Book the FedRooms rate using either your E-Gov System, your travel management center (TMC) or online at www.fedrooms.com.  If your agency allows, you may call the hotel directly and request the FedRooms rate.  As of today, there are more than 5,000 hotels covering more than 2,000 cities, which offer the FedRooms rate.  The FedRooms rate may be available to you even if your travel plans are for leisure.  Be sure to select Leisure as the reason when searching for the FedRooms rate.

When you book online using the FedRooms website, you will immediately receive an email confirmation from NoReply@Fedrooms.com.  Therefore, you will want to be sure not to delete the email.

FedRooms distributes a quarterly newsletter.  You may subscribe to this newsletter in order to stay abreast of the latest changes to the FedRooms program.

To learn more about this great program, you can take the free FedRooms 101 training webinar.  If you have any questions about the FedRooms program, a traveler may call them at 1-800-226-1741 or email them at hotels@fedrooms.com.

by Pam Morton

Once we moved to an eTS we considered continuing with one of our current travel agencies as an accommodated TMC.  However, the one TMC, which partnered with our eTS and was embedded, offered a lower price for both traditional and on-line booking and came with a great reputation as a travel agent.   In addition, we avoided additional costs that the eTS vendor would charge us to accommodate our current TMC.  We also had a short time period for implementation and needed a solution that was already in place.

The first year of our eTS implementation was filled with TMC issues, both from the TMC and from the interface with the eTS.  Our travelers would arrive to the airport without reservations, reservations would get stuck in queue and agent international expertise was non-existent. Both the eTS vendor and TMC were willing to work with us to improve service.  We developed logs that tracked every issue and had standing weekly conference calls with the TMC to address each issue.  Many of the issues were due to lack of training for the agents as well as a lack of communication between the eTS and their subcontractor TMC.  Over time the logs reduced in size and travelers stranded at the airport became a thing of the past.

Looking back I believe we made the right decision by going with the embedded TMC.  Since we were the first to fully deploy an eTS I believe many of the issues would have surfaced regardless of the TMC we chose.  The vendor has continued to add additional embedded TMC’s to provide options to our customers.  Although we have more options now, most of our customers have decided to remain with the original TMC and are happy with the current level of service.

by Diana Bonnell

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.

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

Oregon has had a managed travel program for over 15 years.   The model was patterned after the GSA and has worked well.  One thing that Oregon does is it keeps the number of travel agencies who are authorized to provide contracted air fares, to one.    The State of Oregon partners with the Oregon University System (OUS) to consolidate travel volume and leverage spend.  We allow the OUS to contract with a limited number of additional travel agencies who meet their unique needs.

This practice has been tremendous in the state achieving at least $7 million in annual savings than paying published fares.   Airlines like to see controls in place.  Those controls include a single form of payment, authorization procedures in place, and a limited number of travel agencies selling the tickets.    The more controls, the better the savings.

Another tremendous advantage in having just one TMC, all of the travel spend is contained at the one source.  It certainly makes it easier to have a single report showing all of the travel spend, vs. trying to compile multiple reports by hand.

I am not saying this may be the best way, by having multiple agencies, there could be an advantage to use an agency that better suits a travelers need, or one who is closer in location.  But in today’s environment, most travel agencies can offer services to meet everyone’s needs and since tickets are issued electronically, whether next door or across the state, the method of delivery remains the same.

by Tim Hay

You may be asking what are the benefits of the U.S. Government rental car program?  One of the most notable benefits is that the collision damage waiver (CDW) insurance is included in the negotiated rate. Besides the attractive rates, other benefits include unlimited mileage, adjusted rates according to size of car and much more.

These rental cars can be booked using your E-Gov travel system or using the traditional method by calling your Travel Management Center (TMC).  The rental car reservation is booked and charged to the traveler’s individual Government charge card.   If a traveler does not have a Government charge card, some other sort of an arrangement would need to be made such as a contract agreement directly with the car rental company or by issuing the traveler a cash advance.

One disadvantage of this program is that the rental car cannot be used for leisure travel under the official TDY contract.  If a traveler is combining official with personal travel, the traveler needs a separate contract for the personal portion of their trip.   Some rental car agencies may even request that the traveler return the car and check it out again.

While conducting training on our E-Gov Travel System, we advise our travelers to select any of the rental car companies listed, but the rental car company selected should be comparative with the cheapest rate for the size of car selected.  All of the rental car vendors have met the DTMO qualifications.  If a traveler has any questions concerning any of the vendors, they may call their TMC or the DTMO for further information.

