By the late 1970s airlines were installing CRS’ in travel agencies throughout North America. For almost two decades, approximately 80 percent of the CRS’ in travel agencies came from two CRS companies—Sabre which was owned an operated by American Airlines, and Apollo by United Airlines. Travel agencies leased the CRS’, including the hardware, from the airline. The system looked much like a personal computer does today, but it was different in an important way. It was a dumb terminal: meaning it could exchange information with the airline’s central computer, but it could not do any processing of its own. Reservations on hundreds of major airlines throughout the world could be made on any of these systems.

The 1990s brought many changes to CRS’, partly because of the spreading use of the personal computers and the Internet. The systems themselves are now usually called global distribution systems (GDS) and most systems are owned and run by companies independent of the airlines. Other changes in GDS’ are more obvious to users. Dumb terminals are a thing of the past; on today’s GDS’, users can run a host of programs to perform tasks such as word processing, accounting, and database management. Both command interfaces and graphical interfaces are available. And GDS’ offer a wealth of information on all travel products, not just air travel.

The companies that run GDS’ are sometimes called hosts or vendors. They obtain revenue from suppliers that pay to have their services included in the system as well as from travel agencies that subscribe to the system.

Many suppliers such as Southwest, Airtran, and Jet Blue have their own computerized reservation systems but still participate in a GDS. They have the choice of various levels of participation, for various costs. For example, an airline might have its schedule displayed on the GDS, but not information about the availability of seats on its flights–this is the least expensive level of participation. More expensive levels of participation may indicate the availability of seats on a particular flight or allow the reservations to be made through the GDS. At the most expensive level of participation, there is a direct link between the supplier’s computer system and the GDS allowing the user to receive up to the minute reservation information.

Airline, hotel, and rental car participation in a GDS paved the way for today’s E Gov Travel Systems. Our E Gov Travel vendor provides a one-stop shop that allows our government travelers to process their travel documents, book their reservations and claim reimbursement once their trip is complete all using the same system. This progressive evolution came from the government and the travel industry working together to forge relationships that modernized government travel.

by Carole Byrd

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.

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.

The booking engine that we use to service the Boards travel needs is Fed Traveler, which is very user friendly, but complicated to manipulate if adjustments or changes are required.

On September 5, 2007 all travel coordinators for VA wide received an email from Veterans Affairs financial service center (VAFSC) that we will be changing from Sabre travel to World Span. The timing of this transition was poorly decided because it was too close to the end of the fiscal year, in my opinion.

Because of year end closeout procedures for the Financial Management System (FMS), all FedTtraveler.com documents that were submitted between September 27, 2007, and October 2, 2007, would not be processed in FMS until FMS was available for FY08 processing. Guidelines were given to stop processing travel plans after September 7, 2007.

In an effort to avoid any mass confusion, I completed all travel plans for travelers that were scheduled to travel prior to the deadline date. Unfortunately, once the system transferred over, several travel plans were deleted. This caused a hardship for travelers because all of their accommodations had been lost and needed to be resubmitted. Some of the trips had to be postponed because of the restrictions of the FY 2008 budget funds.

On September 17th, 2007 we were able to enter FY08 travel plans, choosing FY 08 fiscal data which generated FY 08 obligation numbers. The World Span transfer also created differences in Per Diem for the FedTraveler system. For each travel plan that I created, the allowable PerDiem rate defaulted to the FY07 rates table. Many of the travel plans had to be entered under the comments section stating “missing updated FY08 PerDiem rate data”.

Transactions of this nature should be well thought out and properly planned. Changing over at the end of a fiscal year can prove to be very stressful.

by Marcia Little

Not all airlines and hotels use a Global Distribution System as the GDS charges travel vendors to display inventories. If a supplier uses a GDS, it is the airline carrier, hotel, or rental car company’s responsibility to keep the GDS updated with current information. In some instances some small airlines do not use the GDS and therefore, the TMC must be contacted directly either by phone or by requesting assistance on line by entering a comment. The TMC will then contact the Non-GDS vendor to work with the traveler to make their reservations.

With domestic and foreign (non-complex) travel it is a requirement that our customers use the online booking tool within our eTS to book their reservations. However with complex foreign travel we encourage our customers to book directly through the TMC via phone. With complex foreign travel, the TMC has knowledge of and can offer advice about Visa requirements, the fly America Act, or if foreign carriers and flights are limited or unavailable in the GDS and will require TMC assistance.

by Brian Shears

Currently, our E Travel System is dependent on the GDS (Sabre) for identifying hotel availability and the booking of inventory. What information is listed in Sabre and how often the inventory is updated is entirely up to the individual hotel properties.

How does this affect the E Travel Systems hotel query?  The first query of the E Travel System sends an availability command to Sabre.  The return is a list of hotels for which availability is not yet confirmed. Some reservation services pull their properties when they fill, and some do not. Consequently, when a particular property is selected for a rate check, it is possible that the query will return a response that the property is not available; however, calling that hotel property might yield a room at the desired rate, even though the property shows full in Sabre, hence in the E Travel System. The on site hotel staff has the best and latest information as to no-show trends, and the ultimate risk of overbooking their properties.

