News

The local Florida chapters of the National Business Travel Association (NBTA) are pleased to announce an added membership benefit for 2010. A new Florida Membership option will allow members to be a part of all three Florida chapters at a reduced rate from joining them individually.

Effective January 2010, Allied (travel supplier) or Direct (travel manager) affiliates are welcome to enlist in the Florida Membership at any one of the Florida Chapters -- South Florida BTA, Tampa Bay BTA, and Central Florida BTA for a price of $225. A Florida Member will have access to member benefits, privileges and discounts of all three chapters and will have the ease of only having to process one membership application and pay annual dues at one time to one location.

Each chapter will create the new membership type on their individual website as an option for 2010, and a prospective member can register at any of the three chapters. The three chapters will enroll the Florida Member into their respective systems as they would an individual member.

For more information on each of the Florida Business Travel Association Chapters and membership options, please contact the membership chairs at any of the chapters.  Click here to Join!

South Florida BTA: www.fbta.org Mayra Milian 305-794-1246

Tampa BTA: www.tbbta.org Leanne Turton 813-286-4038

Central Florida BTA (covering Central and North Florida): www.centralfloridabta.org

Lissa Curtin 407-825-3132

This program was coordinated by the Florida Chapter Presidents and approved by all of the chapters’ boards.

South Florida BTA, Tampa Bay BTA and Central Florida BTA are chapters of the National Business Travel Association (NBTA). As the collective voice of the business travel industry throughout the state of Florida, the organizations support and represent our core constituents of corporate travel buyers and associated travel services by providing tools, information and networks required for effective business travel management.

ARE YOU READY FOR SOME GOLF???

NCBTA IS HOLDING ITS YEARLY GOLF TOURNAMENT AND SILENT AUCTION!!!

TANLGLEWOOD COUNTRY CLUB

WINSTON SALEM NC

THURSDAY OCTOBER 15

ALL GOLF REGISTRATIONS INCLUDE:

Green Fees

Carts

Beverage cart service throughout the golf tournament

Snack bags

Boxed Lunch

BBQ Dinner

Prizes for the 1^st, 2^nd,3^rd place teams

Prizes for closest to the hole and longest yardage

Entrance into our Silent Auction

Over 50 auction items, including airline tickets, hotel packages, rental cars,

Garmin GPS and much more!!!!

All of this for only $100/player!!!!!

REGISTER TODAY FOR INDIVIDUAL GOLF REGISTRATION

OR

REGISTER FOR FOURSOME

OR

REGISTER FOR DINNER/SILENT AUCTION ONLY

If you don’t play golf..come on out for our Silent Auction/BBQ Dinner

The beautiful and challenging Tanglewood Park and Country Club will be the site of this year’s annual NCBTA Golf Outing, scheduled for Thursday, October 15, 2009. Registration begins at 11:00am with a shotgun start at 12:00pm. A dinner and silent auction will follow the tournament beginning at 5:00pm.

---

As you may already know, in mid August NBTA announced its support for the implementation of passenger rights legislation, including a turn-back rule for passenger planes on the tarmac for three hours. This was a change in position for NBTA as the association had previously resisted calls to legislate airline customer service.

Thus NBTA has thrown its support behind the Snowe-Boxer language included in the Senate FAA bill, S1451, FAA Air Transportation Modernization and Safety Improvement Act.

My predecessor, Kevin Maguire, CCTE, GLP, said, "For years the business travel industry believed the airlines and the federal government would work together to fix the problems that led to excessive tarmac delays, but enough is enough. When we've got travelers stuck on planes sitting on the tarmac overnight, it's clear the problem has spun out of control, and legislation is the best solution. We need to hold the airlines to a 'bright-line' rule that respects the basic humanity of passengers by preventing airlines from keeping them captive, which is exactly what the Snowe-Boxer language will do."

I believe these delays and cancellations are a result of a much larger problem, the overburdened and antiquated Air Traffic Control (ATC) system. NBTA is fighting to see Congress adopt and pay for “NextGen” which will shepherd our ATC system into the 21^st Century. But until that happens, the traveler needs basic protections. I ask you as a part of the business travel community to be the voice of the travel industry and contact your Senators and Representative and ask request their support for the Snowe-Boxer language.

Warm regards,

Craig Banikowski, CCTE, C.P.M., CMM
NBTA President & CEO