As E-travel came on line, some of the most vocal complaints that we heard from the program offices and individual travelers involved the sudden “appearance” of fees for booking online or going through an agent.  The fee schedule was confusing and could be complex.  Many claimed that they had never had to pay the fees before (they had, but often they were considered part of the ticket price), and there were a lot of complaints about having to pay fees if the traveler was “doing all the work” to book the travel on line. A good part of the initial outreach involved educating people about the fees, and how to budget for the fees when planning travel. Our government travel staff provided a working estimate for a “typical” online and agent-assisted ticket, and that helped programs simplify their budgeting which also reduced their anxiety about having enough funds on hand on the authorization.  Over the last three or four years travelers have become much less sensitive to changes in the ticket fees.

Today, we have seen the price sensitivity shift from the really minor cost of ticketing fees to more requests for waivers from having to use the city-pairs contract tickets.  This becomes a major issue particularly during the first quarter of the fiscal year and the very end of the fourth quarter when funds are in short supply.  Congress’s perpetual inability to pass a budget in a timely manner exacerbates the problem because continuing resolutions only provide a portion of an agency’s budget with a 10% reduction from the prior fiscal year.  When a researcher has travel scheduled several months in advance timed to attend a conference or do field research, it is not feasible to simply delay the trip.  This larger price sensitivity is also a long-term issue for GSA’s City-Pair program that will have to be addressed in future City-Pair negotiations if the program is to continue to be viable.  The paying programs and their travelers have become much more sophisticated in their use of the e-travel systems, both government and private, and they are expecting more from the government programs as well.

by Julie Speers

IATA defines the three letter airport codes, used for baggage routing and airport identification.

Travel agents responsible for government travelers have training on a continuing basis for trip planning and ticketing. The GDS provides an information base which aids in higher productivity for the travel industry.

Agents should have capability requirements such as corporate/government experience; information on past contracts; understanding of day-to-day operations; an understanding of the government TDY travel process.

As the airlines incurred additional costs of operations, the commissions to agents went from 10% to 2% and eventually phased out. To off set the loss of income, agent transaction fees were established. Fees have a complex cost model and have multi considerations and agents are expected to propose prices that are better than their best customer’s transaction fee for the same service.

The DoD uses a different approach when soliciting agents using a monthly fee for the CTO operation which includes travel service, transaction fees and ancillary services. Use of electronic travel systems must interface with ARC.

ETS vendors can select a TMC agency from the GSA schedule, using queues for the delivery and receipt of information between the two. The DTS was created to meet the multifaceted travel, payment and reporting requirements of the DoD, interfacing with over 30 financial systems requiring comprehensive security systems.

By: Brandy Webber

The expectations of computerization often surpass the realities of automated systems that are, first and foremost, designed and constructed by fallible human hands. Add to that the potential for system crashes, computer viruses, hacking, power outages, WiFi service disruption, and the myriad other possible crises facing modern technology on a daily basis, and any reasonable mind should be able to rule out the possibility of a system for governing any process that can be fully automated.

When the anchor of a single ship can temporarily disable high-speed internet service to no less than five African nations, one must assume the need for a back up support network that is adaptable to situations devoid of 21^st Century technology. Even companies such as Google and Facebook, both of which are founded on the reality of a society linked 24/7 to the modern digital world, have come under criticism for not having readily available service centers staffed by human beings to answer calls from frustrated users and customers.

The assumption of fully automated systems also discounts the varying levels of computer savvy among the users. An automated system, regardless of its capabilities, is only as useful as the people using it are educated about its capabilities and comfortable with its procedures. Even if only 0.5% of the potential 3.5 million DOD military and civilian users require assistance beyond an online or printed manual, there will be 17,500 people searching for a living, breathing source of help. That sounds like enough to keep a few humans busy for the foreseeable future.

