Travel Management Services CUATMS2017

State agencies should be aware of the following requirements under Western Australian Procurement Rules as they apply to purchases from this CUA.  The below table is a summary of the requirements, and State agencies are encouraged to review the WA Procurement Rules.

Exemption from using this CUA

Finance is responsible for processing and approving all requests from State agencies seeking exemption from using a mandatory CUA. Requests for an exemption are considered on a case-by-case basis, and a requesting agency must be able to demonstrate that a business need cannot be adequately met by the relevant CUA.

Exemption requests should be directed to the Assistant Director Procurement Frameworks through an email to the contract manager in the first instance. Requests for exemption must be in writing via email, and must provide sufficient explanation and background to enable the request to be considered. The requesting officer should be the Accountable Authority or delegate of the agency.

For guidelines on what to include in an exemption request, please refer to the Purchase from a CUA or my Agency’s Panel Arrangements Guideline.

The sole contractor on the CUA have been contracted to provide the following services:

Domestic air travel bookings

The sole contractor, Corporate Travel Management (CTM), has access to government discounted airfare arrangements and all other airfares in the marketplace to offer you the Best Fare of the Day.

The Best Fare of the Day is the lowest fare available at the time of booking that meets the traveller’s business needs.

The Government’s Guidelines for Official Air Travel state that the choice of airline must be based on the Best Fare of the Day principle. This requires that you:

• make the most economical travel arrangements that meet your business requirements and apply the principle of Best Fare of the Day
• do not have any airline or frequent flyer preferences
• understand the level of ticket flexibility required based on your travel requirements. The cheapest tickets have less flexibility
• book as soon as practicable.

Where required, CTM will provide customised services and coordination (e.g. groups and travellers with special needs including patients, prisoners, witnesses, police, legal officers, students and security classified travellers).

International travel bookings

International travel bookings can be made through this CUA but are not mandatory. If engaged, CTM provide point-to-point itineraries and three quotes that indicate seat availability.

When making international bookings you must advise the travel consultant if the traveller is using a diplomatic/official passport or a foreign passport. Visa requirements can vary depending upon the passport that is being used.

Before each overseas trip, travellers should ensure they have an International SOS Emergency Assistance Card in their possession, which can be obtained from RiskCover. Travellers can also download the International SOS mobile assistance app onto their smartphone. The card and the app can be used to contact International SOS in the event of a travel emergency and also provides access to useful pre-travel information.

Online booking tools

CTM offers two online booking tools, Serko and Lightning. The latter is CTM’s proprietary booking tool.

Both online booking tools provide:

• access to airline fares
• the Best Fare of the Day requirements
• accommodation and car hire options
• the ability to view ticket credits.

The Serko online booking tool provides post-ticketing changes.

You can access them through CTM's SMART Portal which has the ability to:

• forecast airfare and accommodation pricing
• store invoices and itineraries
• access customer specific reports
• track travellers.

CTM will work with you, based on your travel requirements and structure, to determine the online booking tool to best meet your needs.

Use of the online booking tool makes it easier to view the Best Fare of the Day and reduces the transaction fee applicable to any new booking by up to 60 per cent when compared with a booking made over the phone or by email.

To receive training on how to use the online booking tools contact the CTM account management team.

Accommodation bookings

Accommodation bookings do not have to be made through the CUA, however CTM actively negotiates competitive rates for WA Government travellers. Bookings can be made using the online booking tools.

No additional fees are incurred if the booking accompanies an air booking.

Car hire bookings

The WA Government receives competitive car rental rates from Avis Australia, Budget Car and Truck Rentals, Europcar and Hertz Australia  through the mandatory CUA for Motor Vehicle Rental MVR2019.

For competitive car rental rates from Avis Australia, Budget Car and Truck Rentals, Europcar and Hertz Australia, use the mandatory CUA for Motor Vehicle Rental MVR2019.

Corporate Travel Management can access these same government rates to book travellers’ rental vehicles. To book car hire customers first need to establish an account with the car hire supplier.

Car hire bookings can be made using the online booking tools.

No additional fees are incurred if the booking accompanies an air travel booking.

Ticket credits

Every month, CTM will email nominated key contact/s within your agency with your ‘credit on hold information’ (ticket credits). This information will outline the credits your agency has on hold by expiry date.

