The City Pair Program (CPP) is a mandatory program administered by the General Services Administration (GSA) and is available to all government travelers. This program offers competitive air fares at a significantly reduced price. Along with the reduced price, there are also other benefits such as:
- Tickets are fully refundable
- Last seat availability
- No advance purchase requirement
- No blackout periods
- No penalties
- No cancellation fees
While the CPP has been in existence since 1980, many travelers were not aware of the program until recent years. Once agencies started implementing an E-Gov Travel System (ETS), travelers could see a variety of flights, some were city pair flights and some were not. Prior to this time, the traveler just picked up the phone, requested the flight, and the responsible agent on the other end who knew all of the government rules just relayed the flights that met the regulations.
Now that the traveler had this new capability, they needed to be educated on the CPP so that they could select the appropriate flight. Throughout the implementation for each agency, we tried to include communication and training regarding flight selection. Fortunately, our ETS easily identifies the city pair flights which allow the traveler to feel more comfortable in their selection. Our ETS also has built in audits to ensure that the document is compliant with the rules and regulations. If a city pair flight is not selected, the traveler is required to provide a justification as to why it was not chosen. This explanation is then available for the approving official to review when they are approving the document.
By Kim Fordyce
Disclaimer: The contents of this message are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the Government or my agency. Use of this equipment is consistent with the agency’s policy governing limited personal use.