Back when I used to get Govt tickets, I would ask for paper tickets and if I didn't get my preferred airline, TWA at that time, I would take them over to the TWA office and they would gladly trade them in for TWA tickets at no charge to me.

Then when the regs were changed so that contractors traveling on invitational travel orders did not get the govt. rate for airfare, we stopped getting ITO's.

The reason I mention this is that you can still request paper tickets and can still trade them in for tickets on another airline, although now there are fewer non-airport ticket offices so its not as convenient.

Curious ... how long ago was that?

As far as I know, I'm stuck with e-tickets.

If I could change them, it wouldn't be a big deal as I live just a few minutes away from the airport.

Another downside is that the tickets aren't ticketed until 3 days before date of travel.

The upgrade will only give you a cushier seat since its not paid business, but an upgrade. On UA, its the difference between NC (upgrade) and Z,D,C paid business. Your BP would show NC

It was 1995-1999 with Carlson Wagenlit. I know some govt. agencies used SATO Travel but all my ITO's were through Carlson. They had a little machine on site at the govt facility that printed their own tickets.

The 3 day thing is a problem now for my friends who are 'elite' of some sort because it is inside the 100 hour upgrade window.

It will cost a few $, but you can do it...
 

If you go to the carrier who issued your e-ticket and ask them to print you flight coupons instead (and probably pay their $10 fee), you can then walk the flight coupons over to whichever airline will agree to accept them. DL is generally very good about online transferring YCA fares, but they usually turn into LDG or UDG fares on DL...

Coupla thoughts...
 

I fly on mostly government fares as well so I figure I'll throw my $.02 in.

I'm pretty sure that taking a paper ticket and exchanging it for a ticket on another airline breaks a slew of Gov't rules. The GSA City-Pair program is generally pretty mandatory unless you can prove a cost savings. Otherwise, you're breaking the contract that GSA has with the airline in question. I'm not a travel expert, so YMMV.

However, one legal way you can go about getting your preferred airline is to try to piece cheaper fares together using multiple city-pairs. For example, say the contracted ticket price for SLC-ORD is $500 on UA. The ticket price for SLC-LGA might be $200 on DL and the price for LGA-ORD might be $200 on DL. You can legally set up your ticket to go SLC-LGA-ORD and pay only $400, thus getting a different airline and justifying it with the lower cost. All these numbers and routings are hypothetical, but this technique is valid on certain routes and is legal in accordance with GSA rules.

One other thing that I've noticed is that while many of the promotions claim to exclude government fares, it seems like they usually don't actually enforce the rule. This is just my experience, though, again YMMV.

-WT

You don't need a paper ticket to swap airlines; an e-ticket will do. Other carriers often match the gov't contract carrier fares but there may be other fees involved in swapping your ticket with regard to taxes. For example, one airline may charge the fuel surcharge to government tickets but another airline may not. Also, if your original ticket was nonstop and you swap out your ticket and the new ticket is not nonstop then you have extra PFCs.

Very interesting. I'll keep that one in mind.

Sale fares can be better...
 

I also work for a government agency (state)...I find that often both with airlines and hotels, sale fares and web fares are better than what the gov't rates are.

I rarely travel on business anymore 'tho, since our state gov't has really, really, really clapped down on out-of-state travel.

Yeah, airline prices were generally better, but the nice thing about the govie fares is that I could play around with the schedule a lot without a penalty. It was nice that if I felt like sleeping in on the last day, I could just call the airline the night before and ask for a later flight. Refundable/changeable tickets are cheaper on our contract at least.

Hotels generally gave me better government rates than they're best available. Granted, my experience is limited to Hilton chains, but I've been quite pleased with their hotels.