YCA (Government Fares) Upgrades?
Sep 9, 2013, 5:53 pm
#76
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Exactly. Where I work the 14 hour rule is basically never invoked. It is almost always cheaper to pay for a stopover en-route or an extra day of rest upon arrival compared to buying a biz class ticket.
Feb 6, 2014, 6:33 am
#77
Join Date: Dec 1999
Location: NorCal - 1K 2MM
Posts: 2,089
city pairs with only YCA fare, no discount CA?
I'm looking at a city pair on the GSA website where _only_ a YCA fare is shown, nothing under the cheaper _CA. In this case the instant upgrade eligibility would seem to be unavoidable. I've never seen this before -- is this common? A mistake? A rare but pleasant circumstance??
Feb 6, 2014, 10:57 am
#79
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it all depends... with our agency, one may "book" the YCA via the online res system, but before the agency tickets, they check if _CA is avail and ticket in the lowest fare class. I've had several colleagues who used to book YCA to europe and upgrade (if avail) for 15k miles... now their tickets are being booked in _CA, it has become 20k + $$$ co-pay.
I'm looking at a city pair on the GSA website where _only_ a YCA fare is shown, nothing under the cheaper _CA. In this case the instant upgrade eligibility would seem to be unavoidable. I've never seen this before -- is this common? A mistake? A rare but pleasant circumstance??
Feb 6, 2014, 11:00 am
#80
Join Date: Dec 1999
Location: NorCal - 1K 2MM
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it all depends... with our agency, one may "book" the YCA via the online res system, but before the agency tickets, they check if _CA is avail and ticket in the lowest fare class. I've had several colleagues who used to book YCA to europe and upgrade (if avail) for 15k miles... now their tickets are being booked in _CA, it has become 20k + $$$ co-pay.
Feb 6, 2014, 11:28 am
#81
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To clarify, this is not an issue of whether the discount _CA fare bucket happens to be open and available for a given flight. Rather, the GSA website which lists all the successfully negotiated fares for the current fiscal year only shows a YCA fare negotiated for that city pair, with no _CA fare in existence. I had not seen this before.
Feb 6, 2014, 11:35 am
#82
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Join Date: Jun 2005
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it all depends... with our agency, one may "book" the YCA via the online res system, but before the agency tickets, they check if _CA is avail and ticket in the lowest fare class. I've had several colleagues who used to book YCA to europe and upgrade (if avail) for 15k miles... now their tickets are being booked in _CA, it has become 20k + $$$ co-pay.
Feb 6, 2014, 11:35 am
#83
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it all depends... with our agency, one may "book" the YCA via the online res system, but before the agency tickets, they check if _CA is avail and ticket in the lowest fare class. I've had several colleagues who used to book YCA to europe and upgrade (if avail) for 15k miles... now their tickets are being booked in _CA, it has become 20k + $$$ co-pay.
But If travelers are/were intentionally booking higher-priced YCA fares when _CA were available to obtain such benefits at lower personal cost, I hope they are held accountable for wasting taxpayer funds. Makes all of us look bad when you read about stuff like that.
Yep, that's been my experience too, and the way it should be, frankly. If _CA is (or becomes) available, no reason why we should burn travel dollars on YCA.
Last edited by iluv2fly; Feb 6, 2014 at 3:34 pm Reason: merge
Feb 6, 2014, 12:46 pm
#84
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To clarify, this is not an issue of whether the discount _CA fare bucket happens to be open and available for a given flight. Rather, the GSA website which lists all the successfully negotiated fares for the current fiscal year only shows a YCA fare negotiated for that city pair, with no _CA fare in existence. I had not seen this before.
Feb 6, 2014, 3:29 pm
#85
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The decision to purchase a more expensive fare than necessary in order to provide a personal benefit to an employee is exactly the sort of "waste, fraud & abuse" which is investigated by agency Inspectors General.
