The information in Section 2A on Global Distribution Systems (GDS) was very informative and interesting. It has been my experience that many Government travelers do not understand the GDS underlying our Online Booking Engines and E-Gov travel Systems. One improvement that would be extremely helpful to the Government would be if the General Services Administration could convince all airlines that want to participate in the City Pair Program, be required to be mandatory participants in the GDS. It is frustrating to our users when they follow all the Government’s mandatory requirements such as mandatory use of the city pair program, mandatory use of an E-Gov Travel system and are still charged a full service fee because the airline does not participate in the GDS. It is actually surprising that for an airline to be a participant in the City Pair Program they are required to commit a portion of their fleets to the Civil Reserve Air Fleet, but will not commit to registering in the GDS which supports all of our Government Travel Systems.
One of the goals of the President’s Management Agenda E-Gov Travel Service was to provide a cost savings to the agencies. The agencies can only achieve these cost savings by promoting and encouraging self-service reservations whenever possible. A simple trip from Washington Dulles to Atlanta should not require agent intervention. Yet it does even if booked online, because the City Pair carrier is Air Tran. It is conceded that Air Tran and another similar carrier, Jet Blue offer very low city pair fares, some of the lowest in all the markets. In this day and age of automation and 3GB I-phones, a Government traveler should be able to book any city pair fare online as a self-service transaction.
by Jacqueline Lynch