1K Status as a US Government Flyer
Nov 8, 2018, 12:59 am
#16
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: San Antonio - the nicest city in northern Mexico
Programs: CO OnePass; AAdvantage Dirt; IHG Priority Club Plat; Hyatt Plat; Marriott Gold; Avis PresPref;
Posts: 886
Get an affiliated credit card that waives the PQD. Easy, peasy. Did it for years while flying on government fares. Well worth it.
Nov 8, 2018, 1:06 am
#17
Moderator: United Airlines
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: SFO
Programs: UA Plat 1.995MM, Hyatt Discoverist, Marriott Plat/LT Gold, Hilton Silver, IHG Plat
Posts: 66,821
Nov 8, 2018, 2:10 am
#18
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Jun 2005
Posts: 57,554
The other reason it won't work is that for government travel, we are required to use our government travel card. Using a personal card is the quickest route to an audit and administrative action.
Nov 8, 2018, 4:59 am
#19
Join Date: Sep 2013
Location: CHS
Programs: UA GS, Bonvoy Amabassador, Hertz PC
Posts: 2,589
Nov 8, 2018, 9:13 am
#20
Join Date: Sep 2014
Posts: 2,531
No one said you had to use the card to purchase plane tickets. The PQD waiver works (up through Plat) regardless of who is buying the ticket, as long as you have $25,000 of annual spend on the card.
Nov 8, 2018, 9:37 am
#21
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Jun 2005
Posts: 57,554
True, but someone upthread didn't draw that distinction, and I've had employees get into trouble for using their branded card to get extra miles.
Nov 8, 2018, 10:54 am
#22
Join Date: May 2009
Location: Washington, DC
Programs: UA 1K 1MM, AA, DL
Posts: 7,418
At least on United, the government desk is more than happy to take the value of the ticket that SATO purchased you and apply that (plus the fare difference out of your pocket), for a ticket in J under the same locator but they caution that you will have to pay a change fee should you need to adjust your ticket. If you need to change your ticket and you're not able to pay that change fee, you are absolutely screwed. The government desk are the only agents within UA that are cable of adjusting a government issued ticket like this.
Nov 9, 2018, 6:15 am
#25
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Under the Cone of Silence
Programs: UA Gold; AA Dirt; HH Diamond; National Emerald; CONTROL SecretAgent Platinum; KAOS EvilFlyer Gold
Posts: 1,499
That's an overly broad statement, I think you can still use city pairs and your travel card for expenses during the official work portion. And there may be a lot of more restrictive agency-specific rules. For example, in my case, if I go on official travel, and take a couple days of leave during that trip, I would still book my round-trip flight from home to destination as a govt city pair. I can't however, use city pairs for a personal side trip or travel card for hotel expenses during the leave days.
Nov 9, 2018, 8:23 am
#26
Join Date: May 2009
Location: Washington, DC
Programs: UA 1K 1MM, AA, DL
Posts: 7,418
That's an overly broad statement, I think you can still use city pairs and your travel card for expenses during the official work portion. And there may be a lot of more restrictive agency-specific rules. For example, in my case, if I go on official travel, and take a couple days of leave during that trip, I would still book my round-trip flight from home to destination as a govt city pair. I can't however, use city pairs for a personal side trip or travel card for hotel expenses during the leave days.
Nov 9, 2018, 8:49 am
#27
Suspended
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: DCA
Programs: UA US CO AA DL FL
Posts: 50,262
One of the biggest risks in broad discussions of government travel is that there are GSA rules which may apply to all who do not have a specific exemption. Then there are others which are agency-by-agency or even decision-unit-by-decision unit. One can have a giant debate about all of this, but that isn't really helpful for practical travel purposes.
Always best to check the rules as they exist for you. Never good to show a print out from an anonymous internet board to your agency's IG.
Always best to check the rules as they exist for you. Never good to show a print out from an anonymous internet board to your agency's IG.
Nov 9, 2018, 9:20 am
#28
Join Date: May 2009
Location: Washington, DC
Programs: UA 1K 1MM, AA, DL
Posts: 7,418
One of the biggest risks in broad discussions of government travel is that there are GSA rules which may apply to all who do not have a specific exemption. Then there are others which are agency-by-agency or even decision-unit-by-decision unit. One can have a giant debate about all of this, but that isn't really helpful for practical travel purposes.
Always best to check the rules as they exist for you. Never good to show a print out from an anonymous internet board to your agency's IG.
Always best to check the rules as they exist for you. Never good to show a print out from an anonymous internet board to your agency's IG.
Nov 9, 2018, 8:40 pm
#29
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: Aussie in ORD
Programs: Marriott Plat, Ua Gold, GE.. Sucker for punishment
Posts: 4,237
Dear OP. I am an employee at an FFRDC so I am subject to many of the same rules (without access to the M class fares.. I some times get them if NSF, NASA or DOE is direct booking for me).
1) Don't abuse it. 1K is not worth getting fired or worse. This is the taxpayers money.
2) some times a bargain buyup comes along. not a checked in buy up (no extra PQM there).
3) The one year I made 1K it was due to two personal trips to Australia... I ended up doing a 1K MR to make up the PQD..
4) I would not do that again. I do better on UGs this year as a gold hitting checked in upgrade offers. GPUs are almost only useful if you can fund inventory to allow it to clear on booking. And given GSA rules (personal days before etc) that's hard to wrangle.. read the threads.
1) Don't abuse it. 1K is not worth getting fired or worse. This is the taxpayers money.
2) some times a bargain buyup comes along. not a checked in buy up (no extra PQM there).
3) The one year I made 1K it was due to two personal trips to Australia... I ended up doing a 1K MR to make up the PQD..
4) I would not do that again. I do better on UGs this year as a gold hitting checked in upgrade offers. GPUs are almost only useful if you can fund inventory to allow it to clear on booking. And given GSA rules (personal days before etc) that's hard to wrangle.. read the threads.
Nov 10, 2018, 1:33 am
#30
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: Austin, TX
Posts: 21,386