INFORMATION PAPER: Select Restricted Airfares
Defense Travel Management Office 7 March 2023
the fare price expires. As a best practice, you should pre-coordinate your
intended use of a restricted airfare with the AO and monitor responses to meet
the booking deadline.
o You must ensure that your GTCC is active before you book your restricted fare,
to avoid a decline that would prevent timely ticketing.
o If the AO returns your authorization with the RETURN FARE EXPIRED stamp
applied, you must cancel your authorization and create a new one. You must
not try to re-book another flight on the same authorization.
o Per the JTR, you must use your GTCC to purchase airfare. Since you must pay
your GTCC bill in full when you receive it, if you anticipate that your voucher
won’t be processed before the date the payment is due, you must either pay it
out of pocket, or (if your local business processes allow) request a travel
advance for the air tickets and TMC fee. For more information, see the Travel
Advances for Ticketing Restricted Airfares information paper.
o Make sure you read the fare rules before booking any restricted fares, so you
understand the booking deadline, change or cancellation restrictions, and other
important information.
o If you need to change a restricted fare that you reserved in DTS and the fare is
non-changeable, the TMC must make the change. Contact the TMC as early as
possible.
o You must report unused restricted tickets to the TMC and track any residual
ticket value that you could apply to a future trip.
o If you booked your flight via the Request TMC Assistance function, after the AO
approves your authorization, contact TMC of the ticketing deadline, to avoid
loss of flights.
• For Approving Officials
o DTS sends an email (or the traveler may alert you) that use of a restricted airfare
requires you to approve an authorization quickly. If the time limit expires before
you approve the authorization, you won’t be able to approve the document.
Instead, DTS offers you the RETURN FARE EXPIRED stamp instead of the
APPROVED stamp on the Digital Signature page. Select it to send the
authorization back to the traveler, who must cancel the authorization and
create a new one.
o A traveler who selected a restricted airfare may require a travel advance to pay
for their flight before they file their voucher. If they do, make sure they only
request an advance for the amount of the restricted airfare. For more
information, see Travel Advances for Ticketing Restricted Airfares information
paper.