Fly America Act [UuA on BA metal, AA code]

Old Jan 23, 2020, 8:32 am
  #16  
 
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Originally Posted by mctaste
seems logical that if you are suckling on the teat of the taxpayer, you should utilize domestic companies wherever possible.
Reminds me of this from parks and Rec.

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Old Jan 23, 2020, 9:35 am
  #17  
 
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Originally Posted by mctaste
seems logical that if you are suckling on the teat of the taxpayer, you should utilize domestic companies wherever possible.
... not that those business/first pax of multi-national companies have their tickets paid for out of thin air - everyone pays for them too through the products and services we buy from them!

Anyway, there is some logic to the Fly America Act, although it has 'evolved' over time. However, for federal workers, the tickets are usually government rates, which while are cheaper than full-fare economy, are usually 2-3x what most people would pay. In addition, non-economy travel is frowned upon since the workers should not be seen to be travelling anything other than economy (senators and congress'men' notwithstanding of course!). Discrete UuA's are advisable!
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Old Jan 23, 2020, 10:54 am
  #18  
 
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The trouble is many corporate TAs in the US don't get that the Open Skies agreement means you can use BA (and will be able to after Brexit). They play safe and book US carriers. It sometimes needs a little nudge. The agents get the contracts after promising that any flights they book that are non-compliant will be billed back to them. I feel for the OP.. I've had years of this working for US Govt contractors and a pile of dopey corporate TAs.. One gig, in Turkey, they wanted me to fly from London to JFK, then back to Turkey on a direct flight with United, claiming this was the only compliant route! To avoid the nonsense, I just bought a ticket myself and flew direct.

Many new US Govt contracts now have 'Fly Global'.. you can book what you like.
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Old Jan 23, 2020, 1:59 pm
  #19  
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A number of posts which were either more suited to OMNI/PR or contained breaches of rule 12 because they contained a personal attack have been removed, and the thread is now open for posting again.

The OP has asked a question - please concentrate on answering that rather than trying to score points off each other. The BA forum is not the place for political discussions, and any further posts containing overly political statements will be removed.

/mod
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Old Jan 23, 2020, 3:27 pm
  #20  
 
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Originally Posted by windowontheAside
On BA metal this should be fool proof (but other AAirlines are different). It's very common for the original class TPs to post initially and you have to request the additional ones. Did you follow it up?
Ignore me. Read AUP as UUA in the original post, sorry.
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Old Jan 23, 2020, 5:20 pm
  #21  
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Originally Posted by midvid
dopey corporate TAs.
I’m glad I’m not the only one who has this experience. I booked a fare yesterday from an unnamed airport in South Georgia to INV. Changing in MIA and LHR. Somehow when it was ticketed the first sector ended in Charlotte instead of MIA. The flight departs my origin at 1 minute after the MIA flight!

so that left me with 1hr 14 minutes to get from CLT to MIA, when my origin airport is half way in between those two.

Rang up our internal TA, and they didn’t see the issue!!
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Old Jan 23, 2020, 9:50 pm
  #22  
 
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Originally Posted by alextheengineer
an unnamed airport in South Georgia
South Georgia, or south Georgia?
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Old Jan 24, 2020, 2:53 pm
  #23  
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Originally Posted by Mixbury
South Georgia, or south Georgia?
south Georgia, but typed on an iPhone which autocorrects it for some reason.
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Old Jan 21, 2022, 11:58 am
  #24  
 
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Originally Posted by warakorn
Will the UK be still a part of the EU Air Treaty after Brexit?
...after a long pause... No.
Another Brexit benefit (not).I emailed gsa.gov to seek clarification over the new 'arrangements' (see below), and while the UK government lauded a new open skies agreement, it misses out the bit that allows the foreign carrier to carry pax on a equal footing as any US carriers - i.e. it just allows BA to operate over US airspace.

################################################## ##################################

I am seeking clarification regarding the Fly America Act, and in particular the provisions made under the OpenSkies Agreement.

On your website, https://www.gsa.gov/policy-regulations/policy/travel-management-policy/fly-america-act (accessed 17-Jan-2022), it states that:

“Note: As of January 1, 2021, The United Kingdom (U.K.) is no longer a member of the EU. Consequently, the Open Skies Agreement with the EU does not pertain to the U.K. Travelers must use a U.S. Flag Carrier to travel from the U.S. to the U.K. and not a U.K. airline (e.g., British Airways), unless they use a different Fly America Act exception. Travelers may continue to use an EU agreement for travel from the U.S. to the U.K. as long as the flight stops in the EU prior to arrival in the U.S. or the U.K.”

However, while the EU Open Skies Agreement no longer applies specifically to the UK, a new US-UK agreement was signed in November 2020, as noted here: https://www.state.gov/u-s-uk-air-transport-agreement-of-november-2020/ (accessed 17-Jan-2022).

In particular, it is noted on https://www.transportation.gov/briefing-room/united-states-and-united-kingdom-sign-new-open-skies-agreement (accessed 17-Jan-2022), that the agreement was concluded in November 2018 to safeguard transatlantic flights post-Brexit and allow for the development of new air services. It was signed by the US and UK in November 2020 and applies from Jan. 1, 2021. The US DOT noted that:

The agreement meets all the criteria of the US open-skies policy and provides for new, additional traffic rights for US all-cargo operations to and from the United Kingdom. The agreement also includes the UK overseas territories and crown dependencies, expanding and modernizing our air transport relationship with those regions.

################################################## ####################################
The response was:
The UK open skies agreement does not have the provision "Government procured transportation" like the other three have.

In practice, such "U.S. Government Procured Transportation" provisions are used to grant additional rights to carriers that might not otherwise be granted. For example, the current "U.S. Government Procured Transportation" provision in the US-EU open skies agreement permits EU airlines 1) the right to transport civilian agency-funded passengers who are NOT eligible to travel on a CPP contract fare (for example, contractor personnel), between a point in the United States and a point outside the United States even if there is a CPP contract fare in effect between the origin and destination points; and 2) the right to transport passengers who ARE eligible to travel on CPP fares (for example, U.S. Government employees), between any point in the United States and any point outside the United States for which there is NOT a CPP fare in effect. These additional rights granted to EU airlines, which are foreign air carriers, act as an authorized exception to the Fly America Act (49 U.S.C. 40118).

UK is just like the other 120 All open skies agreements with the U.S. -- controls who can fly in the U.S. airspace.
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