BNUMBER:  B-254858
DATE:  November 22, 1995
TITLE:  Southwest Airlines - Free Companion Ticket

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Matter of:   Southwest Airlines - Free Companion Ticket

File:        B-254858

Date:        November 22, 1995
                                                                                                                
DIGEST

An airline offers a "free" companion ticket when a round-trip ticket 
to specified cities is purchased.  An agency asks whether the free 
companion ticket may be used by its employees for personal use when 
the ticket is obtained incident to official travel.  Such use is not 
allowed under existing General Services Administration (GSA) 
regulations, 41 C.F.R.  101-25.103-2(a) and 301-1.103(b) (1995), 
which provide that all promotional materials received by an employee 
incident to official travel are due the government and may not be 
retained by the employee.  However, the General Accounting Office 
would not object if GSA, consistent with this decision, were to change 
its regulation to allow an employee to use a companion ticket, 
provided that an appropriate official of the agency approves the 
personal use based on a determination that (1) the ticket is of no use 
to the agency, and (2) the approval will not result in additional cost 
to the government.
                                                                                                                 
DECISION

The Regional Counsel, Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Southeast 
Region, asks whether a "free" companion airline ticket may be used by 
its employees for personal use (i.e., family member or friend) when 
the free ticket is obtained incident to official travel.  As discussed 
below, such use is not allowed under the existing General Services 
Administration (GSA) regulations, but we would not object if GSA were 
to change its regulations to permit personal use of the ticket under 
certain conditions.

BACKGROUND

The Regional Counsel advises that Southwest Airlines offers a free 
companion ticket when a round-trip ticket is purchased.  The promotion 
is offered for travel among various cities in the United States and 
Canada and requires that both travelers must fly on the same flight.  
In effect, Southwest is offering two tickets for the price of one.

The Regional Counsel reports that IRS employees have used these 
promotions for personal use.  He further reports that the Chief, 
Travel Management Branch, Federal Supply Service, GSA, issued an 
opinion on September 10, 1992, that employees could utilize the free 
ticket for personal use as long as no other federal employee was 
making the same trip.  However, he reports, the Region's fiscal 
officer has questioned any personal use of the companion ticket.

In view of its September 10, 1992, opinion on the matter, we asked GSA 
for its comments.  In reply, GSA affirms its earlier opinion that, if 
no other employee will be flying on the same flight, the employee 
should be allowed to use the companion ticket.

The Director of the Administrative Office of the United States Courts 
has also written to us on this issue because of questions received 
from judicial branch travelers.  The Director takes the same position 
as GSA.

OPINION

The general rule is that an employee may not retain any bonus tickets, 
mileage credits or similar items of value obtained as the result of 
official travel.  Gifts or Prizes Acquired in the Course of Official 
Travel, B-199656, July 15, 1981.  Michael Farbman, et al., 67 Comp. 
Gen. 79 (1987); Discount Coupons, 63 Comp. Gen. 229 (1984); Department 
of Energy, B-233388, Mar. 23, 1990.  This rule is set forth in GSA's 
Federal Property Management Regulations, 41 C.F.R.  101-25.103-2(a), 
which provide in part as follows:

     "(a) All promotional materials (e.g., bonus flights, reduced-fare 
     coupons, cash, merchandise, gifts, credits toward future free or 
     reduced costs of services or goods, etc.) received by employees 
     in conjunction with official travel and based on the purchase of 
     a ticket or other services (e.g. car rental) are properly 
     considered to be due the Government and may not be retained by 
     the employee."[1]

Notwithstanding the general rule, certain benefits received on behalf 
of the government are not treated as "promotional materials" governed 
by GSA's regulations and may be used by employees on official travel.  
See Discount Coupons, supra, 63 Comp. Gen. 229 at 232 (Question 3); 
Abraham Frydman, B-212559, Feb. 24, 1984; Michael Farbman, et al., 
supra, at 82-3.  These include insurance coverage for the traveler, 
upgrades to first class (not in exchange for mileage credits),[2] 
membership in executive clubs, and check cashing privileges.   These 
benefits by the common carrier or other firm can only benefit the 
employee and are of no use to the government.  So long as their use by 
an employee does not raise any conflict-of-interest issue or violate 
any rule of ethical conduct, under current regulations employees may 
participate in such benefit programs while on official travel.

The premise of the law in this area is that items of value resulting 
from the expenditure of government funds belong to the government.  
Employees are not free to retain and use such items without the 
government's permission.  The responsibility for establishing the 
rules for the use of promotional items falls, in the first instance, 
on GSA.  As quoted above, in regulations implementing its authority to 
govern the management and disposal of federal property, 40 U.S.C.  
486(c), and those implementing its authority over travel and 
transportation expenses, 5 U.S.C.  5707(a), GSA has required 
"promotional materials" to be relinquished to appropriate agency 
officials and described how agencies are to provide for their use and 
disposition.  41 C.F.R.  101-25.103 (Federal Property Management 
Regulations); 40 C.F.R.  301-1.103(b) (Federal Travel Regulations).

GSA argues that the free companion airline tickets are not 
"promotional materials," but are analogous to benefits that are not 
governed by the controlling regulation.  
In our view, companion tickets are "promotional materials" subject to 
GSA's regulations.  Unlike an upgrade to first class or similar 
benefit, the companion ticket can be provided to another traveler on 
the same flight.  As GSA itself recognizes, an employee holding a 
companion ticket earned as a result of the expenditure of government 
funds must turn over the ticket to the government when the government 
can use the ticket.  Thus, the companion ticket clearly is 
transferable "material" under the regulation even though the ticket 
may not be used for future flights.  The GSA regulation categorically 
requires that all promotional materials received as a result of 
official travel be turned over to the government; no exception is made 
for allowing employees to retain promotional materials that are of no 
value to the government.

We recognize that a particular free companion ticket may not be 
transferable as a practical matter because there is no other federal 
employee whose official business requires traveling the same route at 
the same time.  In these cases, the ticket is of no benefit to the 
government.  In light of GSA's authority to issue regulations 
governing the travel of government employees, we are aware of no 
reason why it could not provide that employees may use promotional 
companion airline tickets when they are of no possible use to the 
government.  If GSA should undertake to do so, we recommend that its 
regulation require approval by an appropriate agency official based on 
a determination that (1) the agency is unable to use the companion 
ticket for the official travel of another employee, and (2) the 
approval will not result in additional cost to the government.  This 
would help to ensure that official travel arrangements are based on 
the government's interests and not influenced by personal 
considerations.

There remains the issue of those employees who have used the companion 
tickets for family or friends.  Since those employees may have relied 
on the GSA memorandum, cited above, sanctioning personal use of these 
tickets when the government could not use the ticket itself, we do not 
think it would be appropriate to seek recovery from them.

/s/James F. Hinchman
forComptroller General
of the United States

1. Virtually identical language is found in GSA's Federal Travel 
Regulation, 41 C.F.R.  301-1.103(b).  Consistent with the GSA 
regulations, we note, is the treatment accorded discounts and similar 
benefits in regulations issued by the Office of Government Ethics, at 
5 C.F.R.  2635.204(c)(3):

            "An employee may not accept for personal use any benefit 
            to which the Government is entitled as the result of an 
            expenditure of Government funds."

2. The Federal Travel Regulation provides that frequent flyer mileage 
credits accumulated while traveling on official business may not be 
used to upgrade to first-class air accommodations, but may be used to 
upgrade to premium-class other than first class.  58 Fed. Reg. 58234, 
58238-39 (1993); 41 C.F.R.  301-3.3(d)(1) and 5(vii).