By: Mark Feggeler

The GDS houses the necessary information that will allow travel agents to book and sell airline tickets, book hotel rooms, make rental car reservations, and reserve rail reservations and more. The first GDS, Sabre, was created by the airlines in the 1960s.  Sabre has been around a lot longer than its competitors; Amadeus was created in 1987, Worldspan in 1990 and Galileo/Apollo in 1993.

These complex systems have numerous capabilities.  Besides what was previously mentioned, the GDS can even allow a traveler to select a particular seat on an aircraft.  The GDS will also allow a traveler to enter their frequent flyer number, so that the traveler can receive rewards for flying with a particular airline.

Sabre also provides a website that gives the travelers the latest information concerning their reservations.  This site is very helpful to my agency as some of our travelers neglect to electronically attach their invoice/itinerary to his/her voucher.  We can easily go to the Sabre’s Virtually There website, print a copy of the traveler’s invoice, and attach it to their voucher.

Federal Government travelers must use their E-Gov Travel System or book the traditional way by calling their travel management center (TMC).  Even though Federal Government travelers are not allowed to use a commercial used on-line booking engine, Sabre owns Travelocity.com, which is the leading on-line travel website.

No matter which GDS is used in connection with your agency’s E-Gov Travel System, one factor to keep in mind is that not all airlines participate in a GDS.  Currently the following airlines do not participate:

• AFRIC AIR CHARTER
• ALASKA MARINE HIGHWAY
• AIRTRAN AIRWAYS
• AIR NORTH
• BERING AIR INC
• BIG SKY
• CANADIAN NORTH/AIR NORTERRA INC.
• CAPE AIR
• EXPRESS JET
• FRONTIER FLYING SERVICE
• FRONTIER FLYING
• FORTY MILE AIR
• FJORD FLYING SERVICE
• FS AIR SERVICE / TRANS AIR BENIN
• GREAT LAKES
• HAGLAND AIRLINES
• HOMER AIR
• ISLAND AIR
• JET BLUE
• KENMORE AIR HARBOUR INC.
• LAB FLYING SERVICE
• LARRY’S FLYING SERVICE
• OLYMPIC AIRLINES
• PACIFIC COAST AIRLINES
• PAN AM CLIPPER CONNECT/BOSTON MAINE AIRWAYS
• PENAIR/PENISULA AIR
• PROMECH
• SOUTHWEST
• SPERNAK AIR
• SPIRIT AIRLINES
• VIRGIN AMERICA
• WARBELOWS AIR VENTURES
• WINGS OF ALASKA
• WRIGHT AIR SERVICE

by Pam Morton

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

• Clearly defining conversion goals
• Mitigating risk issues that could result in monetary or time loss
• Optimizing/revamping current business processes the customer performs
• Administering end user training on the eTS

Our eTS customer implementation process usually consists of four steps. We begin implementations with a project kick off meeting with the agency. These are normally on-site visits at the agency. During this kick off meeting several things are accomplished such as:

• Introductions
• A demo of the eTS
• Provide the customer with a high level overview of the project plan
• Try to determine any unique needs the customer may have
• Attempt to gain a feel for the customer’s business practices/processes and visualize the impact on the project and/or ongoing operations after implementation

Once the kick off meeting is completed, then we hold bi-weekly conference calls with the customer. During these bi-weekly conference calls we continue to develop relationships and establish contacts with key personnel. We review/monitor tasks on the project plan documenting the status of each task. Besides the demo that we provided during the kick off meeting, we also allow for select customer personnel to have access to our training database in order for them to have ‘hands on’ experience and to be able see ‘up-close’ how the eTS system works. By the customers actually creating documents in the training database of eTS, these bi-weekly calls aid in allowing for ongoing discussions of system capabilities and capacities to meet the customer’s needs. Also during the course of these bi-weekly meetings, the customer is working on completing traveler information worksheets, approving official worksheets, routing lists, and groups. We need all of this information, prior to the customer going live in the eTS, to set up their organization correctly. A rollout schedule is also established during these calls.

