Au Government flights

[Bolman]

[FONT=&quot]Has anybody had experience booking flights through the au government booking system? I was recently told that to cut down on project costs, we might need to use the governments booking system instead of my usual travel agent.

I heard a rumour that the fare is heavily discounted - but at the cost of earning FF points. Can anybody confirm this? [/FONT]

 

[rwatts]

[FONT=&quot]Has anybody had experience booking flights through the au government booking system? I was recently told that to cut down on project costs, we might need to use the governments booking system instead of my usual travel agent.

I heard a rumour that the fare is heavily discounted - but at the cost of earning FF points. Can anybody confirm this? [/FONT]

I can only speak for the (very large) Commonwealth department I work for. Qantas is our travel agent and almost all arrangements are made through them (sometimes we book accomodation,etc direct). I've never heard of a whole-of-governemt booking system.

Qantas are obliged to provide "best price" options but I generally end up on QF flights. I believe fares of domestic QF flights are fixed annually and are at a substantial discount (possibly fuel levies are excluded because recent fares have varied slightly from the internal price matrix publication). QFF points do not accrue for our flights (except in error) but SCs do. All fares are fully flexible (Y class).

 

[Skyring]

I can only speak for the (very large) Commonwealth department I work for. Qantas is our travel agent and almost all arrangements are made through them (sometimes we book accomodation,etc direct). I've never heard of a whole-of-governemt booking system.

Qantas are obliged to provide "best price" options but I generally end up on QF flights. I believe fares of domestic QF flights are fixed annually and are at a substantial discount (possibly fuel levies are excluded because recent fares have varied slightly from the internal price matrix publication). QFF points do not accrue for our flights (except in error) but SCs do. All fares are fully flexible (Y class).

My wife is a senior public servant and this is her experience as well - oddly enough I take a keen interest in her travels, points and so on. She rarely gets airmiles, but she does get the status credits. Fully flexible tickets so she can take an early or late flight at need, depending on whether meetings finish early or late. International travel is J, but Y domestically.

And yes, she usually ends up flying Qantas!

 

[Bolman]

Status credits are less valuable to me than FF points, so this is bad news. All flights through our normal agent are flex anyway

The good news however, this morning, they changed their mind - we no longer have to book through the gov department.

 

[ziggypop]

I think from memory most Govt departments use Qantas, AMEX or FCM as their booking agents.

Our Dept recently excluded QP membership from being paid for thru the salary agreement, but we can pay our own and get FF points. Our own FF points we can use to upgrade if we wish.

We get best fare of the day, but we have to ensure that the scheduling is fair and does not make us wait around airports unduly. Which means that most of the time we use QF, particularly because that is the only airline flying to connections thru Sydney.