The Federal Travel Regulation sets the rules government employees have to follow when traveling on official business: how you book the trip, what you can charge, and how you get paid back. It lives in 41 CFR Chapters 300 through 304 and is managed by the General Services Administration.1eCFR. 41 CFR Part 300-1 – Glossary of Terms Follow it and reimbursement is routine. Miss a piece of it — the wrong airline, a hotel above the per diem cap, an indirect route home — and you can end up paying the difference yourself. Falsify a voucher and you’re looking at up to five years in federal prison under 18 U.S.C. § 287.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 287 – False, Fictitious or Fraudulent Claims
Who Has to Follow the FTR
The FTR covers most civilian executive-branch employees, plus offices within the legislative branch and the District of Columbia government.1eCFR. 41 CFR Part 300-1 – Glossary of Terms Military personnel are not on the FTR; they follow the Joint Travel Regulations, which draw authority mainly from Titles 10 and 37 of the U.S. Code.3Defense Travel Management Office. Joint Travel Regulations Contractors are governed by their own contracts and cannot use certain government benefits like City Pair airfares.
One boundary worth naming up front: your commute is not travel. The FTR treats your official station as the corporate limits of the city or town where you’re permanently assigned, and getting from home to that station is on you. Your agency may authorize taxi or shuttle reimbursement on the day you leave for, or return from, a trip that requires at least one night of lodging.
Booking the Trip: The Non-Negotiables
Use Your Agency’s Electronic Travel System
Temporary duty travel must be arranged through the online booking tool in your agency’s Electronic Travel System, unless a specific exception applies. Employees at DoD, the legislative branch, and the D.C. government use their own agency travel management service.4eCFR. 41 CFR Part 301-50 – Arranging for Travel Services A common exception is a conference room block: if the sponsor negotiated a rate, you can book directly with the hotel to get it.
Fly the City Pair Contract Carrier
Most federal employees are mandatory users of the City Pair Program, which supplies government-negotiated contract fares on specific routes. You have to use the contract carrier unless a listed exception applies — for example, a non-contract airline is offering a lower public fare that produces a lower total trip cost. Picking a different airline for personal preference or frequent flyer miles is a policy violation.5U.S. General Services Administration. City Pair Program FAQs
Charge It to the Government Travel Card
You’re required to use the government contractor-issued travel charge card for official travel expenses. Exceptions include vendors that don’t accept the card, situations where card use would be impractical, and specific exemptions granted by the agency head.6eCFR. 41 CFR Part 301-51 – Paying Travel Expenses
Pay the bill on time. A delinquent balance triggers a $29 late fee at 75 days past billing, and it repeats every cycle until the debt is resolved. At 126 days, the vendor can pull the money straight out of your paycheck through salary offset. At 211 days, the account is charged off, and you lose eligibility for a new card for the rest of the current SmartPay contract. Civilian employees face discipline up to removal, and a delinquency can prompt a security clearance review.7Defense Travel Management Office. Government Travel Charge Card Regulations
Per Diem: What You Get for Lodging, Meals, and Incidentals
Federal travel uses the “lodgings-plus” method by default. You’re reimbursed for your actual lodging cost up to a location-specific ceiling, plus a flat daily allowance for meals and incidental expenses (M&IE). Current rates are published at gsa.gov/perdiem and vary by location.8eCFR. 41 CFR Part 301-11 – Subsistence Expenses
First and last days of travel pay 75 percent of the M&IE rate. Full travel days pay 100 percent. Trips longer than 12 hours but shorter than 24 still get the 75 percent rate for each calendar day in travel status. The incidentals portion, which covers small items like baggage tips, sits at $3 per day at most tiers.
Keep receipts. A lodging receipt is required for every night, and so is a receipt for any single authorized expense over $75. Missing receipts need a reason your agency will accept.8eCFR. 41 CFR Part 301-11 – Subsistence Expenses
When the Government Provides a Meal
If the government furnishes a meal — through a conference registration fee or directly at an event — you reduce your M&IE claim by the allocated amount for that meal. Amounts vary by the total M&IE rate. At the $59 tier, breakfast is $11, lunch $16, and dinner $29. The deduction never drops your reimbursement below the incidental expenses allowance.8eCFR. 41 CFR Part 301-11 – Subsistence Expenses
Your agency can waive the deduction if you couldn’t eat the provided meal for medical or religious reasons — provided you got approval before the trip and bought a substitute meal — or if official business kept you away from the provided meal.
When Per Diem Isn’t Enough: Actual Expenses
Standard per diem can fall short in high-cost or disrupted markets. In those cases, your agency can authorize actual expense reimbursement, letting you claim real costs up to 300 percent of the applicable maximum per diem rate, rounded up to the next dollar.9eCFR. 41 CFR 301-11.303 – What Is the Maximum Amount That I May Be Reimbursed Under Actual Expense Agencies can also authorize less under internal policy. Typical triggers: lodging or meals aren’t available within the normal allowance at your TDY location, or a presidentially declared disaster has spiked costs and the agency has issued a blanket authorization. Get approval before you incur the expense.