Customers with access to the OBT will also be able to view credits on hold for your portfolio.

To access your ticket credits, please contact CTM's account management team.

Additional Air Charter

Premier’s Circular 2021/15 requires State Agencies to use regular public transport air services (where available) when travelling to regional and remote communities throughout WA.

If your travel booking has a mix of regular passenger transport air travel and air charter then you may wish to use CTM to arrange the entire journey on your behalf or seek quotations from air charter companies as per normal procurement practices.

School excursions

If you are arranging an interstate or international school excursion, refer to IKON: Buy Services for School Excursions.

VIP Service

Chief Executive Officers, Director Generals, Members of Parliament and the Judiciary receive a VIP Service. Contact CTM's account management team to register for this service.

Pricing

Travel agents and airlines charge ‘transaction fees’ to cover their cost of making a booking.

CTM charge a transaction fee based on the type of booking made – online, email or phone. The transaction fee is the only source of income received by CTM for air travel booked through this CUA. Any commissions or overrides imbedded in the normal price of an air ticket are removed and returned to you as a point-of-sale discount.

The transaction fee is only charged once (when the ticket is issued). Subsequent changes to the booking do not incur further transaction fees although name changes on an air ticket may incur an additional transaction fee if the ticket requires cancellation and re-issuing.

Importantly, the price of an air ticket is independent of the transaction fee – CTM will earn the same income for a $3,000 airfare as it would a $199 airfare.

You will find at least two separate charges on your invoice every time air travel is purchased:

• the airfare(s) charged by the airline(s)
• the transaction fee charged by CTM.

Refer to the Application of the transaction fee section below.

CTM SMART Technology included in online booking portal:

• SMART Portal
• SMART Fare-Forecaster
• SMART Bed-Forecaster
• SMART Hotel Reviews
• SMART Ride Share
• SMART Tickets on Hold
• SMART Traveller Tracker
• SMART Alerts
• SMART Threshold
• CTM Mobile.

Fees

The CTM transaction fees below apply from 3 July 2024:

Online bookings using Serko tool

Online bookings using Lightning tool

Consultant assisted bookings (phone/email)

* Ground content includes accommodation, car rental, coach, rail, ferry, etc.

Additional services

*An aircraft charter would generally only be booked through this CUA when it connects to a Regular Passenger Transport service (airfare) that has been booked through this CUA.

Payment options

Air travel booked through CTM can be paid for by:

• Purchasing Card – currently the NAB Visa, provided through CUA PC2019
• Travel Account (refer below), also provided via NAB through CUA PC2019
• CTM’s Account Facility – the account is paid by direct debit 14 days after the end of each 14-day period.

Accommodation and car hire bookings arranged through CTM are paid directly by the customer to the supplier when the services have been received. CTM can assist customers make arrangements to pay for accommodation for an additional fee of $10.11 (including GST) per booking. Customers' payment needs can be discussed with the CTM account management team.

Payment by Purchasing Card

The government Purchasing Card offers a quick and convenient method of payment allowing many goods and services to be efficiently purchased. 

Always remember to inform the contractor that you will be paying by government Purchasing Card, at the time of ordering the product or service, and ensure they clearly understand that they must send the tax invoice directly to you, the cardholder.

Payment by travel account

The National Australia Bank and ANZ offer a Travel Account facility under the Purchasing Card and Expense Management System CUA (CUA PC2019) as a payment solution for air travel purchased through CTM.

With these Travel Accounts, travel data is available online within 48 hours of a purchase being made and can be accessed at any time so that billings, expenses and other related information can be easily tracked and reconciled at any time.

The Travel Accounts’ other advantages include:

• enhanced reporting – the electronic billing statement provides comprehensive information including itinerary details, passenger name, ticket number, cost centre and general ledger cost centre allocation
• simple online reconciliation of airline charges and transaction fees using NAB and ANZ Expense Management Systems
• easy payment by direct debit.

Contact Greg Gates at NAB on 0427 490 821 for information on the NTA.

Application of transaction fee

Air travel bookings - offline or consultant assisted

Any consultant assisted booking (phone or email) forming a single journey for a traveller on any number of sectors on any number of airlines (GDS or non-GDS or combination thereof) and any combination of fare classes (including government/private fares). 

