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THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA 
AT
CHAPEL HILL
 
Office of the
Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration		 The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
CB# 1000, 300 South Building
Chapel Hill, NC 27599- 1000
(919) 962-3798 FAX: (919) 962-0647
MEMORANDUM

 
 
TO:  Deans, Directors, and Department Heads
FROM:  John P. Evans, Interim Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration
DATE:  December 15, 1999
SUBJECT:  Travel Program

 

This memorandum outlines recent changes in the travel industry and their effect on the University's travel program.

Airlines have been reducing commissions to travel agencies, on a percentage basis and through the imposition of caps, for the last two years. Effective October 6, commissions were reduced again, to a level that no longer covers travel agency costs. Thus, our authorized agencies have asked us to allow them to charge a modest service fee. The authorized agencies are important to us for central air fare billing, data collection that allows us to negotiate discount fares with airlines, and meeting certain federal grant requirements for the use of historically underutilized businesses (minority and women-owned). They incur extra costs in ticketing under our University airline contracts and in operating the central airfare billing system. Losing the authorized agency portion of our travel program on short notice would cause significant disruptions. In addition, we recognize that technology does now and will in the future provide options that were not available in the past.

Therefore, we are amending our contracts with the authorized agencies on a temporary basis to allow them to charge a $10 service fee for the next 90 days. This service fee is per ticket, regardless of the number of transactions involved with that ticket. Market rate service fees outside of our authorized agency program range from $15 to $25 for ticket issuance, with additional fees for exchanges, voids, or refunds. Thus, this $ 10 service fee per ticket still represents a significant savings relative to those rates. During the 90-day period, we will be making the determination of how to proceed thereafter, and also will be looking for mechanisms acceptable to campus travelers to reduce the authorized agencies' costs, so that we can continue to keep travel costs as low as possible. We will be involving the campus in this effort. Please note that this $ 10 service fee is reimbursable to authorized agencies only. The policy of not reimbursing service fees charged by non-authorized agencies remains in effect.

If you have any questions regarding this issue or the travel program in general, please contact Janet Tice, Travel Manager, at 962-3335 or Howard Gorman, Director of Materials Support, at 962-3777.