Best FF program for gov't workers
 

Hey all,

I'm currently in United's Milage Plus program. One thing I've been noticing recently is that on their promotions and offers, I always see, except government/military fares. As I do at least 50% of my travelling for work, and that's for the government, I'm not on the good end of the stick.

Of course, becoming a Premier member seems to not get me much except a shorter line and access to E+, which I get on most domestic fares anyway. It doesn't get me the cool upgrades, double miles, free tickets, etc. And most of the time, a lot of the "qualifying" fares that come with these promotions are often less than what I'm paying in my fares, yet I don't qualify.

So, are there any airlines that don't have these restrictions, or are at least restrictive, over not excluding government fares all the time?

I generally like United as a whole, but if there's an airline that will give me better perks and not be as discriminating, I'd like to know too.

Thanks,

Super

I would have to agree with you. I am generally satisfied with UA's service but see no reason to throw any extra business to UA due to its unfair treatment of government travelers.

AA had a number of promotions last year, including the AANYC, AABOS and Fly3,FlyFree promos which permitted qualification on government-fare tickets.

Another AA perk: Assuming you have elite status, you can buy 500 mile e-upgrade "stickers" for roughly 1/2 of what UA charges, and can use them to upgrade travel on government-fare tickets.

Good. This makes me at least feel I'm not nuts in thinking this way.

I'll probably make Premier this year do to a trip to Europe where UA is the contract carrier, and a trip to Hawaii because they offered a pretty good deal. Throw in Christmas travel later this year and I'll have it.

But as you said AA even gives credit for the govie fares. My trip to Europe in March is in H class, and is at least anywhere from $100 to $200 more expensive than the Q class that qualifies for double milage and also for the Fly Around the World promotion out of the DC airports.

One of the biggest reasons I wanted status this year was so that I could at least have a chance at getting a bump to first class, but that's not going to happen govie fares.

Another weird thing is that I still get the 1.5x bonus in EQM and EQS on the govie Y fares. That doesn't make sense if I'm ineligible for other promos.

The other thing is I'm sure that at least some of the larger private corporations have similar deals for contract fares, yet they can get the perks.

I've generally gone to conferences where UA has the contract fare to that city as a matter of trying gaining status and enjoying their service. If they're going to be descriminating, maybe I should too the next time I get funding to go to a conference.

Oh well, I can always get status this year, then match to someone else next year that will hopefully offer better incentives to fly with them.

Super

But I don't get it. When I flew on Government fares, the City Pairs I flew between had one airline assigned to it. Its not like I could choose AA/UA/DL for my flights as other corporate travelers could. I always think its best to concentrate on the Airline that you will fly the most. How can a government fare traveler "choose" the airline/frequent flyer program?

I work for the Feds and so far I make my on travel plans turn them in and get reinburst for them. I always try my perferred Airline first but most of the time I do the lowest. I use AA and NWA most of the time.

From the GSA website:

"Commercial airfares can be highly volatile, so an exception to the mandatory use requirement allows government travelers to take advantage of any low commercial fares offered by non-contract carriers, if the fares are also offered to the general public."

That's true ... to a point.

At least working in the Washington area, we have 3 airports to choose from. Between the DC area, and say, LAX, there are 3 fares and 3 different airlines could have the fares. There aren't that many cities that have a monopoly on all 3 pairs.

That said, with conferences, I can usually find one where my preferred alliance flies. That's how I can "choose."

Sounds like it varies by the agency. I'd love to have that luxury.

Do you have to have refundable fares, or can you use whatever's on Orbitz?

Policy for us seems to change all the time on this. One travel meeting I sat in on said we could buy a lower fare, but then we were responsible for any penalties, cancellations, etc. Which as I'm going to a conference, that wouldn't be an issue as unless I die, I'm going. Then I hear from travel I HAVE to use their methods of booking.

Unfortunately, I think in most cases I do a better job of arranging the hotels and car rentals than travel does. :rolleyes:

Interesting. I'm OT now, but did I get this right? The airline is more important than the conference?

No, but it's a factor.

Working in IT, there are tons of conferences to pick from. As I've only been to a couple so far, there's still a lot more to pick from.

And of course, if UA flies to that city, it helps tip it in its favor.

A lot of them are in San Fran or LA, so it's usually not that much of an issue.

Well, the gov't fares still count as Y fares for everything else, so you're pretty near the top of the list when it comes to upgrades (and they also cost the reduced full-fare mileage amounts for upgrades, even if they aren't comped).

I'm in the opposite position, I guess -- I would say that as a lower-tier elite, life is better on United than on most other carriers (due to E+), so I was pretty happy that our CA gov't fares were on UA (since that helped me toward requalification).

Now that they've changed our contracts to a different-airline-per-city-pair arrangement, I have to work harder to not wind up on Delta. sigh... You don't realize how good you've got it until it's gone -- I recently wound up going OAK->SLC->ABQ on RJ's instead of the UA mainline service and SW nonstops I used to enjoy.

Dan

I got busted recently by my department administrator-- I arranged my own travel (airfare was lower than the contract fare with UA) and went to do my job (fixing stuff). The day before I was supposed to return, the equipment broke again, and I had to delay my return by a few days. To change the NW ticket, I had to pay the $100 change fee, which made the total price exceed the contract fare (which has no change fee). My administrator was *not* happy and now our department is only allowed to use contract fares.

Right, including the 1.5 EQM and EQS "extra" credit, which helps you get to Elite faster.

Watch your Mileage Plus statement, though, since sometimes the computer doesn't recognize the class of fare bonus (they show it as "K" class). In such cases, you have to send a copy of the ticket (or the receipt) showing the "Y" or "B" class to the Mileage Plus Service Center in order to get the 1.5 instead of 1.0 credit.

If I were your admin officer, I would have made you suck up the change fee.
Buyer Beware, aka "you make your own arrangements, you suffer the consequences if it screws up"

I did get the bonus when I went to SFO in September.

I won't get it when I go to Germany though, as I'm booked on an H class ticket. Couldn't get them to let me pay the $200 out of my own pocket to get the Y class ticket.

Also, here's a question. If, by some fluke, I get offered to buy an upgrade to C, would I get the bonus as they were "paid" miles, or would I just get the cushier seat?

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.