Board of Contract Appeals General Services Administration Washington, D.C. 20405 _______________________ February 1, 2000 ________________________ GSBCA 15197-TRAV In the Matter of ROBERT E. DAWES Robert E. Dawes, March Air Reserve Base, CA, Claimant. Charles N. Stockwell, Travel Branch, Directorate of Travel and Vendor Pay, Defense Finance and Accounting Service, Denver Center, Denver, CO, appearing for Department of Defense. PARKER, Board Judge. In September 1999, the Department of the Air Force sent Robert E. Dawes on temporary duty travel from Ontario, California, to Colorado Springs, Colorado. About ten days before his trip, Mr. Dawes purchased round-trip tickets from Omega World Travel, his agency s designated Commercial Travel Office (CTO). When Mr. Dawes arrived at the airport to begin his travel, he realized that he had forgotten his tickets. Since his flight was scheduled to leave in about thirty minutes, and there was not enough time to return home, Mr. Dawes decided to purchase replacement tickets at the airline counter.[foot #] 1 He did not want to take a later flight because he had arranged for the conference coordinator to meet him at the Colorado Springs Airport and he had no way of getting in touch with her. Mr. Dawes purchased replacement tickets directly from the airline, at the same price, using his Government charge card. From Colorado Springs, Mr. Dawes arranged to have the unused tickets returned to Omega, which received a full refund of the purchase price. When he returned home, however, the Air Force refused to reimburse Mr. Dawes for the price of the tickets that he had purchased at the airline counter. According to the Air ----------- FOOTNOTE BEGINS --------- [foot #] 1 Mr. Dawes has explained that he arrived at the airport long-term parking facility about one hour and fifteen minutes before the flight but, due to a shuttle-bus delay and a long line at the check-in counter, he did not need to show his tickets to anyone until thirty minutes before the flight was scheduled to leave. Mr. Dawes also has informed us that forgetting his tickets was a once-in-20-years mistake. ----------- FOOTNOTE ENDS ----------- 2 Force, Mr. Dawes is not entitled to reimbursement because he did not purchase the tickets from the designated CTO, as required by regulation. Mr. Dawes has asked the Board to review the Air Force s decision. Discussion Mr. Dawes should be reimbursed for the cost of the replacement tickets. As the Air Force correctly points out, when making travel arrangements, employees are required to use either a CTO, an in-house travel office, or a General Services Administration Travel Management Center. JTR C2207-A (June 1, 1999). A non-contract travel agent or common carrier direct purchase may be used only when approved, and under certain conditions, including: Unusual Circumstances. A non-contract travel agent may be used in unusual circumstances when there is no alternative. JTR C2207-B. If the phrase no alternative were interpreted literally, there would be no reason to have this exception in the regulations; there is always some alternative, however unreasonable, to purchasing tickets from a non-contract agent. In this case, such an alternative would have meant delaying Mr. Dawes temporary duty assignment and wasting the valuable time of the conference coordinator. Thus, both the Board and the Comptroller General (our predecessor in deciding travel claims such as this one) have interpreted the phrase no alternative to include an element of reasonableness when assessing an employee s actions in purchasing tickets from a non-contract travel agent. See C. Ray Taylor, GSBCA 13688-TRAV, 97-1 BCA 28,783 (employee had no alternative to purchasing airline tickets from a non- contract agent where the contract agent was unable to secure tickets, which included a stop for personal reasons, at a reasonable price); Joel L. Morrison, 63 Comp Gen. 592 (1984) (allowing reimbursement for tickets purchased from non-contract travel agent where late notice of travel, previously scheduled obligations, and unavailability of employee s secretary restricted his opportunities to use the usual procedures ). We think Mr. Dawes had no alternative to purchasing replacement tickets directly from the airline. He had just waited in a long line, his plane was leaving in thirty minutes, and a colleague was waiting for him at the airport, with no way to get in touch with her. Mr. Dawes was faced with a difficult decision and had very little time to make it. Although Mr. Dawes might have decided to call Omega and hope that the CTO could get him new tickets in time for him to make his flight (an unlikely possibility), or simply to cancel the trip and work things out 3 with the CTO later (thus inconveniencing another employee and delaying his temporary duty), Mr. Dawes made the decision to purchase tickets from the airline, at no additional cost to the Government. He even used his Government charge card. Under these unusual circumstances, Mr. Dawes decision was reasonable. The Air Force s decision to decline to reimburse him for the cost of the tickets was not. Decision The claim is granted. __________________________ ROBERT W. PARKER Board Judge