systems and Payment systems work. I especially found the section on the US Government Ethics Standards of interest and have printed all the reference materials and read it and I know I this information will help me in guiding my clients to make informed decisions. I also understand what their limitations and abilities are.

I think the program is very informative and gives you tons of web sites and referrals to sites to assist you in making informed decisions for your government accounts.