Originally Posted by
chelmkamp
In the public sector, you can't ticket a flight or commence travel (which is an obligation of taxpayer dollars) until your travel authorization is completely approved by a transparent process established by your agency to determine that 1) the travel is authorized by Congress under federal law, and 2) the necessary funds have been appropriated by Congress for said purpose. But since nonrefundable fares often have an immediate or limited ticketing window, if you travel frequently or on rapidly changing schedules (as many of us do, in both private and public sector), it's simply not practical for the authorization process to play through before your ticketing must take place on the limited nonrefundable timeline.
I disagree. Our agency has been following the rules regard obtaining authorization prior to purchasing tickets, and our personnel have had no problem then securing nonrefundable tickets.
What some federal agencies want to do is continue wasting the taxpayers dollar by waiting until the last minute to purchase refundable YCA fares, when by a little prior planning, saving a little money. Unfortunately, far too many federal employees think their agency travel funds are "free money," and show little regard for the people paying taxes to support their mostly useless boondoggles to Las Vegas.....
Originally Posted by
roadkit
I am required by department policy to buy fully refundable Y fares, and never hesitate to apply miles or SWUs to upgrade.
Your agency is wasting taxpayer money. There is no GSA requirement to purchase fully refundable fares.