For example, a single journey containing:

• QF PER-BME on government/private fare
• Air North BME-KNX-BME, and
• VA KTA-PER on government/private fare.

In this situation, CTM will charge one Consultant Assisted Transaction Fee when tickets are issued. Variations may incur extra fees. See the table below.

No extra CTM fees apply to additional ground content (including car, accommodation, coach, rail booking) to new or existing airline booking.

Air travel bookings - online or OBT

Any online booking for a traveller on any number of sectors on any airline (GDS or non-GDS or combination there of) and any combination of fare classes (including government/private fares) will incur a CTM transaction fee of one OBT transaction fee when tickets issued.

If any number of changes including: time, day, airline, routing, fare class, name on ticket (if permitted) then no extra CTM fees are charged. Note that the OBT transaction fee will not be upgraded to a consultant assisted transaction fee.

No extra CTM fees apply to additional ground content (including car, accommodation, coach, rail booking) to new or existing airline booking.

Ground content (accommodation, car rental, coach, rail, ferry) bookings without air travel

One fee applies when the customer commits to accepting the ground content booking (for example, accommodation, car rental, rail, ferry or any combination of these).

No extra fees will be charged for any number of changes including time, day, rental or hotel company, location, type of car, name on booking, add other rentals in other towns or cities. Addition of any other ground content will not incur extra fees.

If you wish to cancel the entire booking or add an air component, additional charges may apply. See the fee tables in the section above for details or contact CTM.

Travel insurance

RiskCover provides travel cover for government agencies that are participating members of the RiskCover Fund. Travel cover is provided for any air travel or any other form of travel comprising an overnight stay away from the personnel’s usual place of residence. The travel cover provided by RiskCover is only for authorised official business travel.

The cover provided includes coverage for leisure activity undertaken during the authorised business travel, provided these activities do not exceed two days during any period of leave taken during the travel. If this period extends beyond the two days then the personnel will have to arrange their own personal travel cover for the whole period they have taken for leave (including the two-day period allowed) but only up to the date they recommence the authorised business travel.

Cover is provided for any director, commissioner, board or committee member, executive officer, employee of the agency or any other person(s) designated by the State Agency and approved by RiskCover prior to the commencement date of the authorised business travel.

Therefore, it should not be necessary for a government agency to purchase separate or additional travel insurance from CTM or another provider for authorised official business travel.

Please contact RiskCover to ensure the cover arrangements in place for the agency is suitable. For further information view the provisions and conditions of RiskCover’s travel cover.

Understanding airfares

There are many different airfares and they are constantly changing. To save money on air travel, it is important to appreciate how airlines price their tickets.

Airlines offer a range of fares for travellers – these fares are grouped into ‘classes’. The cheaper fares are in classes that have more restrictive conditions whilst the more expensive fares are in classes that are generally less restrictive.

Airlines allocate a proportion of seats on each flight to each fare class. The proportions change depending upon the day and time of flight departure. The numbers of cheap seats are always limited by the airline and get sold first to early-bird buyers.

Every travel agent has access to the full seat inventory offered by an airline – airlines do not offer more discounted seats to one travel agent than another. This means that domestic airfare prices do not change from one travel agent to another.

In addition, airlines offer their seat inventory, generally for the same price, via their websites.

Finding the cheapest fare amongst this complexity can be difficult. The travel consultants at CTM are trained to ascertain your travel needs and your capacity to accept airfare conditions to offer you the Best Fare of the Day.

Government airfare discounts

We have negotiated discounted airfares for Government directly with the following airlines:

• Domestic discounts
  • Virgin Australia
  • Qantas
  • Airnorth
• International Discounts
  • Delta
  • Qantas
  • Virgin Australia
  • Singapore Airlines

Airlines only provide these discounts through CTM.

These discounts are not available through other travel agents or by booking directly with the airlines.

Travel to the Indian Ocean Territories (Christmas and Cocos Islands)

Section 17 of the Guidelines for Official Air Travel contains information about making travel arrangements to the Indian Ocean Territories.

Purchasing card limits

Ensure the purchasing card you are using has sufficient funds to pay for the flight and CTM fees as this could cause reconciliation issues and delay bookings.