Our third step is training the customer. Normally the training is done on-site, but we have also used an on-line training tool to provide training. The customer decides what type of training is to be done, such as ‘Train the Trainer’ or ‘Train the User’ type of training. The customer also decides how the training will be done (such as demos, hands-on training, on-line sessions, etc.) and who will attend the training. Each training session is geared specifically toward the agency’s policies and requirements. A normal training session would include a thorough overview of authorizations, vouchers, local vouchers, amendments/adjustments, and how to approve a document.

The fourth step is post implementation issues. Post implementation issues are usually minor and are easily corrected. An example of a post implementation issue may be that a user does not have the proper permission level to approve a document. When this happens, we refer back to the worksheets provided to us by the agency and can determine if the user should have originally been set up with approval access or not. If they are not listed on the documentation we originally received, then we simply ask for documentation from the customer and update the user’s profile.

Now just because a customer’s eTS implementation is completed, the relationship and communication process does not stop. We continue to communicate any eTS outages, reservation unavailability, and system changes/enhancements via email notifications. Our eTS vendor informs us of any scheduled or unscheduled eTS outages and reservation unavailability, which in turn, we pass on to our customer contacts. Our eTS vendor also routinely implements table updates and enhancements to the eTS. We are notified in advance of these implementations and the items that will be included. We perform comprehensive testing in both the training and production environments of the items being implemented, as well as, ‘routine’ testing. ‘Routine’ testing includes the basics such as creating authorizations, vouchers, local vouchers, amendments, etc. If we find any items that do not work or are not working correctly, we contact our eTS vendor and then they research the issue to determine the problem. Sometimes the issue can be resolved quickly and other times it may take a while. It just depends on what is causing the problem and how it needs to be fixed.

After our testing is completed, we send out guidance to our customer contacts that includes information on the enhancement updates, as well as, any major system functionality that may have been disabled/interrupted during the implementation.

Another part of the communication process with our customers is through our help desk. We have a very qualified and informed help desk. After we have completed a customer’s eTS implementation, that customer’s users call our help desk to obtain the information, assistance, and/or guidance they need in order to resolve their issue or problem within the eTS.

by Susan Garrett

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

Government travel is regulated by numerous laws and regulations.  Understanding the laws and rules that apply to government employee travel and each branch they are employed by is essential to doing business with any government agency.   All travel activities from contracted city-pair airfare to per diem, requires travelers and travel arrangers to comply with Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR), Defense Acquisition Regulations (DFARS), Federal Travel Regulations (FTR), Joint Travel Regulations (JTR), and Standardized Regulations (DSSR).  It can seem cumbersome trying to understand what laws and rules apply to the traveler, the travel management company, and what specifically applies to a particular branch of government.  It is always best to do research through the SGTP, and the GSA websites.  Both of these resources can answer questions, but also refer any government employee or civilian doing business with the federal government to the specific regulation they may be inquiring about.  Any individual’s best bet is to read and understand the laws and rules that apply to civilian government employees and uniformed active military and the specific branch of government they are employed with, or are doing business with.  These laws are the fundamental foundations to understanding where the government travel industry will head in the future as well as give up to date regulations for all government traveler and travel planning.

Is the future of government travel and travel planning with ETS, Electronic Travel Systems, or the full service TMC, Travel Management Company?  That seems to be the question concerning not only government employees, but the TMCs alike.   ETS, Electronic Travel systems are currently have TMCs embedded or accommodated for each specific branch of the federal government, and the ETS solution such as GovTrip.  What that means is the TMC is still ensuring each reservation gets ticketed and there are no glitches with the reservation. Once a reservation is made through the ETS, it gets electronically sent to the TMC through the GDS, Global Distribution System of their agency.   TMCs run each reservation through their quality control software to ensure the government traveler’s record is free of errors, consistent, and airfare is set for ticketing.  Quality control software internally used by TMCs utilize automated, manual tasks, that take the reservation further than what an ETS can accomplish.  Quality control systems can be modeled around federal per diem rates and other federal lodging requirements to provide a great cost (and time) savings for government travelers.  These unique collaborative suites of quality control file finishing modules works with the GovTrip and other ETS solutions.  Understanding that the TMC has just as much power behind the ticketing a government reservation as the actual ETS booking engine itself, shows that the TMC is needed for self service reservations and full service call centers alike for all government travel.

