WASHINGTON, DC—The Forest Service understands that many employees are calling our Travel Management Center and are experiencing long wait times. The travel industry situation is impacting BCD Travel, including unprecedented hold times to reach a travel consultant. We have worked with BCD Travel on some solutions to ensure our travelers receive the best experience they can during this difficult time.

• Book online with Concur as much as possible.
• Encourage travelers to book travel well in advance, so that they will have ample time to plan and communicate properly with a BCD travel consultant.
• Ensure the traveler confirms that their authorization has been timely approved, and that they receive a ticketed itinerary before venturing to the airport.
• If employees need to call BCD Travel, we suggest calling Tuesday through Thursday, as wait times are a bit shorter than Mondays and Fridays.
• BCD has added automated verbiage on their phone lines with regards to the higher volume of calls and wait times.

What is BCD trying to do to fix the issue?

• They are aggressively working (hiring) to staff the government customer service desk.
• They have customer agents working overtime to help manage the increased incoming call volume.
• Longer term, they are developing an industry training program to bring more travel consultants into the industry and BCD Travel.

Please make sure your travelers watch for emails or text messages from the Travel Management Center or airlines for any flight delays or cancellations.