Travelers, have several options for searching for available lodging in the E Travel System. They can query by hotel name or zip code, near their TDY location or near the airport. Travelers can search a ten-mile radius up to 99 miles from the airport. In addition, there are two types of lodging searches to conduct:

• Government Preferred – Displays all hotel properties that are FedRooms participants. FedRooms is the official government-wide, government-sponsored lodging program managed by GSA, in support of the President’s Management Agenda. Federal Travel Regulations require that you give FedRooms first consideration before looking at other hotel properties.
• Other Lodging – If you are not able to find suitable lodging under the government preferred tab, searching under the other lodging tab will allow you to search for additional lodging.

Unfortunately, all of these options do not guarantee that the traveler will find that particular hotel where they can enjoy that complimentary breakfast every morning. However, the benefits of the E Travel System far out weigh the idiosyncrasies of booking lodging for government travel. For the prudent traveler, the E Travel System helps ensure that they are following Federal Travel Regulations and they are wise stewards of the taxpayer’s dollars.

by Carole Byrd

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.

The Sabre GDS allows access to government negotiated rates, policy compliance at the point of sale, and automation of reservations and ticketing, which improves the efficiency of the overall government travel booking process.  The Sabre GDS provides access to preferred government rates such as CONUS and OCONUS rates for lodging and transportation; rates from government approved airline contractors/vendors; GOV and FPLP hotel rates; and access to rail including Amtrak rates.

When searching for an airline ticket within our ETS reservations module, Round Trip is the default (Multi-Destination is the default if more than one TDY location is listed in the itinerary). In our ETS, travelers have the option of changing the search criteria to One Way and they have the option of adjusting the search time according to their travel plans.  The user then enters the departure and arrival airport codes (if known) or the user can enter the city names in both of the fields as well.  The user may also select the option of searching nearby airports to view nearest airport to your arrival city.  The user would then search flights, price flights, and save their flights.  If air reservations are or are not successfully booked, the user receives an immediate notification of status.  If reservations were booked successfully, they also receive an email notification containing their air itinerary.

When searching for lodging reservations within our ETS, the Check-In and Check-Out date’s default based on the dates that were entered in the itinerary.  The default search option is Near a TDY location and will search for all available lodging near the TDY location that has been selected in the itinerary. Additionally, in our ETS, users have the options of searching by airport name, near a city, or near an airport, or by zip code.  Users also have the capability of searching within a particular radius of the airport (up to 99 miles) or zip code.  After clicking search for hotel, the system pulls all current available hotel inventories to be selected from.  Once a property of interest is found, the user may click on hotel info and pricing to get the specific details of that property such as price, room types, and Fedrooms participant information.  Once the user finds an available property within the applicable per diem, the user would select and save the accommodations.

When searching for a rental car, our ETS defaults the pick-up and drop off dates/times.  The airport code also defaults, however, it is an editable field.  The car class of ‘economy’ defaults in the system. The user would then click search to search for available rental car vendors.  Once the system has populated the list of rental car vendors, the user would make a selection from the list of vendors available.  Once the user verifies the class, pick up and drop off times, the final step would be to save the rental car.  During my training sessions, I always remind the trainees that while the system will provide a total rental car price, as everyone knows, by the time a rental vehicle is returned there can be quite a few extra expenses added to the final bill.  Therefore, it is very important that users verify and update if needed their total rental car expenses once they begin updating their final travel voucher.

When booking train fare, it is important to remember that the Federal Government does not have contract train fares established with Amtrak.  Therefore, there can be exceptions granted and some agencies may incorporate their own policy, allowing their travelers to contact Amtrak directly to book their reservations.  However, some agencies may allow the use of the ETS for their travelers to book their Amtrak reservations.  Any online rail reservations made via our ETS are charged the touched (agent-assisted) transaction fee as there is a manual intervention by the TMC to process train fare reservations.  If the ETS is used, users enter the departure and arrival airport codes (if known) or the user may enter the city names in both of the fields as well. Once the available train fares are displayed, the user would click on their selection.

Our ETS also has the capability for users to manually record the costs of airfare, lodging, rental car, or train fare.  However, this option should only be used for additional costs or unique cases whereby the system could not be used to book the reservations.

Our ETS in conjunction with the Sabre Global Distribution System provides Government travelers with a very powerful and economical reservation tool.  Using the GDS enables users to search for and reserve airfare, lodging, rental car, and train fare in a very fast and efficient manner.

by Brian Shears

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

by Diana Bonnell

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

Government Sabre includes access to government negotiated rates, policy compliance automated at the point of sales, automation to improve efficiency of overall government travel booking process, and provides access so the agent will only see government approved rates.

Government Sabre offers the following features:

• Access to Preferred Rates.
• CONUS and OCONUS rates for lodging and transportation, which are approved government per diem rates.
• Rates from government approved contractors.
• GOV and FPLP hotel rates easily identified in Sabre system displays.  If requested property is not available, an alternative is automatically suggested.
• Access to Rail content integrated into the Sabre system.

Government Sabre can be accessed through the Sabre Global Distribution System, Sabre connected agencies in the United States, and via the World Wide Web.

Additional Sabre features include:

• A module available for charging Travel Management Center fees.
• Reporting is incorporated in the ticketing module.
• Modules are available for script writing and other automation to make the global distribution System more user-friendly for the agents.
• Pseudo-City Code included in Sabre contract.
• Training materials and references available in hard copy or through the internet.
• Training sessions conducted either first-hand or train-the trainer.

by Cindy Moore

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.