Frequent Flier Relief

Under the legislation co-sponsored by Rep. Connie Morella, R-Md., federal workers could keep the miles as long as they were obtained under the same terms provided to the public and at no cost to the government. The bill would be retroactive, allowing federal workers to use miles earned before the bill's enactment. Federal travelers have been encouraged to maintain frequent flier accounts and turn over their miles to their agencies in order to keep travel costs down.

Federal workers currently may not use bonus points earned on business travel for personal trips. Most of the points are going unused, as agencies and departments avoid the administrative burden of tracking and redeeming the mileage for official travel. The General Accounting Office and the Bush administration have thrown their weight behind the policy change, saying it would help the government recruit and retain employees.

"The private sector commonly allows its employees to keep the frequent flier miles they receive while on business travel," Burton, chair of the Government Reform Committee, says. "This gives private companies, including government contractors, a competitive edge over federal agencies in attracting and retaining skilled employees."

The legislation covers only civilian employees, but administration officials are seeking authorization to allow service members to use miles for personal travel as well. The bill, introduced on July 11, flew through the House on a voice vote on July 30. The Senate may pick it up upon return from its summer recess.

Book Early and Save

ederal travelers have an incentive to plan their business trips early this year, thanks to a new airfare program the General Services Administration announced in July.

The 2002 city-pair contracts offer air fares even lower than the already-discounted federal rates for some seats in 337 markets. GSA chose the markets randomly from the government's 2,000 most-traveled cities.

The restricted fares are $20 to $100 less expensive than the unrestricted, or "walk-up," rates previously available to federal travelers. But the new reduced fares are available only on a finite number of seats, so budget-conscious travelers should book early. "Federal travelers are going to have to make some changes" in the way they plan trips, says Sue McIver, director of GSA's Services Acquisition Center, which awards the contracts.

While it remains to be seen whether federal travelers will take advantage of the new fares, airlines are happy because earlier booking would help them manage their inventories, McIver adds. Travelers still can buy tickets under standard government rates at the last minute if seats are available. No cancellation fees apply to the special discounted fares. Unrestricted standard fares will continue to be available in the test markets. This year, GSA awarded contracts for walk-up fares to 14 air lines at an average savings of 72 percent over unrestricted coach fares. GSA negotiates the walk-up fares each year and awards the contracts competitively based on the best overall value to the government. Walk-up tickets don't require advance purchase and have no minimum or maximum stay requirements, travel time limits, charges for cancellations or blackout periods.

Federal fliers will have almost 5,000 routes to choose from in fiscal 2002. Discounted fares for federal employees include $37 one way from New York's LaGuardia Airport to Ronald Reagan Washington National airport (down from $40 in 2001); $90 one way from Chicago's O'Hare to Washington Reagan (up from $52 in 2001); and $66 one way from Boston Logan to Washington Reagan (down from $70 in 2001). The 2002 contracts include 91 additional markets offering nonstop routes. "In 95 percent of markets where nonstop was available, we were able to offer it," says McIver. Search fares online at www.fss.gsa.gov/citypairs.

Defense System A Go

he Defense Department has decided not to pull the plug on its struggling paperless travel system, officials announced in late July. The Defense Travel System (DTS) "will meet our future temporary duty travel authorization, arrangements, payment and accounting requirements, while providing broad benefits to the department" according to a Pentagon memo (www.dtic.mil/travelink/docs/osdltr71701.html).

In March, project director Col. Pamela Arias said Defense officials planned to make a formal announcement on the future of the long-awaited travel system in mid-spring. She denied rumors that Secretary Donald Rumsfeld might scuttle the project. In July, Air Force acquisition officer Lt. Col. Larry Schaefer replaced Arias after less than one year in office.

Under the restructuring, oversight of the program was moved from the comptroller's office to the U.S. Transportation Command. To encourage bases and installations to adopt the system, they will be allowed to keep any savings it generates. The Defense Travel System will be funded with congressional appropriations through fiscal 2003. Defense and TRW are beginning negotiations to restructure the contract's provisions, including how TRW will get paid.

DTS promises to streamline everything involved in government travel, from the number of approval signatures required to auditing and processing vouchers. It will enable workers to request authorization to travel, make arrangements and submit claims using their desktop computers. Defense has estimated that the system will save the department $300 million each year.

DTS was conceived in 1994, and Defense awarded a contract to TRW in May 1998. The launch was set for December 2000, but it has been delayed several times, most recently by a series of unsuccessful tests at Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo. The tests showed that training, system setup and response times needed improvement. More recent tests at Ellsworth Air Force Base, S.D., are going well, say DTS officials and TRW project manager Rich Fabbre.

As of early August, Fabbre expected implementation to begin as early as September. Defense has abandoned its plan to put the system in place by regions, starting with Defense Travel Region 6 (11 Midwest states), and now will install it at bases that have large numbers of travelers and the necessary infrastructure. Neither TRW nor DTS would predict when the system would be up and running at all military sites worldwide.

Can This Move Be Saved?

fforts to improve the way the Defense Department moves its people have bogged down en route for lack of funds.

The military services have ditched several pilot programs designed to relieve service members and their families of nearly ubiquitous move-related problems such as lost and damaged household goods, poor communications, pickup delays and long waits for delivery. The department pays an estimated $100 million a year in claims on top of the $3 billion spent on more than 600,000 moves. The real cost of the fragmented and bureaucratic relocation system, which hasn't changed in 35 years, is impossible to calculate because factors such as reduced readiness, morale and retention are tough to measure.

The improvement programs have been in process since the late 1990s. The Full Service Moving Program, a departmentwide effort that started Jan. 1 and was scheduled to run two years, was touted as the solution that would combine the best of the previous pilots. But the high costs of relocation reengineering threaten to put the experiments out of business prematurely. The Navy bailed out of the Full Service Moving Program and the other pilot programs, including its own Sailor Arranged Move program, in April. The Air Force has issued a memo stating its intention to withdraw, and the Army reportedly "has concerns" as well.

A panel was scheduled to meet in August to decide whether to put the Full Service Moving Program out of its misery or find a way to resuscitate it.

The problem is money. Better customer service costs more, and the military services don't have the dollars budgeted. If Congress doesn't allocate funds in the fiscal 2002 budget, the project will fold at the end of the fiscal year, more than a year ahead of schedule. Stakeholders put the chance that Congress will rescue the program at better than 50-50.

The new, improved move programs were to distribute work to movers based on both quality and price (rather than lowest price alone, the current practice) and to provide, among other things:

• Better communication with customers through toll-free numbers.
• Full-value replacement for lost and damaged goods.
• Two-hour pickup and delivery windows.

A year and a half ago, Maj. Gen. Kenneth Privratsky, commander of the Military Traffic Management Command, which oversees one pilot, pledged to make some changes immediately, including toll-free numbers for service members to contact moving companies and full-value replacement for claims. The toll-free numbers haven't materialized, though Terry Head, president of the Household Goods forwarders Association of America, says they will be required of all carriers by Oct. 1.

The U.S. Transportation Command still plans to evaluate the pilot programs early next year and to recommend improvements.