Getting Around: Cars, Planes, and What They Cover
Driving Your Own Car
When your agency authorizes use of your personal vehicle, the 2026 mileage rate is 72.5 cents per mile. If a government car was available and you drove your own anyway, the rate drops to 20.5 cents per mile.10U.S. General Services Administration. Privately Owned Vehicle (POV) Mileage Reimbursement Rates By statute, GSA sets the automobile rate equal to the IRS standard mileage rate.11Federal Register. Calendar Year (CY) 2026 Privately Owned Vehicle (POV) Mileage Reimbursement Rates Document mileage using odometer readings or an approved mapping tool.
Fly America and the Open Skies Exceptions
Government-funded air travel has to use a U.S. flag carrier. A non-compliant ticket will not be reimbursed at all.12U.S. General Services Administration. Fly America Act The rule reaches employees, dependents, consultants, and contractors on government-funded travel.
Four Open Skies agreements currently qualify: the European Union (including Iceland and Norway), Australia, Switzerland, and Japan. The EU agreement is the broadest, allowing an EU carrier for travel outside the United States, including flights that stop in the EU en route to a third country. The Australia, Switzerland, and Japan agreements only cover travel between the U.S. and those countries, and only when no City Pair fare exists on the route.12U.S. General Services Administration. Fly America Act
Rental Cars
When a rental is authorized, check first whether a vendor in the Defense Travel Management Office’s U.S. Government Car Rental Agreement covers your location. That agreement builds in insurance and damage liability at no added cost. Domestically, you generally can’t be reimbursed for collision damage waivers or theft insurance. Outside the continental United States, you may be reimbursed for one or both if the rental agency, foreign law, or the legal fallout of an accident would make going without them unreasonable.13eCFR. 41 CFR Part 301-10 Subpart E – Rental Automobiles
Small Costs That Do Get Covered
Checked baggage fees, bridge tolls, and parking are reimbursable with documentation. For international travel, the government also reimburses passport and visa fees, required photographs, and physical examination fees needed for those documents when a government medical facility isn’t available.
What the Government Won’t Pay For
The regulation expects you to spend government money the way a reasonable person spends their own. Laundry on short trips, alcohol, and entertainment are always personal. Choose a hotel above the per diem cap without an approved waiver and you pay the difference. Coach is the standard cabin; upgraded seating is generally personal unless the approving official specifically authorizes it as advantageous to the government.1eCFR. 41 CFR Part 300-1 – Glossary of Terms
First class and business class need specific authorization. If an airline sells only two cabins and calls the higher one “premium economy” or anything above, that front cabin still counts as other-than-coach and needs approval on its own.
Filing the Voucher and the Payment Clock
Your travel claim documents every expense and every arrival and departure. Most agencies use a digital version of Optional Form 1012 inside their electronic travel system; the paper Standard Form 1012 is obsolete.14U.S. General Services Administration. Travel Voucher Enter the correct per diem rate for each city, itemize transportation, and attach lodging receipts along with any receipt for a single expense over $75.
Submit within five working days of finishing the trip. On continuous travel, submit at least every 30 days.15eCFR. 41 CFR Part 301-52 – Claiming Reimbursement Late submissions ripple: your travel card balance ages, and agencies track late filings as a compliance issue.
Your agency has 30 calendar days after a proper claim is submitted to reimburse you. If the claim has errors that would block timely payment, the agency must tell you within seven working days so you can fix it. Blow past day 30 and you’re entitled to a late payment fee based on the Prompt Payment Act interest rate, plus an amount equivalent to the late charge the card contractor would have hit you with had you not paid your card bill. The fee applies only when the calculated amount reaches at least $1.00.15eCFR. 41 CFR Part 301-52 – Claiming Reimbursement
Where You End Up Personally on the Hook
If you don’t travel by the authorized method or take the usual route, you’re liable for any added cost. The government pays the constructive cost — what the approved method and route would have cost — unless the agency authorized the different route as officially necessary.16eCFR. 41 CFR 301-10.4 – Liability for Unauthorized or Indirect Travel This is where most surprise out-of-pocket bills come from: a traveler adds a stop for personal reasons, assumes the difference is small, and finds out the agency will only cover the direct fare.
Falsifying a voucher is a federal crime. Under 18 U.S.C. § 287, knowingly submitting a false claim carries up to five years in prison and a fine.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 287 – False, Fictitious or Fraudulent Claims That covers inflating mileage, claiming per diem for days you weren’t in travel status, and everything similar. Agencies investigate these cases, and the fallout runs beyond the statute into removal from federal service and loss of security clearances.