Conference 7.286::digital

Or call the agency yourself, which is what I do, and I make sure they
understand what it is I want.  I've never had a problem with this method.

				Steve

	Don't worry. It's not like you're gonna get any frequent flyer
	miles with that (Avis) car...

	Grrr..

						mike

    re: .0
    
    Secretary? What's that?  Haven't seen one of those for a *long* time...
    
    The travel agency's main role seems to be that of watchdog (providing
    reports back to Corporate about who's traveling and how much they spent)
    as well as providing kickbacks, excuse me, rebates to the corporation
    on plane fares. The idea that they are supposed to help the traveller
    seems to be quite incidental.
    
    It wasn't always so.  About three travel agencies ago, I was getting
    great service from the Digital-anointed agency in our area. They had a
    local office, so tickets would appear in a matter of minutes, and they
    had the right *attitude*. They were always helpful, and went the extra
    mile to help the traveller. Unfortunately, they were probably underbid
    by a few pennies and the company dumped them in favor of a lower-class
    operation. My willingness to travel on business went way down that year.
    
    Geoff

>    Remind me again of why I should use the official method?

Because, like buying ANYTHING the corporation needs, there are contracts
in place that include rebates and discounts based on volume.
Thus by circumventing the system you will

  1) lose the benefit of any rebate or (possibly hidden) discount
     that might atherwise be applicable to your plans, and
  2) adversely impact the total business volume the Corporation can claim
     as an element of next year's volume discounts on travel and services.

That's why we have a corporate (sic) credit card - rebates go the Company,
just as the rebates on individual Discover cards go to the cardholder.
That's why the Avis rates don't include Avis's contributions to airline 
frequent flier miles programs - the Company negotiated them away for cheaper
contract rates.

Is it worth the individual hassle?  Not to the individual, but that's
a burden the Company is willing to (sic) share.

- tom]

    Or as someone famous once said, "Absolute power corrupts absolutely".
    
    When you give up control, you give up your power of choice.
    
    Mav

    Orangebook Travel Policy 5.11
    
         ... Managers are responsible for compliance with business expense
         policies and for cost-effective management of actual business
         expenses.  Managers will pre-approve only essential business
         trips and ensure that the right number of employees are
         traveling to support the business need.  Unless a business
         emergency dictates a shorter interval, employees are required
         to book travel 14-21 days in advance, making all arrangements
         through the travel agencies under contract and for utilizing
    |    Digital selected suppliers.  Reimbursement for air, car, and
    |    hotel expenses will occur only if booked through the agency
    |    under contract.....
    
    
    One point, as secretaries usually have a mountain of work to do in 
    addition to making travel arrangements, did you specifically ask the 
    secretary in question to request car express pickup and did you flag 
    her on the frequent flier miles?  And, more importantly, are those 
    items on your the travel profile that should be on file with Thomas Cook
    /American Express?   Not that requesting something from TC/AE is any
    guarantee of getting it.  

>    her on the frequent flier miles?  And, more importantly, are those 
>    items on your the travel profile that should be on file with Thomas Cook
>    /American Express?   Not that requesting something from TC/AE is any
>    guarantee of getting it.  
    
    If they *are* on your travel profile, rest assured that Digital has
    already had TC call Avis and have your Wizard account changed to
    Digital.  Be warned.

    
    
    a couple more blue points...
    
    a) ditto goes for mileage accum. with hotels, I no longer get them
    using Digital's corporate rate,
    
    b) another BIG heartburn for me is the fact that after paying through
    the nose for UNITED (because United alleged gives Digital 12% discount)
    tickets, there is NO gurantee you can get seats pre-assigned to you.
    United explained that TC/AE gets a block of seats (probably a chunk
    of 1 per plane!!!) which when exhausted does not allow you to get
    pre-assigned seat. Even if you call on the departure date, you still
    cannot get a seat. You have to be at the airport early to fight for
    you seat!! So what's the advantage of making reservation in advance
    and worse, having to pay full price???
    
    and by the way, even with the 12% discount, United is NOT far off
    from the others, so it is actually more expensive initially. Last
    but not least, United services stink even worse than before it became
    "employee-owned".
                     