Other government organizations such as the General Services Administrations, GSA, play a vital role in shaping the government travel industry today and into the future.  The General Services Administration is an independent agency of theUnited Statesgovernment, established in 1949 to help manage and support the basic functioning of federal agencies.  The GSA supplies products and communications forU.S.government offices, provides transportation and office space to federal employees, and develops government-wide cost-minimizing policies, including regulation and approving TMCs and policies for Federal Government Travel.  GSA also regulates and publishes FTR Federal Travel Regulations.  Former President Herbert Hoover was asked in 1947 by President Harry Truman to lead a commission to make recommendations to the President and congress on how to improve administrative activities of the federal government. GSA became an independent agency on July 1, 1949.  In 1980 The GSA launched the City-pair program testing 11 city pair contracts for reducing airfare cost to the federal governement.  GSA now administers over 5,000 city pairs contracted airfares for up to 70% savings for allUSfederal travelers.  As part of their effort, GSA maintains the large GSA Schedule, which other agencies can use to buy goods and services, schedule 599 refers to the services GSA administers for the federal government travel .  Specifically if a TMC would like to do business with the federal government, GSA TSS approval is recommended. The GSA Schedule can be thought of as a collection of pre-negotiated contracts. Procurement managers from government agencies can view these agreements and make purchases from the GSA Schedule knowing that all legal obligations have been taken care of by GSA, and TMCs meet all federal requirements.

The variety of TMCs available to the federal government started with Scheduled Airline Ticket Offices, SATO.  Today, although only 37 TMCs are currently GSA approved and TSS, Travel Services Solution certified, deregulation and the fair in competition acts and laws along with thousands of Travel Management Companies benefit the federal government procurement process for travel services.  The Billions spent annually benefit the economy by revenue flowing through, airlines, hotels, car-rental agencies, not to mention the food service industry, restaurants, and entertainment.  Interesting? Who is there to help manage the process from the civilian side of this industry? The TMC.  In partnership with the federal government, with great relations, unwavering application of laws and policies, from communication to accounting for every dollar spent, this partnership is immeasurable and most beneficial to the federal governement as well as the TMC.  TMCs in today’s federal governement travel industry, must not only provide a service for the federal government, but must know the industry, study the ongoing changes, and be able to properly guide all government travelers to be in compliance with their entire travel plans from start to finish.  The TMC and the federal government travelers can look forward to many years in partnership together, managing this robust expense for theUnited States of America.

By:  Scott Carver

Throughout the implementation, we had to create business rules that the TMC would follow.  A couple topics that are included in our business rules are:

• Centrally Billed Accounts (CBA)
• Non-Refundable Tickets

Some of the agencies that we service still use CBA’s for airline reservations.  Usually if the CBA is going to be used, the airline reservation is for a new traveler that does not yet have a government issued individually billed credit card.  However, many agencies require that a specific individual be contacted regarding any charges to the CBA.  During the implementation, we had to provide the contact information for each CBA to the TMC so that this procedure could remain intact.

Another item that we addressed during implementation was Non-Refundable tickets.  Each of the agencies that we service is very different depending on their agency mission.  Some agencies require special approval for non-refundable tickets but other agencies just require the normal approving official.  We also had to determine the rules for how this situation would be handled if the traveler called the TMC directly versus selecting the flight within the ETS.  All of this information needed to be documented by the TMC prior to deployment.

