Travel Options

House Bills 898 and 1061 were passed during the 78th Legislative R.S., and became effective September 1, 2003. These bills allow an officer or employee of a public junior / community college, as defined by Section 61.003, Education Code, an officer or employee of a school district, or an officer or employee of a municipality who is engaged in official business to participate in the State Travel Management Program (STMP) for contract travel services administered by the Texas Building and Procurement Commission (TBPC). This includes air, hotel and car rentals.

With the passage of these bills, SPC is given additional options when booking travel. 

 

All SPC employees have the choice of which travel agency to use.  You can book airline, hotel and car rentals with these agencies.  These agencies can offer you the state airfare rates.  Benefits in addition to providing lower overall fares for state business travelers, the contracts offer these advantages:

  • no advance purchase necessary;
  • no minimum/maximum length of stay required;
  • no fee or penalty for changing or canceling the reservation;
  • no other special purchase requirements.

The state rates for hotels and car rentals are also included in this document or you can refer to the links above.

 

 

Travel Agencies

 

International Tours – Levelland

We can continue purchasing our tickets through International Tours in Levelland.  They are currently charging $20.00 per airline transaction, which is a lower than the national average travel agent charge.  All travel will now be ticketless.  Your itinerary can be e-mailed or faxed to you.  They do not charge for booking hotels or rental cars.

 

Tumbleweed Travel – El Paso

Until the new state contract went into effect, this agency was contracted with the State of Texas.  They are still offering the $9.00 per airline ticket rate with no charge for hotels or rental cars.  Additionally, there is no charge for ticket changes and/or cancellations.  They  can offer the state rates and you can travel ticketless. Our representative is Andi Agan and she can be contacted at 800-648-5461.

 

National Travel Systems – Lubbock(state contracted agency)

The State Travel Management Program (STMP) of the Texas Building and Procurement Commission (TBPC) secured a contract with National Travel Systems to provide state travelers with reservation and ticketing services for airlines, rental cars, and hotels. Our travel agent is Ann Nelson and she can be contacted at 794-4693.

Term of the contract: December 15, 2003 through 2008.

The contract with National Travel Systems contains the services and provisions as follows:

  • Full-service – contact by telephone, email, online booking form, or fax;
  • On-line booking tool; and
  • Reporting – participating entities may email requests for standard, ad hoc or customer reports and the requests will be emailed back in the requested format.

Compensation and Transaction Fee Schedule:   click http://www.tbpc.state.tx.us/communities/procurement/prog/stmp/stmp-travel-agency/travagen  for more information.

 

 

Hotels

 

SPC will pay the contracted rates for hotels for business travel. The state travel rates are guidelines. These rates can be found at http://www.tbpc.state.tx.us/communities/procurement/prog/stmp/stmp-hotel-contract/stmp-hotel-contacts.

 

 

Car Rentals

 

The contract Rental Car vendors are Advantage Rent-A-Car, Avis Rent a Car System, Inc., and Enterprise Rent-A-Car. Rates can be found at http://www.enterprise.com/car_rental/home.do.

Enterprise account number is TXJ1100. Call Purchasing Office for additional information for online reservations. State car rental rates do include loss/damage waiver and liability insurance coverage.