    
     I just came back from ALF and it was cheaper to be a non Digital
    person in the hotel than it was to be a Digit.

Hmm - I recently got reservations on United with preassigned seats.

				Steve

    There's "something funny" about preassigned seats on United.
    I prefer window seats, and after being told on various occasions that
    there were no window seats available on flights I was booking extremely
    far ahead (for personal not Dec trips), one finally told me that they
    keep a large block of unassigned seats on each flight and assign
    them only at checkin time at the airport.  I've forgotten the
    reason for this boneheaded policy.
     

    I think it works something like the following.  Airlines overbook since
    they know that not everyone who makes a reservation will eventually
    show up.  However, they do not know exactly *who* won't be showing.
    Thus, they leave a certain percentage of their reservations (something
    like 20%) with a CONFIRMATION but no seat assignments.  When these
    people show up, they get the seats that were either left in the pool or
    those that were previously assigned to people who have since cancelled.
    
    Most of the time this goes smoothly but once in a while more people
    show up than they have available seats.  At that point they start the
    bumping.
    
    By the way, this isn't specific to United as the above was explained to
    me one day by a kind USAir agent (who said she could give me a
    confirmed reservation but not a seat).
    
    Larry
    

    
    	Then I must be the lucky one. I fly United back-and-forth from
    here to Chicago bi-monthly. I always get 21-day advanced reservations
    and the seat of my choice. Must be the shoes....
    
    		the Greyhawk

    re: pre-assigned seats ...
    
    Some airlines also don't pre-assign seats for exit rows, since the
    agent is supposed to "eyeball" you to make sure that you fit the FAA
    requirements (able to open the emergency exit).
    
    Airlines also hold back seat assignments on the "plum" seats for the
    gold and platinum frequent flyers. A number of times I've been told
    that they can't pre-assign my seat, only to have them change their tune
    when I give them my frequent flyer number. Airlines are finally learning
    (albeit slowly) to take care of their best customers.
    
    Geoff

    What's the story with trying to get some service from our supposed
    travel provider?  I'm spending hours (not minutes, hours) on the phone
    lately trying to get a reservation made or a change to a reservation. 
    We used to use a local travel agent (Travelmasters), got excellent
    service, great rates, *no* hassles, etc.  With American Express I
    basically get pissed on and am tired of it.  Their service is worse
    than anyu service I have received anywhere for anything.  They would be
    the last company I would turn to for travel service.  On top of it,
    when I try to be creative and book straddles, they try to keep me from
    doing it.  So instead of making two round trips to Boston for around
    $700-800 I get to spend $1700 and an hour or two on the phone to boot!
    
    The person at corporate travel that informed us of the decision to move
    to American Express last year apparently is no longer with the company
    (who says you don't get what you deserve).  So who *is* accountable for
    this so called excuse for a travel service?
    
    -tl
    

    I don't think anyone switched us to American Express.  About a year
    ago (or so)  Thomas Cook got bought out by American Express.  So by
    default, we went with AmEx.  The ironic thing is that before Thomas
    Cook, the corporate travel agent was American Express, and we were
    able to deal with the local American Express office.  Digital left AMex
    to go to Thomas Cook for a better deal, and guess what, we're back
    to American Express, but with less services than before.

    Send your comments to Judith Spencer @MSO.  

    .16
    
    What goes around, comes around.
    
    When will the latest TFSO hit?
    

    
    
    	Hey Dean,
    
    	According to the release by Mr. Mallarkey, the latest TFSO should
    	be happening soon!
    
    	Diane

    I remember Travelmasters, they were excellent. The Central Region got a
    free ticket for every 25 or so booked. People were always available on
    the phone for reservations.
    
