Frequent Traveler Benefits
he ancient Latin poet Ovid took a balanced view of the rigors of travel: "The country, your companions and the length of your journey will afford a hundred compensations for your toil," he wrote in Remediorum Amoris.
Of course, that was before airlines invented frequent flier programs. Now, the way many business travelers see it, there's only one compensation for the hours they spend on the road, and that's free airline tickets they can get for personal travel by redeeming points earned on business trips.
Federal statute, however, prohibits government employees from boarding this gravy train. Clause 41 CFR 301-1.103 of GSA's Federal Travel Regulation states: "Frequent traveler benefits earned in connection with official travel, such as mileage credits, points, etc., may be used only for official travel. Employees may not retain and use such benefits for personal travel."
In the federal sector, bitterness prevails. Government Executive receives more mail alleging the unfairness of Clause 41 than on any other travel topic. Many federal employees feel that if they take the initiative to join a frequent flier program and jump through the hoops to turn their points into a ticket, they have earned the ticket, even if public funds paid for the points. Others argue that federal contractors and congressional employees get to keep frequent flier miles earned on official business so federal employees should too. (These feds might be consoled by the fact that state and local government employees are not allowed to keep frequent traveler benefits earned in connection with official travel.)
Some federal travelers feel so strongly that frequent flier benefits are rightfully theirs they protest the law by refusing to participate in frequent traveler programs that could generate free airline tickets, rooms and rental cars for their agencies. (Agencies cannot force employees to join frequent traveler benefit programs.) Or they break the law and use benefits earned on official travel for personal travel.
The government has no mechanisms to police misuse of miles except random audits and colleagues snitching on one another. "We rely on the personal integrity of the employees" to declare miles earned on official travel, admits Allan Bishop, chief of travel and regulations at the State Department.
Federal regulators may be even more frustrated with frequent flier programs than federal employees since airlines have repeatedly stonewalled their attempts to negotiate better management of the programs. For example, airline companies have flatly refused the government's suggestion that they exclude federal travelers from frequent flier programs and give the government lower fares instead. Neither will they allow agencies to pool miles. "Airlines built these incentive systems to benefit themselves," observes a GSA official.
Staying Out of Trouble
In the current budget climate, not using or misusing frequent traveler benefits are angry responses to an unpopular federal law. With travel budgets stretched to the limit in some offices, a free airline ticket or hotel room might allow a division to send an employee it might otherwise not have been able to send to a conference or a field office.
Still, the programs aren't for everyone. Since airlines won't let agency employees pool miles to qualify a colleague for a free ticket, only employees who travel enough to earn tickets themselves should bother to join. How much is enough? The Veterans Affairs Department encourages employees who travel an average of once a month to sign up. It is possible, however, for agencies to negotiate with airlines to allow employees who earn free tickets to transfer these tickets to other agency employees.
Myths about frequent traveler points abound in federal offices, and some confused employees figure the only sure way to stay out of trouble is to avoid benefits programs. A recent inspector general ruling (B-270423), for example, inspired rumors that federal employees could keep frequent traveler benefits if the business travel services were purchased with a personal credit card. This is not true. The IG ruled that when employees on official travel charge lodging or rental car expenses on personal affinity credit cards-cards that award the cardholder frequent traveler points for each dollar charged on the card, regardless of what is purchased-some points can be used for personal travel. Points awarded based on aggregate amounts charged on the card while on official travel (50 points for staying in a $50 hotel room, for instance) are for personal use; points awarded for patronizing a particular airline, hotel or rental car agency while on official travel (say, 2,500 points for traveling 2,500 miles) are for government use.
Still, federal employees don't have to decipher the federal travel policy alone. Agency travel policy offices can debunk myths and explain the agency's interpretation of federal travel regulations.
Other employees are reluctant to join frequent traveler programs because they bring added responsibilities. The onus is on travelers to find out about and join programs. Some won't let people maintain separate business and personal travel accounts, so the traveler must keep track of which miles came from which trips. Strict accounting is important because a free ticket earned by combining points belongs to the government.
To qualify for free tickets or other benefits, travelers usually have to apply for a bonus certificate from the travel vendor, so it may take more time than usual to arrange trips. Often, free airline tickets can't be changed, and benefits may be subject to blackout periods.
Employees have to weigh the hassles against the benefits. "I remember one guy," says an official at the Agriculture Department, "who told me, 'this isn't worth it. You're doing it just as a favor to the government.' I said, 'it saves taxpayer dollars and that's ours in the end.' "
There are other advantages, too. Belonging to a frequent flier program may earn travelers memberships to executive clubs at airports. In some circumstances, with a supervisor's approval, travelers can use miles to upgrade their airline tickets.
Travelers who work at GSA or at the Justice or Education departments can even earn cash rewards for participating in frequent traveler benefit programs. These agencies started gain-sharing travel programs, allowed by the 1954 Government Employees Incentive Awards Act, in 1995. "We wanted to reward employees for saving taxpayer dollars," says Dennis Fischer, GSA's chief financial officer.
GSA will award employees 50 percent of the contract airfare saved when they use frequent flier benefits to obtain "free" coach class airline tickets. GSA also awards employees for minimizing lodging expenses. If a traveler spends less than the per diem for lodging by staying at a budget hotel, sharing a room with a colleague, staying with a relative or even sleeping on a park bench, GSA will split the savings with the employee 50-50. Employees who save at least $200 for the agency are eligible for cash awards at the end of the fiscal year.
Fischer says the gain-sharing program is not burdensome to administer because "as the agency's CFO, all I'm concerned with is that your action as an employee has saved the government money. . . . I really don't care from whence [the savings] came."
The Justice Department program works a little differently. It gives supervisors the discretionary authority to grant incentive awards of up to 50 percent of the agency funds saved through use of frequent flier programs or minimizing lodging costs. The department chose to make the awards discretionary because officials wanted to be able to check that employees weren't making travel decisions in order to maximize frequent traveler points for personal financial gain. (The law prohibits federal employees from making decisions in the performance of their duties that create financial conflict of interest.) By making the awards discretionary, supervisors can also share the awards with support staff. Often, frequent travelers' administrative assistants are really the ones responsible for saving the government money as they complete the paperwork and remind ticket agents of their bosses' participation in frequent traveler programs.
Reaction to GSA's gain-sharing travel savings program has been positive, Fischer reports. Managers like it because the money their travelers save remains in the office's travel budget. Employees see the cash rewards as adequate compensation for the hassles of belonging to frequent traveler programs. In 1995, the program's start-up year, 150 people participated in GSA's gain-sharing program. GSA awarded $60,000 to these employees and still realized $60,000 in savings for the agency. GSA estimates half the savings came from lodging and half came from the use of free airline tickets.
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