The business rules are a very important part of our relationship with the TMC and therefore are continually updated to cover new situations.

By Kim Fordyce

Disclaimer: The contents of this message are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the Government or my agency.  Use of this equipment is consistent with the agency’s policy governing limited personal use.

Joyce Wahoski, USPS Stamp Development

However, all corporate preferred travel programs experience some leakage at one point or another.   The loss of transactions through the corporations recommended reservation system or the loss of spend and performance with the contracted suppliers proves difficult for both the buyer and supplier side.   Controlling slippage to achieve contracted terms and policy compliance is fundamental to effective travel management.   The most important key is to communicate to travelers the emphasis on policy and reasons for compliance.

Most travelers do not understand loss of market share or loss of transactions, they care about seeking the better deal and perhaps doing the company a favor.  Travelers are not realizing the company is losing the ability to track spend which weakens future negotiations with vendors, much less the program benefits associated with preferred rates.   A common argument for employees using an alternative website or alternate TMC for booking air is they are perceived to be booking a cheaper airfare or avoiding a transaction fee.  What they may not know when using an alternate website is the pricing does not include taxes and other up- front fees.

Hotels seem to be the largest area of slippage for many companies.  According to recent publications, only fifty percent of hotel bookings are captured through travel management companies.    This is attributed to hotels offering rates through leisure sites and frequent stay membership perks that employees feel they will not receive if booked through their travel management company (TMC).   Employees also think they are getting better deals with car rental companies whose leisure rates may be lower – but they do not include the insurance coverage that should be required for all renting employees.

The answer to the problem is measuring the extent of the leakage and implementing a plan to control it.   The first step is to find out the percentage of leakage through the company’s expense reporting tool.  This will show, through original receipts, how much of the travel was purchased outside of the travel program.  For example, all hotel folios can be matched up with passenger name records (PNR) history, the airline receipts will show the dedicated airline reporting corporation (ARC) information indicating the airline ticket was purchased through the TMC and the rental car will show the designated corporate ID on the receipt.  All these elements will give you an excellent indication of who is following processes and procedures.  Or, if original receipts are not required by the organization, using available data through the TMC, credit card and vendors to find the source of purchase is necessary to track and educate.  This provides the ability to measure travel policy compliance by aggregating and comparing credit card data against your travel data.

Once the offenders are determined, the second step to reduce or control leakage is to develop a well thought-out communication program between upper management and the employees.  By showing upper management the negative impact to the program, you have better buy-in and the support you need.  When word comes from the top, employees will listen.   The employee must understand that they will forfeit his/her right to the following benefits provided through the company’s managed travel program:

• Insurance Coverage - Travel Accident Insurance is typically provided by the TMC in addition to the corporation’s own insurance.
• Profile Information - Specific profile information (i.e. frequent flyer, special requirements, etc.) on file with the TMC will not automatically be available to the travel vendors.
• Reservation Assistance - Flight cancellations, changes and refunds must be processed by the traveling employee through the channels in which they purchased their travel, as the TMC or the travel department are unable to assist travelers with reservations made outside of the managed travel program.
• Receipts - Ticket receipts, itineraries and copies of either, will not be available from the TMC.
• Employee Tracking - Employees will be responsible for advising managers, corporate security and the travel departments of their travel plans to ensure safety and security of the employee.
• Reconciliation Assistance - Due to lack of insight into travelers’ records, reconciliation assistance provided by TMC and/or the travel department is diminished.
• Unused Tickets - Employees will be responsible to ensure unused tickets purchased through alternate websites are used towards future business trips.  Reimbursement of unused tickets can be delayed.

In addition to the communication plan, restrictions can be applied to both on-line bookings and off-line bookings and reinforced when rules are broken.  When employees are educated on the benefits of their company’s managed travel program, they are more likely make better decisions and in turn, improve compliance and cost savings.

by Stefanie Tretola