Use of OBT Guest Profile

Please avoid using the guest profile on the Online Booking Tool, if at all possible, as this causes reconciliation issues.

Ticket Credit Usage

Prior to booking a flight check to see if there is a ticket credit available for use. Ticket Credits can be viewed within the CTM Portal by clicking on ‘Credits’ on your portal dashboard.

COVID Hub

The COVID hub is accessible via the CTM Portal and provides a central area to check your destination’s entry requirements including proof of vaccine and PCR/RAT results.

State Agencies should buy their air travel in accordance with the Guidelines for Official Air Travel outlined in the Premier’s Circular 2021/02.

Bookings

New CUA user

If you are looking to book travel for yourself or other personnel, please check if you have a centralised travel arranger within your agency who can book the travel for you.

For security purposes, if you are a new travel arranger for your agency, you will need to be authorised to make bookings on behalf of agency.

Profiles can be established by contacting the Account Management Team at CTM or nominated key travel representative within your agency.

Online

CTM’s Online Booking Tool is a cost effective and efficient method to book your travel. It shows all airfares on all airlines available via the Global Distribution System on a single screen in accordance with the Best Fare of the Day requirements and provides an opportunity to view indicative trip pricing for quoting purposes.

It is not recommended that you attempt online bookings without undertaking training. Free training can organised by contacting CTM.

Email

The address for email booking requests is WAGOV@travelctm.com.

Emailing CTM with your non-urgent booking requests can simplify the booking process for you and CTM. If booking more than a fortnight in advance, then consider emailing your booking request to the team of travel consultants. Emailing bookings relieves the pressure on phone systems freeing travel consultants time for more urgent bookings and requests.

To make a booking request via email you will need to have been identified as travel arranger or traveller within your agency who is able to make your own travel arrangements.

Phone

The phone number for phone bookings is 1800 572 150.

CTM’s WA Government call centre is staffed by fully trained travel consultants. The team of consultants is accessible via a call centre and will include dedicated VIP and international travel services.

To make a booking over the phone you will need to have been identified as travel arranger or traveller within your agency who is able to make your own travel arrangements. 

Making a booking

To make a phone or email booking follow the steps in the table below.

1. Contact CTM
   • Confirm your name, agency and cost centre code.
   • Confirm traveller’s name, origin/destination of travel, and time/date of travel.
2. Determine the best travel option. The CTM travel consultant will offer you the Best Fare of the Day. Before accepting this fare consider:
   • your requirements for ticket changes prior to the flight departure
   • your risks of cancellation and ability to manage ticket credits
   • your agency’s own travel policy and guidelines
   • your ability to make an instant purchase, which requires that all internal approvals have been received.
     Note: If you do not have the necessary internal approvals to buy a ticket, you will be unlikely to meet the purchase requirements of the cheaper tickets (instant purchase). Therefore, note the cost of a fully flexible ticket and seek approval for travel on the cost of that ticket. When the internal approval is received, contact CTM and seek the Best Fare of the Day again (do not buy the expensive fully flexible ticket unless necessary).
3. Determine the ground content
   • Advise the CTM consultant of any accommodation and car hire requirements and book these with the air travel reservation.
4. Confirm payment option with CTM
   • Please refer to the What will it cost? section.
5. Establish contacts
   • Confirm whom the itinerary is to be sent to if not already set up (email).
6. Review booking
   • Check the itinerary thoroughly. It is the customer’s responsibility to identify any inaccuracies of the itinerary.

Active contract management pays off.

Reporting

CTM provides access to monthly and quarterly reports that outline your travel spend, booking trends, number of changes made, credits on hold, OBT usage and missed savings opportunities.

Reports can be sent through to an agency’s nominated representatives. To access reports please contact the CTM account management team.

Receive updates about this CUA

Price changes, CUA variations and other communications from the Department of Finance are distributed as circulars. To receive these and other communication distributed by the Department of Finance please contact the contract manager.

Problems with CTM's services

If you are having problems with CTM's services, contact CTM’s Client Value Manager, Michael Fontein on 0466 405 809. Clearly outline the issue, ask CTM to explain and together resolve the matter.

If the matter is not resolved to your satisfaction, discuss it with the Contract Manager.