My son is flying in to SEA on a MAG flight from Japan on the 20th Feb. (Been gone a year and mama is anxious to see him.) But for whatever reason, the government would only give him a ticket to his next duty station even though he has a 30 day leave & it would have been more cost effective to fly him to GSO (45 minute drive for mama) rather than ORF (Norfolk) (a 4 hour drive for mama). Anyway, I must deal with what is.
Here is his flight schedule on US: Class Y
Depart SEA 12:45pm Feb 20
Arrive PHL 8:45pm Feb 20
Depart PHL 9:40P Feb 20
Arrive ORF 10:40p Feb 20
I've called US to try to get a change, they need $202.00 plus Government Travel Request (that option is slim) or $597.00 w/o GTR. I've searched all the sites on the web that I am familiar with trying to get a lower fare and haven't seen one, not enough advance notice.
Do any of you more experienced ff'ers have any suggestions or ideas on how we can get him closer to home at a lower rate? CLT, GSO,RDU,Roanoke are much closer than ORF.
Can miles from different accounts on same airline be combined for an award ticket?
One last thing, I MUST know his schedule before he departs SEA at 12:45 as I will be leaving for Norfolk soon after his flight departs, since it will be 3:45pm on the east coast & it's a 4-4 1/2 hour drive.
All help much appreciated!

Anz,
Currently I am a senior NCO in the Navy and this is my experience from being in the Navy. Marines may be different, I am not sure. Your son can request to fly into any airport that is cheaper or pay a difference. For example, If he wants a stop at gso and then go into norfolk, he will have to pay the difference if their is one. If he wants to just fly into GSO and have mama drive him up to Norfolk, he should be able to do that without an added charge as long as it is cheaper. From what I have encountered, junior personnel do not know the requirements, nor are they advised that this is an option. I would have your son inquire about these two options ans see what can be done. Another option would be to see what a roundtrip tricket would cost from GSO to ORF and just use the one portion if he can get into GSO or turn around and use both portions if he has no other option but to fly into ORF. Realize there is another airport with pretty cheap flights in Newport News, VA, about 15 miles from Norfolk

There's no problem getting to Norfolk at the end of his leave. He will be driving his personal car.
My son & the gunny sarg tried to get his flight into GSO (cheaper) w/out any luck. Don't know if the clerk that handled his flight arrangement was green or what. Maybe he should try calling SATO travel on base one more time but since his ticket has been issued I doubt they will reissue. Thanks for your input.

E me privately and you may be able to get him home at no additional cost.

I went thru this last year when our son was flown home from a USAF base in PHX. Even though I clearly had found a MUCH cheaper fare - published fares - on a different airline to GSO, the airforce said that SATO had "private agreements" with the airlines for specific rates and that they were limited to those. The weird part was that he was being transferred to Shaw AFB about 45 minutes from Columbia, SC.. but they didn't fly him into Columbia - they flew him into Raleigh, NC because the rate difference between Columbia and Raleigh exceeded some magic number that justified flying him into Raleigh - over three hours by car from his duty station. They would have put him on a bus at that point, but we picked him up - also a 3 hr drive for us - for his leave.

I told him that if he had said he was driving from PHX to Shaw, he would have gotten mileage reimbursement which would have been more than enough to buy a ticket home. I played that game many times in the Marines. But it's hard to say you're driving from overseas, isn't it

I hope someone can pull a rabbit out of the hat for you - all I can say is that if you're looking for logic in military travel, you'll have a long search!

There IS no logic where the government is concerned. Am I correct? On 2nd thought, let's not open that can of worms.

Anz5708,

Strongly recommend you do what "tvl4free" recommended about 3 posts up.

crankyusi, we're in touch.

crankyusi, we're in touch.

There is actually method to their madness. The government makes large contracts with the airlines for city-pair rates. These rates are privately negotiated and have no relation to the published rates you may find. The rates are the same every day of the year, are fully changeable and refundable, and can be used only by govt employees under orders. The object of the government is to get the best overall cost from the airlines for their entire travel budget, i.e. we have to move 900,000 people around the U.S. this year, what is the total cost going to be. In order to acomplish this, they contract with the airlines who bid with the understanding that all official travel will be done using these rates. The end result is that some city pairs have very low rates (for example any rate to Pensacola, FL which is a training command with a lot of transient personnel), and other cities have very high rates. Even though the government may pay more then the currently published fare (although this usually isn't the case if you look at a compareable fully refundable ticket) for a given ticket, they more then make up for it by paying much less then any published fare to those cities that receive the most government travelers. Why don't they cheat and use the published fares when they are lower? If they did, the airlines would cancel their contracts and not give them the good deals on the most traveled routes, thus increasing the total cost to the govt for travel. I know you like to think of all government employees as being idiots, but there are a few of us that are spending your taxpayer dollars wisely even if you don't know it.

Another last-ditch approach is to take the ticket and see if he can get on another flight. Although govt. tickets are sold at a "discount" they are printed with a "Y" code. It has been my experience that the airline personel do not realize that it isn't a full fare ticket, and will sometimes just take the ticket for another flight (e.g. a more direct flight, to another city, on another airline even.....) Strange but true. So, if all else fails, on the day of travel he might want to get to the airport a little early and check if he can get on a more favorable flight.

WRONG!

I must vigorously disagree. Let's pretend that the government has no business being in the travel business. Regardless of the caliber of people, or the goodness of their intentions, the government will never provide the taxpayer the best value for their tax dollars when scheduling/purchasing commercial travel.

My experience with SATO, and other travel agencies on base, is that they are ill-informed, and ill-equipped to do their job.

The cost of supporting the infrastructure is absurd. The government needs to accept the fact that I can be trusted to find the best fare when I travel and that we live in a point-and-click world. The idea of even picking up a phone and calling a government agency is a waste of my time. Then, faxing your orders, and walking over to pick up tickets because they claim you can't ticket electronically, even though the same agency booked electronic tickets for the same route, on the same airline, 30 days prior.

Then there is the travel accounting nightmare and the accompanying infrastructure to support that. The paperwork blizzard required to get reimbursed is just nuts.

I have consistently demonstrated that I can beat government rates, if I can book 30 days in advance. This is usually possible. No quadruple copies of orders, no telephone time, no faxes, no time on hold. Just point, click, pay, print the itinerary and confirmation number.

Just for reference, I fly with the Air Force Reserve. I came on active duty in 1976. The Air Force puts bombs on target. That is their mission; they are good at it. Just as you would not call your travel agent to bomb an Iraqi radar site, why would you call the Air Force (or any other branch of the service or government) to make travel arrangements?

Puh-lease!



[This message has been edited by FlyAAway (edited 02-21-2001).]

Actually, the Gov't does quite well with the negotiated rates - they are treated as full Y fares because thats what they are - at least as far as the airlines/gov't are concerned...

Your right the reimbursement paperwork is a mess... however that 30 day tickey you buy is nonrefundable/changeable... I travel for the gov for work a great deal, and have to maintain flexibility in my plans... if I need to change a day here or there the "city pair" ticket I have allows it... the full fare ticket that I sometimes have to (non contract rate)allows it too...

The real problem can be the room rate allowance.... especially in high cost areas.

Doomed to Coach