Frequent Fliers Land Perks

isten to federal workers talk about the law that prohibited them from keeping frequent flier miles for personal travel and you'll hear it called "totally unfair" and "idiotic." According to one critic, "As government travelers, we are the ones who suffer."

So government employees cheered on Dec. 28 when President Bush signed the 2002 Defense authorization bill, which included an amendment allowing them to keep frequent flier miles and other travel perks earned on business travel.

Senators Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., and John Warner, R-Va., added the amendment, joining the General Accounting Office director, the President and many of their Hill colleagues in arguing that allowing federal workers to use the miles for personal travel would help federal retention and recruitment efforts. The government is focused on attracting and keeping quality employees, as it expects to lose a huge portion of its most seasoned workers to retirement in the next five years.

The long-awaited benefit allows civil service, military and Foreign Service employees to use points earned from airlines, hotels and car rental agencies while traveling on government business. Federal workers have lobbied lawmakers and regulators for a change for years; many said the restriction made them feel their contributions were not valued.

The benefit is retroactive, allowing federal workers to use points earned before the bill's enactment. The bill doesn't say how far back miles can be tallied, only that it applies to promotional items received before, on, or after the date of enactment of the law. The prohibition on using frequent traveler points earned on federal business trips is codified in the 1994 Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act. That law prohibited workers from accepting promotional items while traveling at government expense and required them to turn the miles over to their agencies for use on official travel.

But a General Accounting Office report said that most frequent flier miles went unused, because agencies found accounting for and cashing in the benefits too onerous. "Many agencies found the cost of monitoring, tracking and accounting for [them] to far outweigh any benefit to the government," says Lennard Loewentritt, deputy associate general counsel at the General Services Administration.

A frequent traveler at the Veterans Affairs Department feels it's "only fair" to allow workers to have what compensation they can for their time on the road. "When you're on travel, you're not just away for eight hours a day," says the program manager. "For 24 hours a day you're away from home, family, chores and everything else you would have done at home. It's wonderful that they did something positive for us."

GSA and the Defense Department are revising their travel regulations to conform to the new law, and those changes should be in effect by February or March. The GSA administrator has already waived the rules that prohibited use of miles for personal travel while the regs are being revised.

Federal workers will be expected to pay any costs, such as membership fees, associated with frequent traveler perks. As in the private sector, frequent flier miles are taxable as an employee benefit.

For more details on the new rules regarding frequent traveler benefits, go to www.policyworks.gov and click on "Travel Management."

- Tanya N. Ballard contributed to this report.

Easing The Pain of Car Rentals

To avoid spinning your wheels on business trips, follow these tips from Christine Braswell, car rental program manager at the Military Traffic Management Command. The MTMC manages the car rental program for the federal government.

Use your commercial travel office or travel management center to book or confirm your reservations. That way you don't have to worry about whether you are renting from one of the companies that has a government agreement. Contracted travel agencies also have quick access to the locations, rates, rules, and size and class of vehicles offered.

Get the travel agency's toll-free number in case you have questions while traveling.

Take along a copy of your travel orders and travel authorization, and use your government credit card to authenticate your official status.

If you aren't going to use the reservation, cancel it so the next renter can have access to a car. If the car breaks down or you lose the keys, call the car rental company for instructions. If the vehicle is involved in an accident or you notice damage, call the police, get a police report, and call the car rental company for instructions. If you are billed for damage, don't panic. Contact your travel or transportation office, the car rental company's government representative, or MTMC-they can help you resolve the matter. Renters who use cars under the agreement will not be billed for loss of or damage to the vehicle unless one of the 12 exceptions listed are violated. (For the exceptions, see page 5 of the car rental contract at www.mtmc.army.mil/CONTENT/656/agree.pdf.)

You don't need to pay for additional insurance if you rent under the agreement. In the United States, you won't be reimbursed if you buy additional insurance. In some overseas locations, theft insurance is mandatory and is reimbursable.