Originally Posted by maxheadway
That situation was heavily debated by the bureaucrats in DC. On the one hand, you don't want government employees benefiting from frequent flyer programs when the taxpayer is the ultimate source of payment.
On the other hand, the Federal Government is the single largest purchaser of airline tickets in the U.S. And probably the world. That spending power creates a certain level of stability in the airline industry. Plus the Federal Government played an important role in helping airlines recover after 9/11. Does it make sense to let all those frequent flyer miles go unused and completely wasted? Ultimately, the decision was to allow employees to retain their miles. Overall, I think that decision was a good one, because it encourages people to help out the economy by traveling, which generates more spending and more tax dollars in the long run.
Not exactly correct. This was NOT the action of "bureaucrats" in the Executive Branch. It was CONGRESS itself that authorized Federal employees to keep and use frequent flier miles earned on government travel, under an amendment included in the fiscal 2002 Defense Authorization bill, which passed in December 2001. Sens. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., and John Warner, R-Va., added the amendment, arguing that allowing Federal workers to keep their frequent flier miles would help federal retention and recruitment efforts. The law allows civil service, military, and Foreign Service employees to use frequent flier miles obtained on government travel for personal use. The benefit was made retroactive, allowing Federal employees to use miles earned prior to the bill's enactment.
Previously, Federal employees were not allowed to use their frequent flier miles because of the 1994 Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act (Public Law 103-355), which prohibited Federal employees from accepting promotional items they received while traveling at government expense. The miles simply were lost because the government could not have its own FF account.
Congress has always been able to use frequent flyer benefits -- even while they banned other Federal employees from doing so between 1994 and 2001. They were criticized in the press for not practicing what they preached until they changed the law to give the same benefits to all Federal workers.