SAVE Award 2011 Ideas

The government recently contracted to send me from Washington, DC to Columbia, SC. The fare was a whopping $1,400 due to the contracted airline fees. I then decided to add a personal trip in with the government travel, which means the trip would now include a flight out to Ontario, California and back to Washington, DC. I was able to add the extra trip and still save $135 off the cost of a roundtrip from Washington, DC... more »

Allow Government employees to fly at the reduced airline ticket rates, (Economy non-refundable).

I had the Governement travel office (AdTRAV) purchase my travel ticket, as required by my agency. I purchased my wife's ticket, who was going to travel with me. I paid less than half, for my wife's ticket, compared to what the Government paid for my ticket. OK, my ticket was Economy, refundable, my wife's ticket was Economy,... more »

Employees can find less expensive airline tickets by themselves online. Stop requiring the use of a travel agency.

Every year, thousands of dollars are wasted on travel for airfare, per diem, hotels, taxi fare, etc. for meetings, or training, consultation etc. The majority of the junkets are to resort areas. In this recession, we can not afford to send upper management officials to vacations under the guise of "training". Send the book or DVD. Do a free teleconference on Skype. If you need a vacation, use your own funds and leave,... more »

Purchase flight insurance and cancellation-fee waivers at the organization (or even Federal) level. An insurer would gladly underwrite such a policy, and employees could then purchase non-refundable tickets (a frequently offered suggestion) without fear.

Right now, employees must take on personal risk while trying to save money for their agencies -- and, predictably, a substantial amount of opportunities for cost... more »

Several ideas have already recognized that government-mandated travel purchasing practices are wasteful. This idea promotes the use of competitition among travel service providers through Priceline-like bidding software to achieve the lowest possible price for each government travel purchase. This should cut travel costs by 80% !!!!!!!

Problem: While GSA’s government-wide travel policies permit Federal employees to take advantage of airlines’ retail sale prices, because the employee must assume risks of cancellation or change fees, employees rarely take advantage of sale ticket prices which are far below the refundable GSA City Pair program fare prices. While city pair fares save as much as 70 percent, that savings is measured against retail fully... more »