WASHINGTON -- The Transportation Department selected nine travel
agencies to provide a full range of services to federal agencies
that use FedTrip, the DOT's fee-based self-booking Web site for the
government.
At least 50 other travel agencies with federal accounts are
eligible to provide electronic fulfillment for FedTrip bookings, as
long as they sign a one-page agreement with the DOT.
But the nine selected firms can go beyond that and offer
additional, more traditional services, such as taking telephone
reservations, arranging conferences and tracking frequent flyer
mileage.
The firms include American Travel of Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Bay
Area Travel of Tampa, Fla.; Bentley Hedges Travel/WTP of Oklahoma
City; Lorraine Travel of Coral Gables, Fla., and Omega World Travel
of Fairfax, Va.
Also, Professional Travel Corp./Navigant International of
Englewood, Colo.; SatoTravel of Arlington, Va.; RTS Travel Services
of Fort Walton Beach, Fla., and WorldTravel Partners of
Atlanta.
Most of the nine agencies already have government clients and
would be automatically eligible to act as FedTrip fulfillment
firms. Obviously, they perceived a business benefit to submit a
proposal to the DOT and position themselves to offer a full range
of services.
The DOT said it might hold an open season next year for travel
agencies that missed the first round.
FedTrip is being tested within the DOT and is expected to be
rolled out to the rest of the government later this year.