Q: what is meant by "the best cost/efficiency ratio"?
Q: Where do I find the rule on lead times for ticket purchase?
Q: So what kind of ticket would I have to take under these new conditions?
Q: How about the guidelines for payment managers? When will they be published?
Q: Who would now need 250 days' work to be recognised as an experienced ACI?
Q: The Delegation said that the proposed change to the fare category in air-travel would not apply to EP travel to Strasbourg.  Why is there no reference to this in the text?
Q: There will be a meeting of the sector where colleagues will vote on these texts. Could it be organised to take place in two different locations, i.e. in Strasbourg during a plenary session and concurrently in Brussels so that colleagues can vote in person with the two results being added to get the total?
Q: If the sector meeting cannot be organised in two different locations, can it be held in Brussels on a Saturday so that colleagues from out-of-town can attend and vote in person?

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Q: what is meant by "the best cost/efficiency ratio"?

A: The expression "best cost/efficiency ratio" would replace the term "overall most economic" in the current text but, to all intents and purposes, means the same. The ACI determines the most direct route, except in cases of force majeure, and the total cost, i.e. the ticket cost + one or two flat-rate travel allowances + the daily allowance should not exceed the cost of a plane ticket for a journey of over 300km. For calculation purposes, start with the gross daily fee of €506,01 and add €95,29 (pension contribution, sickness and accident insurance, repatriation insurance) giving €601,30 per day. One flat-rate travel allowance therefore costs the Institution €300,65.

Q: Where do I find the rule on lead times for ticket purchase?

A: There are no lead times.

Q: So what kind of ticket would I have to take under these new conditions?

A: The general rule is an IATA semi-flexible ticket, i.e. one that is refundable and changeable on payment of penalties ( a penalty for changing the flight, for instance).

Such tickets would be reimbursed AUTOMATICALLY.

This rule means that the Payment Manager would not be entitled to question the semi-flexible ticket submitted by the ACI, claiming that different fares were available for the same flight, or for a flight at a different time, from a different airport or with a different airline.

If the semi-flexible does not exist the ACI is authorised to take a ticket in the higher fare category and will be reimbursed AUTOMATICALLY.

This higher category fare will also be reimbursed AUTOMATICALLY if the semi-flexible fare is no longer available for the following reasons:

1. short-term recruitment
2. change in contract and/or assignment (days added or removed, reassignment to a different Institution, change in place of assignment)
3. change to programme and flight at the request of or with the authorisation of the administration (applicable inter alia to missions where the meeting ends earlier than scheduled, or the delegate leaves early etc.)

In all cases other than those in a), b) and c) above, the higher category fare will be reimbursed on presentation of useful supporting evidence justifying the change in category. The semi-flexible fare may also no longer be available because of large-scale events at the place of assignment: medical congresses, sporting events, trade fairs etc.

Q: How about the guidelines for payment managers? When will they be published?

A: These guidelines would be an internal administration document, though your Delegation would be consulted on the drafting.

Q: Who would now need 250 days' work to be recognised as an experienced ACI?

A: Anyone accredited as an ACI after the entry into force of the Agreement.

Q: The Delegation said that the proposed change to the fare category in air-travel would not apply to EP travel to Strasbourg. Why is there no reference to this in the text?

A: At the end of the technical working group's work, though previously on record as excluding Strasbourg from the scope, the EP delegation said that, for political reasons, it could not agree to its Institution being made conspicuous in the texts.

Q: There will be a meeting of the sector where colleagues will vote on these texts. Could it be organised to take place in two different locations, i.e. in Strasbourg during a plenary session and concurrently in Brussels so that colleagues can vote in person with the two results being added to get the total?

A: The sector meeting is the forum where ACI, present or represented, exercise their democratic rights, which is why the AIIC Council deliberates only after the sector meeting and on the basis of its outcome. If the sector meeting were split between two locations, ACI attending in either place would not be taking part in the same debate, hearing the same questions and the same replies. The outcome of the vote could be different, and could well be contested. The premise on which all AIIC's rules are based is a single meeting in one location.

Q: If the sector meeting cannot be organised in two different locations, can it be held in Brussels on a Saturday so that colleagues from out-of-town can attend and vote in person?

A: For thirty years and more, sector meetings have always been held in Brussels, preferably on a Tuesday evening.  There is a reason for this. On a Tuesday more non-local colleagues are likely to be in Brussels anyway than on a Saturday. Holding the meeting on a Saturday would mean more colleagues, locals and non-locals, would be unable to attend, because of private and family commitments, and for financial reasons. In any event, nobody is disenfranchised, as votes may be cast by proxy. That is what proxies are for.