GSA_FY18_CPP_RFP_QMAC-KB-170001-D_-_Final_RFP_Vendor_Questions_and_Government_Responses_03-07-17.pdf

March 7, 2017

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City Pair Program

FY2018 Requirement for Air Passenger Transportation Services

Solicitation No. QMAC-KB-170001-D

Questions & Answers in Response to Final Solicitation Issued February 13, 2017

No. Solicitation Reference

(Section and Page #)

Vendor Question Government Response

1 Section B.2 Definitions, DOT does not allow the airlines to use the term “Fuel

Surcharge” however this term is used in the solicitation. We use different language to comply with the DOT. Are we in any contractual difficulty if and when we make an adjustment for fuel and calling it, per your solicitation a price adjustment for fuel?

No, there would be no contractual difficulty if a carrier refers to a fuel surcharge as a price adjustment for fuel, as the contract clause that permits fuel surcharges is in fact an economic price adjustment. The RFP defines a fuel surcharge as “a fee for increased fuel costs that carriers have been authorized to impose on awarded fares based on commercial practice and other requirements specified under §C.11 Taxes, Fees, and

Fuel Surcharges.” All carriers seeking to assess a fuel surcharge against an awarded line item must ensure that the request fully complies with contract clause I-FBG-LS001 Economic Price Adjustment For Fuel

Surcharges - City Pair Program (CPP) (JAN 2016)

2 Section J.4, Attachment

4 – Group 1 Line Items

Last year, an estimation of Business Class passengers was provided. Will there be any such estimation for the FY 2018 Solicitation?

A spreadsheet titled “FY18 CPP Business Class Passenger Count 03-07-17” will be uploaded to FedBizOpps containing the estimated business class passenger counts for solicited line international items.

3 Section K.3 Customer

Service Point of Contact, Customer Service Point of Contact.

Does providing the company website URL meet the requirements of this section?

In accordance with the language stated in Section K.3, a carrier shall

“provide a point of contact to assist Government travelers with specific carrier issues (name, telephone number, email address and/or web site).” Therefore, providing a company website URL would meet the requirements of this section.

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4 Section K.7, Carriers

Under A Code Share

Agreement, Code-share is in IATA Bilateral Interline E-ticketing

Agreements Table (BIETA)

Since IATA is International and as far as we know not domestic, what do we put in for the domestic code shares? Or are they also covered under the IATA

Agreement?

What goes into the first table, all code-share partners or only those we will use to provide service to the government for this solicitation?

In the IATA BIETA table it is our understanding that the domestic code shares would also be included in that table as inclusion in the BIETA. The way they’ve listed code shares in the past is certainly fine.

For the table, offerors shall list all airlines providing service over any portion of a line item under a code-sharing arrangement relative to its offer.

5 K7 Carriers Under A

Code Sharing

Agreement, Page 71

The fourth column from the left states: DOD Approved or Undergoing Approval Process?

Does this apply to Foreign Code Share Partners? Our interpretation is that the column should allow an N/S since this does not apply to those carriers. Is that correct?

No, DOD approval does not apply to foreign code-share partners. In accordance with 32 CFR 861.4, DOD Air Transportation Quality and Safety

Requirements, DOD approval is required for all offerors and their U.S. air carrier code-share partners proposed for service on offered line items.

Conversely, in accordance with 32 CFR 861.6(b), foreign air carriers performing any portion of a route awarded to a U.S. air carrier under this solicitation pursuant to a code-sharing agreement with that U.S. air carrier, are generally not subject to DOD survey and approval under

Sections 861.4 and 861.5.

6 N/A The group 1 deadline falls quite a bit earlier this year than last year. I believe the group 1 markets were due the first week of April last year. Why was it moved up this year?

The City Pair Team has noticed some significant savings by pushing the award date earlier, so in an effort to operate more efficiently, the City

Pair Team decided it would be prudent to push the dates up.

7 N/A Can you clarify when the submission date is for Group

1?

Amendment 0003 will be issued extending the due date for submission of Group 1 offers to Tuesday, March 14, 2017 at 4:30 PM ET and

Monday, April 3, 2017 at 4:30 PM ET for Group 2 offers.

8 N/A In the upload file, there is a column for “Market Fare”.

What do we need to put in this column?

As defined in the RFP, a market fare is “the lowest logical fully refundable air fare with no restrictions or capacity controls. The market fare shall be

Page | 3 used as the fare from which discounts are offered for the YCA/_CA fares.

The codes for the market fare may vary by carrier and can be identified, for example, as Y2, Y26, YBV and/or B.”

9 N/A Should connect points for international markets be airport codes or metro city codes?

Connect points for international markets should be listed as Airport

Codes

10 N/A How should offerors respond to Amendment 0002? Using the offerors’ existing COPS Group 1 offer spreadsheet, offerors should cut the six (6) line items deleted from Section J.4, Attachment 4 –

Group 1 and Extended Line Items, Tab 2 – Group 1 International Line

Items, and paste them into the bottom of Tab 4 – Group 1 International

Extended Connection Line Items of the same spreadsheet. Offerors should then re-number the six line items as indicated below and insert their desired offer.

Item Origin Destination Item Origin Destination

2743 HNL OKA 4856 HNL OKA

2910 NYC LFW 4857 NYC LFW

3040 WAS ASB 4858 WAS ASB

3098 WAS MCT 4859 WAS MCT

3108 WAS MPM 4860 WAS MPM

3123 WAS PRN 4861 WAS PRN

For the remaining 27 line items, offerors should download the latest version of the Group 1 offer spreadsheet from COPS and copy those 27 line items from Tab 4 – Group 1 International Extended Connection Line

Items and paste them into Tab 4 – Group 1 International Extended

Connection Line Items of the existing COPS Group 1 offer spreadsheet they are using and then insert their desired offer

11. A question came up today regarding the code share list where if we do not utilize a particular partner for all the city pairs we must list those city pairs where we

In accordance with Section C.16 Carriers Under a Code-Sharing or Other

Arrangement, offerors “shall list in §K.7 Carriers Under A Code-Sharing

Arrangement, all airlines providing service over any portion of a line item

Page | 4 are using that partner. We have [word removed] where we could use them on all Trans-Atlantic flights which might be several hundred city pairs. Listing them seems to be a rather large task that can be eliminated by just noting that we will use them for

Trans-Atlantic only. Given that this code share list is sent to all the government agencies, TMCs and is on your website it seems that this is the most practical way to identify our code shares with [word removed].

under a code-sharing arrangement relative to this offer.” Therefore, for international line items, the offeror shall list in §K.7 all proposed code-share partners on a line item-by-line item basis. If a code-share partner is offered and no specific line item is identified, the offeror shall make available all service on the offered code-share partner(s) in all awarded line items where the code-share exists.