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Fed employees can now use miles.

Fed employees can now use miles.

Old Dec 18, 2001, 12:36 pm
  #1  
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Fed employees can now use miles.

As of last Thursday (12/13/01), we Fed pups can use miles at our discretion. I.e., even for personal use, not just for upgrades. See:

Http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/1201/121401t1.htm
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Old Dec 18, 2001, 1:00 pm
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Long overdue. It's about time.

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When all Frequent Flyer programs become equal, they will cease to exist! Be careful what you ask for!
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Old Dec 18, 2001, 1:24 pm
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Hmm...that air marshall job suddenly became very enticing...
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Old Dec 18, 2001, 1:30 pm
  #4  
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Good for you guys, is it retroactive, can you keep the miles you have hoarded all these years in hopes of this ruling?

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Butcher Bird:
As of last Thursday (12/13/01), we Fed pups can use miles at our discretion. I.e., even for personal use, not just for upgrades. See:

Http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/1201/121401t1.htm
</font>
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Old Dec 18, 2001, 5:11 pm
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Congratulations and thanks for letting us know of the "happy ending" with respect to our discussions earlier this year!
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Old Dec 18, 2001, 6:24 pm
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My old man (who is a civil servant) reports that there is discussion of taxing the miles as compensation. I'll see if I can find a link to verify this . . .
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Old Dec 18, 2001, 8:06 pm
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EastWest. Thank you for the input as to taxation. Do note that there have been attempts in this regard since day 1, though. There are dozens of threads related to this; with the general gist being that any attempts at taxation would prove too costly in relation to the revenue derived. In fact, taxation of FF miles would be a zoo.

Just my two cents (1.25 cents after tax) on this topic.
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Old Dec 18, 2001, 9:07 pm
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<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by eastwest:
My old man (who is a civil servant) reports that there is discussion of taxing the miles as compensation. I'll see if I can find a link to verify this . . .</font>
Do you mean taxing everyone's miles or just the govt employees? It seems that if they tax one, they have to tax all. My employer would have a cow! Trying to track this would be a pain. I sometimes combine personal travel with work. Sometimes it can be split out easily. Would we have to tax FC upgrades also?

Of course, it would probably be worth my time to track it if the alternate was no miles. Unless they put a high value on them. I think I agree that they probably won't do this. Let's all cross our fingers at once!
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Old Dec 19, 2001, 4:59 am
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It's about time they let you gov't guys use the miles. Lord knows..they don't pay you guys anything...that's the least they could do....bravo!!!!
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Old Dec 19, 2001, 6:05 am
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<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by TrojanHorse:
Good for you guys, is it retroactive, can you keep the miles you have hoarded all these years in hopes of this ruling?</font>
Yep. It's retroactive.
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Old Dec 19, 2001, 6:23 am
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This is great news for those of you who have sat in coach, earned hundreds of thousands of miles, and never been able to touch them!
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Old Dec 19, 2001, 11:15 am
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Current guidance seems to be:
<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">
Frequent Flyer Miles: The FY 02 Defense Authorization Act has been passed by Congress and is awaiting signature by the President. Section 1116 of the Act (Retention of Travel Promotional Items) will authorize federal employees (military and civilian) to retain for personal use promotional items (including frequent flyer miles, upgrades, or access to carrier clubs or facilities) accrued pursuant to official travel, provided: (1) the promotional items are obtained under the same terms as those offered to the general public and (2) they are obtained at no additional cost to the Government. Section 1116 will apply with respect to promotional items received before, on, or after the effective date of the Act, i.e., it is retroactive. Section 1116 provides agencies with the authority to prescribe implementing regulations.

DOD Standards of Conduct Office (SOCO) advises that the Per Diem Committee has already prepared proposed changes to the Joint Travel Regulations (JTR) and Joint Federal Travel Regulations (JFTR) to implement section 1116. However, until such time as the JTR/JFTR changes are put into effect, employees may continue to accrue miles but may not use the miles for personal use. DOD SOCO anticipates that the JTR/JFTR changes will be effective within two-three months.
</font>
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Old Dec 19, 2001, 1:34 pm
  #13  
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OK, bear with me. A few basic questions here.

Federal employees who earned FF miles couldn't use them, even for upgrading on official travel??

Since this is retroactive, I am assuming that some of you have many miles sitting in your accounts or have you (could you have?) given them away?

Is the number of federal employee miles now available for redemption significant enough to impact and FF programs in general (e.g. fewer upgrades, less award space)?

So how are you federal employees around here planning spending your miles?

Have fun.
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Old Dec 19, 2001, 2:04 pm
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We're allowed to accrue miles on gov't travel, but such miles can only be used for a gov't purpose (ie you can upgrade a gov't flight w/ gov't earned miles). I doubt the increase in demand for seats will be all that much. Lots of people didn't accrue the miles they could have; others don't fly enough on any one single airline to get an award (and unlike the when I was in private practice, people here don't request that our secretary book flights on a preferred airline); re taxation: i have a friend who's a tax attorney, who's told me that the IRS has kicked around taxing ff miles, but figures the extra tax they'd collect would be less than the costs of administration and enforcement, so it will probably never happen; were it to, the only time you'd get taxed is if when you travel for business, because then the individual is getting a benefit w/o paying for it (the co. is paying for the flight), and by being allowed to keep the miles it would be considered part of the employee's compensation, and thus subject to tax; of course, this means you wouldn't be taxed on miles you get for personal travel, so one begins to see why the IRS figures that this would be an admin hassle . .. tls
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Old Dec 22, 2001, 2:14 pm
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There have been a number of threads with respect to Govt miles over the years. Without going through every detail; the gist has been:

1-Most agencies have allowed employees to accrue miles; and to use them for upgrades when flying on govt travel only. I.e., no personal use at all. Some agencies, and I believe all branches of the military always said a flat-out "No" in the past to any form of usage and some even went so far as to say no accrual.

2-To my knowledge the bill has passed, and we can now use the miles. Quote from GovExec.com "Federal employees can use frequent flier miles earned on government travel, under an amendment included in the fiscal 2002 Defense Authorization bill, which passed Thursday afternoon."

3-I will say that Warren's post above makes me hesitate just a bit (good insight there, Warren). But, at our Christmas meeting/party gig; the floodgates were opened, at least for my agency.

4-Please do note that this has always been one of those "Don't ask, don't tell" issues for years. The vast majority of gubment folks just used their miles at will anyway. The only ones that ever got into hot water over the issue were the ones STUPID enough to openly discuss the issue.

Last note. A good number of my coworkers have 200-500k miles. Personally, the wife unit and I are headed to Scotland in first this summer. Yeehah! 'Twas worth saving all those miles all those years afterall.

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