Originally Posted by
l'etoile
Edited to add: Just saw this addressed above. If you do not travel on orders are you really entitled to government rates? All employees of the fed agency I'm familiar with have orders, and many of those are very broad (covering full year at a time and any location). They may also pay with their own cc and be reimbursed, as also noted above.
I'm surprised DOD badges still have SSNs on them. FAA took them off long ago after much identity theft.
Yes, you are entitled to government rates if you are a federal government employee, whether or not you have travel orders. I have travel orders, but in my agency, our travel orders are kept on file in a central location, which I do not have easy access to. I know of zero of our agency's employees who carry travel orders with them.
Government rates may be higher or lower than regular or promotional rates. Depends on the city and day of the week. For example, in DC during the week the government rate will be much better. But on the weekend, it's like you can do much better than the government rate.