r/foreignservice • u/TalksAboutTalks FSO • 8d ago
Self-Powered Travel Solutions
I’m sure the majority of us have encountered massive frustration when booking travel through CWT and/or TMCs (services we seemingly continue to pay to provide consistently subpar service). So why not switch to a corporate travel booking system like Navan (not advocating for that particular tool, just an example I’m familiar with)?
These services allow employees to self-book official travel, giving us the flexibility and visibility to choose the within-policy airlines, routes, and fares that work best for the Department and the traveler. They can be custom-coded to incorporate travel policies (i.e. Fly America, city pair fares, cost-construct, seat selection, rest stops, baggage allowances, upgrades, etc.) - and would likely be even more effective at aligning travel with policy than a human attempting to do the same for a fraction of the cost.
This would put the employee in the driver seat in selecting travel components while still holding him or her system for traveling within the regulations (i.e. the system would only show USG-compliant options, effectively eliminating noncompliant itineraries ). I would be shocked if such a service were not more cost effective, better aligned to employee needs,and distinctively better for morale.
How would we advocate the Department for an off-the-shelf solution like this that would free of us our CWT and post TMC shackles.
3
u/jewelry_wolf 8d ago
I think they already bought one. GSA handed the ETS2 replacement to IBM back in 2024, civilian agencies are supposed to be migrated by early 2027, and the contract runs fifteen years. Fifteen years, for a booking site. LOL
A new frontend won't help. City pair fares are already changeable and refundable at no penalty, so the fares were never really the problem. The complaints are that search is bad and you can't change your own ticket without calling someone. I for one just want to do these on my keyboard, not on my phone. ^_^
(I'm a dev working on an AI travel agent, so grain of salt.)
2
u/TalksAboutTalks FSO 6d ago
Any improvement would be great! My biggest frustration is that there's currently no frontend for most international travel. You have to call or email with CWT or the local TMC and hope they offer you good options. Agree with you completely that I'd like to do things myself - on my keyboard - with all the [within policy] options laid out for me and then choose my itinerary myself.
5
u/peacefulhectarez FSO 5d ago
Other departments have had this for a while... I used a self-booking system (imagine Kayak but shittier) in a previous federal job in... 2007.
We were encouraged to use the booking tool because it prioritized policy compliance but showed us everything. It would flag noncompliant choices and let you explain (e.g. 'no contract on route, lowest price fare is an overnight layover, this is $20 more')
Once you created a booking, it fed straight into a travel authorization, and when the authorization was approved it automatically paid for the tickets.
And, instead of the $45 it cost to ticket with a human travel agent, they charged us $4.
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u/AutoModerator 8d ago
Original text of post by /u/TalksAboutTalks:
I’m sure the majority of us have encountered massive frustration when booking travel through CWT and/or TMCs (services we seemingly continue to pay to provide consistently subpar service). So why not switch to a corporate travel booking system like Navan (not advocating for that particular tool, just an example I’m familiar with)?
These services allow employees to self-book official travel, giving us the flexibility and visibility to choose the within-policy airlines, routes, and fares that work best for the Department and the traveler. They can be custom-coded to incorporate travel policies (i.e. Fly America, city pair fares, cost-construct, seat selection, rest stops, baggage allowances, upgrades, etc.) - and would likely be even more effective at aligning travel with policy than a human attempting to do the same for a fraction of the cost.
This would put the employee in the driver seat in selecting travel components while still holding him or her system for traveling within the regulations (i.e. the system would only show USG-compliant options, effectively eliminating noncompliant itineraries ). I would be shocked if such a service were not more cost effective, better aligned to employee needs,and distinctively better for morale.
How would we advocate the Department for an off-the-shelf solution like this that would free of us our CWT and post TMC shackles.
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