The DTMO offers a website with detailed information concerning the car or truck rental programs.  The website is located athttp://www.defensetravel.dod.mil/index.cfm.

by Pam Morton

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

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

For the most part, our E-Gov Travel vendor provided what was promised. The system allows travelers to complete their travel authorization and book their reservations all at the same time. Policies and procedures are built into the system that ensures compliance with the Federal Travel Regulations (FTR) and individual agency policies. These built in features allow the government traveler to complete their travel authorization without going to another web site to look up per diem rates or city pair fares. They receive pop up or warnings messages when they are outside of FTR or agency policies and can instantly go back and change their authorization or reservations to be in compliance or justify the need to deviate from policy. Today’s systems allow the traveler to return from their trip, log back into the same authorization and complete a voucher for reimbursement. If they completed their authorization to accurately reflect the authorized trip, most of the necessary information is copied to the voucher and the traveler only needs to update a few line items with the actual expense cost and they are ready to submit their voucher for reimbursement. Our current system allows the FTR and agency required receipts or documentation to be attached so that that it is readily available for the approving official to review and for post payment auditing. The system even maintains all documentation for the required retention period. With all that our current systems provide our government travelers, how can we say that we are still old school?

In today’s technology savvy world, everyone knows something about the travel industry. The Internet and mobile technology have vastly increased the public availability of travel information.  Web sites provide unprecedented transparency into fares and hotel rates. Smartphones serve up travel knowledge that arguably competes with what travel agents can see on their desktop computers and from their Global Distribution Systems (GDS). When all this is put in the hands of a talented, motivated, and mobile workforce with access to more and increasingly sophisticated technology, our government travelers don’t want to be tied to a “system” to meet their business travel needs. These wily travelers have figured out how they could use their personal smartphones loaded with leisure travel mobile apps to increase their productivity while on business trips. Instead of logging into a system to change their reservations to meet a new meeting deadline, they could access their itinerary right on their phone, update their reservation and be on their way. Technology companies, both inside and outside the travel industry, recognized this area of opportunity and have started to build applications that support corporate travel policies and booking processes, but what about government travel? Yes, even government travel is moving towards the new mobile connected school. GSA recently introduced the Per Diem Mobile App that allows travelers to look up Federal government per diem rates by city/state and ZIP code in locations throughout the United States and its territories. Some government agencies are developing apps that link their travelers to their internal agencies policies and procedures. But, are we there yet?

As we move towards ETS 2, travel managers must drive enhanced programs for the mobile employee. Our focus should be on not only keeping compliance to the on-line booking tools, but also have flexible and adjustable travel policies to support the road warrior. We should be looking for mobile booking tools that support the government travel programs.  ETS 2 will give us the opportunity to work with our selected vendors to develop smartphone applications that access the travel program, policies, and information.  As travel managers, we must lead the charge and be the first to say that the old school way of operating the travel program is over. Travel managers can help focus our agencies on getting in front of what the travelers have already embraced – using smartphone technology and other virtual collaboration tools to make themselves more productive. By becoming the knowledge expert on mobility and virtual collaboration we’ll find ways we can actually increase productivity and reduce our travel cost.

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.

Travel agents working on government travel accounts receive customized training on policies and procedures for official travel.  They also have experience with the GDS system and have access to the Federal Travel Regulations.

The most common way of booking reservations through an ETS system is by creating an authorization, selecting reservations, adding expenses, and then electronically signing the document.  Once the document is signed, it is automatically transferred to the TMC/CTO.  These electronic files are called “queues” and transfer information from the ETS to the TMC/CTO and vice-versa.  These queues contain the Passenger Name Record (PNR) along with other information needed for booking.  Once the reservations are booked and the travel authorization is approved, the TMC/CTO tickets the reservations 2-3 days before departure.  Once the reservations are ticketed, the TMC/CTO charges a nominal transaction fee.  This process is referred to as a “self-service” transaction.  Another method of booking reservations is referred to as “non self-service”.  A non self-service transaction is when the traveler requires the assistance of a travel agent.  This type of reservation is usually complex and most of the time involves foreign travel.  A non self-service fee is usually more that a self-service fee because it requires manual intervention.

By: Chanda Garrett

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.

Some Global Distribution Systems do not allow for the booking of tickets for certain airlines – although this is often driven by which airlines choose to participate in which Global Distribution Systems.  In addition, the various online booking engines integrated within the E-Gov Travel systems do interact differently with the various Global Distribution Systems.  My experience is that the numbers of flights that display in one of the E-Gov Travel online booking engines vary depending on the Global Distribution System the online booking engine is accessing.  Are agencies going to evaluate this in determining which Global Distribution Systems should be used by their Travel Management Centers?  The agencies should, but I doubt very many do.

There is also at least one example of one company owning both a Global Distribution System and one of the online booking engines used by an E-Gov Travel system.  As you can imagine, when this company makes enhancements to and fixes errors in its online booking engine, preference is given to their online booking engine’s interaction with their own Global Distribution System.  This is another situation that should be examined by agencies in determining which Global Distribution Systems should be used by their Travel Management Centers.

by Kevin Young