    I spent 35 minutes on hold when a sudden trip came up. I complained and
    all I got was a note back from AE saying I should use the electronic
    request and they guarantee 2 hour response, not much help when your
    trying to catch a plane in two hours.
    
    The second time the hold time was even worse, after they said long
    holds were just temporary.
    
    

    Travelmasters provided fantastic service - accurate and very
    responsive! 

    I just talked to a human at Thomas Cook/American Express! She said
    that the problem with the long hold times, etc., is because when
    Digital re-negotiated our contract with AMEX it was based on a 20%
    reduction in travel. So AMEX layed off a bunch of people. But actually
    they're experiencing about a 25% increase in travel, and AMEX is
    having to try to scrounge up temps to fill the slots.
    
    What I don't understand is why our travel policy isn't relaxed a bit
    so we could buy our tickets directly from the airlines, at least
    until the travel agency fixes its service delivery problems. This
    wouldn't cost anybody anything and would make travel a lot easier.
    
    How about it, Mr/Ms Travel VP, whoever you are?
    
    Doug.
    
    
    PS. I found out how to do it by email: The address is:
    
    MTS$::"MKO::TRAVEL TCOOK"
                      ^
    Don't leave out the space or it won't work--although you can only
    find that out by intuition...
    

I'm in Valbonne, and there's an Amex office in our building that makes all
my business travel arrangements, like the ones for a trip to the USA about
a month ago.  I was asked to change my travel arrangements while in Boston,
and there being an Amex office on the ground floor of the building where my
meeting was going on, I went there to make the changes.

They couldn't do it.

They could do nothing for me, absolutely nothing: they couldn't even fetch
information about my existing travel.  I asked why not, and was told that
-- they guessed -- this particular office used to be Thomas Cook, and since
they had "recently" switched to being Amex, not all the networks were
connected.  How long is "recently"?  Nine months, they said.

In the end I was unable to change my travel.

___Pete

>    What I don't understand is why our travel policy isn't relaxed a bit
>    so we could buy our tickets directly from the airlines, at least
>    until the travel agency fixes its service delivery problems. This
>    wouldn't cost anybody anything and would make travel a lot easier.

Why do you think it wouldn't cost?  Presumably Digital gets a kickback
of part of the commission.

RE .22: 25% increase in travel

That's probably why upper management is now cracking down on travel. We need 
to get VP approval for travel as of a week or so ago.

Jim

Re .22: 25% increase in travel

My travel has gone up significantly because I'm being asked to travel to do
things that once were done locally by people who have been laid off.

This was, of course, completely unpredictable.  Not.

___Pete

    I too am complete frustrated with the insanity relative to this issue.  
    
    Yesterday, after AMEX told me again that they would have to call me
    back because all reservation agents were busy, I just blew a fuse.  I
    called for Joyce Flinn DTN 223-7922.  Joyce is the Director WW Travel
    Related Services.  She was not available, so I talked with her Senior
    Administrator, Meg Weaver.  I told Meg that I was frustrated and wanted
    to complain.  She listened and then said, "hold on, I'll transfer you
    to AMEX."  Seems that Digital wasn't really interested.  Once the
    transfer was completed, I wals talking with Lisa Flinn the on-site AMEX
    Customer Service Representative.  She explained that because Digital
    forecasted less travel AMEX transferred people.  AMEX is now training
    new people to fix the problem we created.  She was understanding and
    apologetic.  She told me to hold on and she would transfer me directly
    to a reservations agent.  After a few seconds she came back on the
    phone and said "I'm sorry, but I cannot transfer from this phone, I'll
    have to have someone call you."   Geeshhhhhhhhh!!!!
    
    Someone did eventually call, and my reservations made, but the problem
    still exists!

  It's been 3 1/2 weeks since the last reply. Any progress on getting these
problems fixed?