Originally Posted by
Wexflyer
SPG offers both government and educational (EDU) special rates. I have a question about the intersection of these two rates, i.e. what about employees of a state university? We are state employees - the California State Constitution has a definition:
"Public officer and employee" includes every officer and employee
of the State, including the University of California, every county,
city, city and county, district, and authority, including any
department, division, bureau, board, commission, agency, or
instrumentality of any of the foregoing.
Because of this, I know that we qualify for state airfares. So, can we use either or both government and educational rates?
You would be considered a bit of both. You could select the Government rate, although it may be subject to various restrictions that are applied and enforced by each individual property. For example, they may offer the Government rate only to Federal employees on business travel. In other words, read the details of the rate to see if there are any requirements and/or exclusions.
Assuming you work for the UC System, each school in the UCS has their own corporate rate code, although most have appeared to provide the same rate (this was discussed and put to a test a few months back on another thread). However, per the UCS guidelines, this is for business travel only. Of course, that is rarely enforced and likely never audited.
Here's a good thread. Note the responses from SensFan and William/Lurker (the official response on Government rates for leisure travel).
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/starw...o-leisure.html