Having left the APS some years ago, whats been described above is about right.
separate internet portal with a sign-in password arrangement
QBT Pty Ltd (QBT) is the sole provider of Travel Management Services (TMS) to the Australian Government.
www.finance.gov.au
there was a traffic light system utilised to obtain Best Fare of the Day BFOD And the game was to make the little red man into a little green gal so as to fly the flight you actually wanted. This could be fiddled by adjusting time periods and/or checking for a number of days in a row until it happened. You could otherwise “OVER-RIDE” as there was a drop-down box with half a dozen reasons. My favourite reason was “inconvenient timings”.
one of my bosses told me I had to book BFOD so of course it came to pass that that fare involved Canberra to Brisbane to home - a long dog leg on Virgin - being cheaper than the direct flight home. Then she turned around and said I must not be stupid ...... not that he changed his mind of course. Rules are RIGID rules until they’re FLEXIBLE
there were rules of class (yes SES were eligible to fly J, and EL2s if the trip was over 1,600 km in length).
further, Y fares were DISCOUNTED by 50% or so - never seen QF fares so low (except on flights to/from Canberra - no discounts there)
most people preferred Qantas for the more likely you were to travel once a month you could get the boss to pay for your Qantas club membership,.....
sighs
and few wished to fly virgin as there were no evening meals which meant you couldn’t Ghosh up in the club and on the flight and pocket your tax-free meal money - well, that’s until I discovered if you bought a Virgin Government fare, you were allowed to access Virgins Canberra lounge for free. Of course, seems to have vanished after Virgin vanished.... Virgin were clearly BFOD as the pollies and their staffers LOVED QF and this filled up seats and thus inflated prices on last minute booking of QF flights
there were so many JQ Cancellations, people hardly bothered with them ( except Newcastle had direct JQ flights to Melb which staff there used regularly)
Noone cared about DSCs because people did PRIVATE travel on top of employment travel but perish the thought you might receive frequent flyer points. And it was a SHOULD NOT accept DSC
FAQs - Airlines and Travel Management Services | Department of Finance
when I think of more, I’ll add them
PS hotels may or may not be separate to fares inside a “ different” but linked window and had the appearance of being a skin masking a well known but separate hotel booking company.
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