Originally Posted by
Jerichohill
As a fellow fed who also flies full fare of our DC airports (per our policy to have fully refundable tickets), you should be aware of "optics" about upgrading and seriously consider whether you'd be known as a gov't official on the flight and (You can thank the GSA and SS right now for mucking perception of federal employees further up).
You must be working for a pretty rich federal agency, because in my agency, we no longer fly on fully refundable Y fares unless we are very sure there will be no changes. Our booking engine defaults to the cheapest penalty fare available, and if we don't take it, we better be able to justify it.
That said, when we were flying refundable tickets, I upgraded without shame.
