Back In Flight

Since Sept. 11, the Postal Service retail marketing specialist has had to develop a new approach to air travel. Limited flights out of National mean she has to trek to Dulles or Baltimore-Washington International Airport, and tighter security means she has to allow a great deal more time.

Thompson is happy with the increased scrutiny. "Airline staff look you in the eye when they ask the questions now," she says." Before, you could have been a purple and green spotted alien and they wouldn't have noticed because they were looking down at their computers." Time and patience are the tools a business traveler should pack for a trip, Thompson counsels. She should know: She not only flies twice a week, but, as president of the Society of Government Meeting Professionals, she deals with thousands of federal travelers each year. "We have to be more forgiving and flexible than we've ever been before," says Thompson. "We will get to whatever 'normal' is sooner if we all are more patient, even with ourselves."

Making Changes

Throughout government, agencies, departments and individual workers are taking varied approaches to travel in the post-Sept. 11 world. For some, it's business as usual. Others are cutting back on travel, and still others must travel more to get the job done. At the Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics, supervisory economist Diane Herz and some colleagues decided to forgo a trip to Norway and chose videoconferencing instead.

"Our agency respected our decision either way," says Herz, "and we each made the decision not to go based on different concerns-e.g. concern about flying; fear of getting stuck there if we started war (this was prior to the bombing); or family preferences that we not be out of the country."

Some in Herz' office who would normally be excited about trips have been apprehensive, she says, but many are flying domestically again. At Transportation, the department's mission focus has shifted to transportation security; that means more travel for those in the inspector general's San Francisco office. But with the added time needed to get through the checkpoints, says Robin Hunt, there has been "a shift in the way we travel." In the past the staff could work a half day or more before returning from D.C. on a Friday. Now they have to head to the airport earlier. And they can no longer take a one-day trip from San Francisco to Los Angeles or from D.C. to Atlanta. "It will require staff taking these previously short trips to stay overnight," says Hunt. "This will impact travel budgets and time away from home."

Navy trial attorney David Koman concurs: "It now seems to take a whole day no matter where you are going. Until all the airports figure out what to do, the delays always seem to be something different. It could be check-in lines, or lines at security, or canceled flights, or delayed flights." He says he's "experienced it all" on trips to Europe, Florida and Wisconsin just between Sept. 11 and mid-October. The hardest part, says David Downey, a traveler who works at the Federal Aviation Administration, is having no idea if you will need two hours or eight minutes for check-in and security. Downey traveled to eight locations in the month after Sept. 11 and "the level of scrutiny has varied dramatically," he says.

City-Pairs Confusion

Airline schedule changes, airport closings and other disruptions have left many federal travelers confused about travel rules. But GSA says its city-pair agreements are ready for such problems, because airlines often change service levels while a contract is in force. So the agency continually monitors service and awards new contracts as needed, says Sue McIver of the Federal Supply Service.

Washington is probably most affected because of the initial closing and then limited flights in and out of National. But 154 of the 207 city pairs that include that airport also can be reached from Dulles or BWI, McIver says.

GSA crafted the city-pair rules "to meet every known contingency that our customers face," McIver says. The Federal Travel Regulation 301-10.107 (available at www.policyworks.gov) lists exceptions to the requirement that travelers use only contracted carriers. GSA also lists updated information on individual airlines' security policies at www.fss.gsa.gov/citypairs/; click on "Travel Advisory." The Federal Aviation Administration's latest updates about air travel after Sept. 11 are at www.faa.gov/apa/update.htm.