Moving across the country with wife and newborn in a month. Going to do an HHG and partial-PPM. Want to book their flights through a commercial airline for flexibility and drive myself.
Told by the travel office that I may not get reimbursed much for wife’s flight. However, if I just say she’s driving with me I’ll get per diem for her and the child. Will yield about an extra $1500.
Is there any reason why I couldn’t just say she drove with me for the cash and buy her a commercial flight out of pocket? Seems way better than trying to get the flight reimbursed.
Posted by Direct_Carrot8570
3 Comments
Because it’s fraud. Will you get caught? Probably not. Should you do it? I wouldn’t risk my career for some extra $. Your local TMO should be able to book the flights for you. Just tell them when your family needs to depart.
Well, it’s fraud so there’s that. Will anyone ever find out? Will you ever face any repercussions for it? Probably not tbh. There’s a non-zero chance though…
You won’t get reimbursed for a privately procured flight. It’s in your orders.
You’d need an order modification to authorize circuitous travel, which triggers authorization for privately procured flights. This is usually done to take leave en route since the military is obligated to book you to your final destination. If you want to contact the detailer to get that in your orders, that’s your best bet to be able to file for reimbursement of personal procured travel, but it’s limited to the hidden government rate of flying directly to your destination (usually not an issue since they buy refundable tix).
Now, if you have a good admin, I’ve had success in writing a request in for a specific flight on the passenger request form with a backup as well. Provided there’s no military flight available and it meets their business rules, they’ll book what you ask for. Direct flights are usually cheaper because layovers cost more gas. The issue becomes when admin decides to just fill this out for you and makes thoughtless requests that trigger a red eye flight with a layover because they checked you want to leave in the evening and direct flights leave in the am (as an example). You also can change flights with the same carrier after you are booked / ticketed, but you’ll owe the difference in any change fees and price.
Break
I’ve had more than one YNC say “you should drive the car and ship the wife.” Meaning file the claim as if everyone drove and whatever you pay for flights is what it is (usually will cost you more money than driving together). So moral police will act appalled but it’s probably more common than you think, you’re just not supposed to talk about it.
If the military wanted to audit your travel more closely, they’d ask for more receipts and not unconditionally pay 9 days of per diem for a 5 day drive.