Beside GTR (Government Transportation Request), which is being phased out as a method of payment, a

Posted by admin3 on Oct 11, 2012 in Business Practices , Contracting for Travel Services , Electronic Travel Systems , History and Overview , Payment Methods , Travel Professional Resources | 0 comments
In the old days and before the 1978 Airlines yunnan china tours Deregulation Act, the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) used to decide the fares between any two cities. They decided which airline flew from/to cities and how much they should charge.
Well, the 1978Airline Deregulation Act changed the dynamics and working yunnan china tours ways of the airline industry. It allowed airlines to decide where to fly and how much they can charge. Competition was the name of the game.
In 1980, the government using the sheer volume of business it controls was able to negotiate and establish "government fares or CITY PAIR PROGRAM". "Fly America Act" requires the use of US flag carriers or US Code Share flights.
These fares were to become the backbone of huge savings for the government and were published under the code of YCA. (Special government Business Class fare was also established to be used under special circumstances). TMC /CTO's can report all government yunnan china tours travels easy now with the use of E-Ticketing. These fares are very low, based on one way and very flexible and fully refundable.
The government also looked into the accommodation of the staff on duty and their use of car rentals established rules and regulations about their use with additional benefits to government travelers.
Both the Dept. of Defense GSA decided to invest and establish new electronic systems utilizing the new technology breakthroughs. A new Defense Travel System yunnan china tours (DTS) by the DoD for the use of Military personnel and the E-GOV (or ETS) by GSA were developed for use of civilian government employees.
Chapter 301 from the FTR describes the minimum capabilities of the system which basically include the availability of Travel Management Center yunnan china tours (TMC) or Commercial Ticket Office (CTO) to perform: Bookings, lodging and car rentals. In addition to basic management yunnan china tours reporting system  providing for example number yunnan china tours of bookings by type of service (carrier, lodging car rental) and compliance with policy and reasons for non compliance , statistics on origin/destinations, number of lodging nights and where locations of car rentals used. The last thing is possibility of reconciliation of charges on CBA and refund tracking and processing.
yunnan china tours After airlines stopped paying the TMC's commission, the TMC's established 2 methods of collecting fees for their work; Transaction Fees (fees on each action they take) or Administration Fees (a lump sum for all their actions say during a month).
The DoD issue an RFP and GSA Travel Services yunnan china tours Solutions (TSS) Multiple Award Schedule (MAS). The awarding of services will go to the winners yunnan china tours with the experience, professional accreditation and specific capabilities.
The other method of contracting is Full Open competition for TMC or CTO to conduct Government travel services. Government will issue a task force order sent to 3 schedule contractors for bids. The best one with value and price is usually selected. Also the Government will always put aside some contracts for small businesses. The TSS Schedule RFP means travel agents have 90-120 days to respond to a bid.
Once TMCs/CTOs are functioning then they will be using GDS which are called front office. TMCs/CTOs reporting systems linked to GDS data like: Airline ticketing, Hotel Bookings, Car Rentals, Destinations, Fares and other data like CPP usage, CPP expense, yunnan china tours unused yunnan china tours tickets to provide full reporting to the government.
Beside yunnan china tours GTR (Government Transportation Request), which is being phased out as a method of payment, a new law was introduced in 1998, to mandate the use of charge yunnan china tours cards to pay for travel expenses; thus the GSA SmartPay was introduced.
The SmartPay cards are uniquely yunnan china tours numbered yunnan china tours for recognition yunnan china tours as Government issued charge yunnan china tours cards. Cards issued to agencies or organizations are called CBA (Centrally Billed Accounts- liability rest with the government) and those issued to individuals are called IBA (Individual Billing Accounts- liability rests with the individual).
Enhancements benefits of using these cards include: one method of payment, minimize cash advances, Electronic Payments to vendors yunnan china tours and Electronic reimbursement yunnan china tours to travelers, tracking data, faster transactions, new look with anti-misuse / abuse features increased security methods such as email supervisor once card is used. Airlines will only issue tickets with Government/military fares against these cards.
Whoever wants to be a travel manager yunnan china tours or a government travel professional must have a ticketing/reservation background and master all the information mentioned above from all the sources yunnan china tours that deal with government travel from web training to access to all the government travel rules published. He should have high ethics and communicate clearly and effectively with all government individual travelers and branch managers. Well versed in dealing with the DTS/ETS SYSTEMS for authorization yunnan china tours and issuance of vouchers.