Wednesday, Oct. 03, 2012

New airline reservation cancellation policy effective

Monitoring the status of your travel documents and ensuring your travel authorizations are approved is the best way to avoid unnecessary costs and stress associated with booking travel. Beginning this week, any travel authorization that includes air travel must be approved and ticketed at least 72 hours in advance of the scheduled flight departure to avoid airline reservations from being cancelled.

If making plans within 24 hours of departure, authorizations must be approved and ticketed at least six hours prior to flight departure time to avoid cancellation.

If your airline reservations are cancelled, you should follow your normal ticketing process to rebook the flight. If you arrive at the airport to find your reservations cancelled, do not rebook at the airline counter. Often, counter agents are not familiar with GSA’s City Pair Program and may book you on a full priced fare at a much higher cost. Remember to take their travel itinerary with you to the airport. Your itinerary will provide contact information for your Commercial Travel Office, as well as, reservation details to help you rebook.

Travelers should monitor the status of their travel authorizations. If a trip is approaching and the authorization has not been approved, contact your Authorizing Official immediately. If your AO is unavailable, use your chain of command for additional assistance.

Commands should ensure a back-up AO is designated and publicized in the absence of the primary AO.

For more information, go to www.defensetravel.dod.mil.