Pentagon tightens oversight of flight reservations

The Defense Department will require its employees to receive supervisor approval 72 hours prior to the scheduled departure time for any work-related flight they have reserved, or else the reservation will automatically be canceled, the Pentagon has announced.

The change will take effect Oct. 1. It comes after airlines complained that many Defense employees make reservations but fail to follow through and obtain supervisor approval and ticket. This has led to unfilled seats, the airlines said.

“Airlines expressed to [the General Service Administration], as the program manager, that many of our government travelers were making reservations and were not canceling those reservations,” said Andrea Carlock, chief of Defense’s travel services branch. “Because of the lack of cancellations [for] those reservations, the airlines were losing money.”

Employees who book a flight within 72 hours of the departure time will have to get supervisor approval within 24 hours of making the reservation.