Example of killing the goose which laid the golden egg. Sooner or later --- and it only takes one Congressional hearing about feds flying F --- GSA will simply ban feds from accepting F or UA will pull the upgradeability of YCA fares so as not to get into a fight.
Example of killing the goose which laid the golden egg. Sooner or later --- and it only takes one Congressional hearing about feds flying F --- GSA will simply ban feds from accepting F or UA will pull the upgradeability of YCA fares so as not to get into a fight.
Feb 6, 2014, 3:54 pm
#86
Join Date: Dec 1999
Location: NorCal - 1K 2MM
Posts: 2,089
The decision to purchase a more expensive fare than necessary in order to provide a personal benefit to an employee is exactly the sort of "waste, fraud & abuse" which is investigated by agency Inspectors General.
Example of killing the goose which laid the golden egg. Sooner or later --- and it only takes one Congressional hearing about feds flying F --- GSA will simply ban feds from accepting F or UA will pull the upgradeability of YCA fares so as not to get into a fight.
Example of killing the goose which laid the golden egg. Sooner or later --- and it only takes one Congressional hearing about feds flying F --- GSA will simply ban feds from accepting F or UA will pull the upgradeability of YCA fares so as not to get into a fight.
Feb 6, 2014, 5:23 pm
#87
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Just so you understand what started this most recent part of the thread, the issue is that GSA is not offering a discounted _CA gov't fare on certain city pairs, but ONLY the YCA fare. The discount federal fare does not exist. It cannot be purchased this fiscal year. Ever. For any flight on that city pair. None. Zero. Nada. My question was how common this is. when one is forced to buy YCA because it is the only federal fare.
I was referring to situations regarding intentional excess spending of govt funds on YCA to gain personal benefits when lower-cost _CA fares existed. That's a major ethical no-no, if not illegal.
Feb 6, 2014, 6:41 pm
#88
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Join Date: Jun 2005
Posts: 57,617
The decision to purchase a more expensive fare than necessary in order to provide a personal benefit to an employee is exactly the sort of "waste, fraud & abuse" which is investigated by agency Inspectors General.
Example of killing the goose which laid the golden egg. Sooner or later --- and it only takes one Congressional hearing about feds flying F --- GSA will simply ban feds from accepting F or UA will pull the upgradeability of YCA fares so as not to get into a fight.
Example of killing the goose which laid the golden egg. Sooner or later --- and it only takes one Congressional hearing about feds flying F --- GSA will simply ban feds from accepting F or UA will pull the upgradeability of YCA fares so as not to get into a fight.
Most of the travel taken by our staff is short fuse - less than 72 hours notice. For them, there is almost never a CA fare available. I had a staff member stuck in Atlanta last week. The only reason he was able to get out after spending 24 extra hours than expected was because he had a refundable YCA fare, and was able to change from UA to DL and get out earlier than he would have otherwise been able to.
Feb 6, 2014, 7:37 pm
#89
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Even if book "YCA" Fares
it can still book into any class of ticket, it just depends on the flight's load.
All of my travel is international and shows up in the travel system as YCAs (when contract rates exist) and we end up with any fare between Y-S. Even on international non-contract rates, I usually only get W-V-Q-U flights...very rare to get a B/Y in last 2 years. In the last year, because of sequestration, we have even been forced to book restricted/penalty fares to save costs as well.
I usually only get higher Y fares because ticketing policy is only to ticket 72 hours out from the start of travel. Only time I get tickets before 72 hours is when the foreign carriers give a cancellation deadline and the seats are goign fast!
All of my travel is international and shows up in the travel system as YCAs (when contract rates exist) and we end up with any fare between Y-S. Even on international non-contract rates, I usually only get W-V-Q-U flights...very rare to get a B/Y in last 2 years. In the last year, because of sequestration, we have even been forced to book restricted/penalty fares to save costs as well.
I usually only get higher Y fares because ticketing policy is only to ticket 72 hours out from the start of travel. Only time I get tickets before 72 hours is when the foreign carriers give a cancellation deadline and the seats are goign fast!