How the GSA City Pair Program Works for Federal Travelers

The GSA City Pair Program is the federal government’s negotiated airfare contract: awarded U.S. carriers offer discounted, fully flexible fares on specific routes, and federal employees traveling on official orders are generally required to book those contract fares through their agency’s travel system.¹ The rules that follow determine who qualifies, when you can go off-contract, and what protections the fare carries.

Who Has to Use Contract Fares

The mandatory use requirement applies to employees of federal agencies as defined in the Federal Travel Regulation, covering permanent and temporary civilian employees traveling on official orders.¹ Military reservists can also use City Pair fares when attending inactive duty training, provided they have a GSA SmartPay Travel Card issued by their commanding officer.²

Contractors are explicitly prohibited from using contract fares. Purchasing a contract ticket on behalf of a contractor is misuse of the program regardless of what the underlying contract says, and invitational travel orders cannot be used as a workaround.³ Employees of the District of Columbia government are also ineligible, except for DC Courts staff.¹ Companion travel, family members, and personal trips do not qualify at all, and personal days added onto an official trip cannot be covered by the contract fare.²

Under 41 CFR 301-10.110, if you use a non-contract carrier without an authorized exception, you are personally liable for any additional costs or penalties. Carrier preference alone is never a valid reason to bypass a contract fare.³

How to Book and Pay

Official travel must be arranged through your agency’s authorized Travel Management Company or its online booking tool. These platforms are pre-configured to display the correct contract fares for each route and record the transaction properly. Buying a City Pair fare outside the authorized channel creates compliance problems even if the fare itself is a valid contract rate.

Payment requires a government-issued travel charge card. Once the booking is confirmed, the system issues an electronic ticket for check-in, and after the trip you submit a travel voucher with the airfare receipt for reimbursement.

The Two Contract Fare Types

Booking systems display two categories of City Pair fares, and the difference matters.

YCA fares are the unrestricted contract fare. As long as any coach-class seat is left on the plane, you can buy it at the YCA rate. This “last seat availability” guarantee means airlines cannot block government travelers from booking even when a flight is nearly full.²

Capacity-controlled fares (displayed with a preceding letter code like DCA or XCA) offer a deeper discount but are limited in quantity, with availability varying by carrier and route.⁴ Both fare types satisfy the mandatory use requirement, but when both are available on the same route and the timing works, you are expected to book the cheaper capacity-controlled option first. Book early: capacity-controlled seats disappear fast on popular routes.

What the Contract Fare Actually Includes

City Pair contract fares are fully refundable with no change fees, no cancellation penalties, no advance purchase requirements, no blackout dates, and no minimum or maximum stay requirements. Fares are priced one-way, so multi-city itineraries are not constrained by round-trip pricing. Prices are firm-fixed for the fiscal year; FY2026 rates run October 1, 2025 through September 30, 2026.⁵

Baggage is the carve-out. Contract fares do not include checked baggage fees, and the fare displayed in your travel system does not reflect them. You pay the same baggage charges as any commercial passenger on that airline, so check the carrier’s commercial baggage schedule before you travel.⁵

When You Can Book Off-Contract

The regulation lists specific situations where an agency head or designee can authorize a non-contract fare. Each requires approval on the travel authorization before the trip, not after.³

No contract flight arrives at the destination in time, or using the contract carrier would force an unnecessary overnight stay that increases the total trip cost.
The contract carrier’s schedule conflicts with the agency’s explicit policies on travel during normal working hours.
A non-contract carrier offers a fare available to the general public that, combined with lodging, meals, and related expenses, produces a lower total trip cost. This exception disappears if the contract carrier matches or beats that fare with available seats.
Rail transportation is available, practical, and cheaper than flying.
Groups of ten or more passengers traveling on the same day, same flight, and same mission are not mandatory users and should seek the most cost-effective option.

The lower-total-trip-cost exception is the one most travelers ask about. It comes with a catch: non-contract commercial fares are typically non-refundable and carry change fees, and if plans shift, the government eats the penalties. You also need to know or reasonably anticipate that you will actually use the ticket before booking it.²

Coach Is the Default

Federal travelers are required to fly coach unless the agency head or designee specifically authorizes a higher class. The regulation limits premium authorizations to:¹

A documented medical disability or special need.
Security circumstances where coach is inadequate.
Only non-coach seats available, or no coach seat within 24 hours of the required departure or arrival time.
Cost savings, where the upgrade avoids extra lodging, overtime, or lost productivity that would exceed the fare difference.
Overseas flights exceeding 8 hours of scheduled flight time (premium economy) or over 14 hours (business class).
A specific agency mission requirement.

Agencies are directed to authorize the lowest upgrade that solves the problem: premium economy before business, business before first.⁶

International Trips: Fly America and Open Skies

International travel adds a second layer. The Fly America Act requires all federally funded air travel to use a U.S. flag carrier, and cost and convenience are not valid exceptions.⁷ When a City Pair contract exists on an international route, both rules point the same way: book the U.S. contract carrier.

Open Skies Agreements create limited exceptions. Four currently qualify:

European Union: an EU carrier may be used for travel outside the United States. Iceland and Norway are included. The United Kingdom is not covered since its departure from the EU on January 1, 2021.
Australia, Switzerland, and Japan: that country’s carrier may be used only if no City Pair fare is available on the route.

Department of Defense-funded travel cannot use Open Skies exceptions at all. For codeshare flights between a U.S. and foreign airline, you must book through the U.S. airline’s designator and flight number. Crossing the border specifically to board a foreign carrier in order to avoid Fly America is a violation.⁷ Documenting an exception requires a signed agency exception form, a detailed itinerary, and search results from the time of booking showing all available flights.

Miles, Status, and What You Can Keep

You can enroll in airline loyalty programs and keep frequent flyer miles earned on official travel. The restriction is that you cannot select a more expensive fare or a non-contract carrier solely to earn miles with a preferred airline; carrier preference is not a valid exception.³

Personal elite status does carry over. GSA has confirmed that travelers with status on American, Alaska, Delta, JetBlue, Southwest, and United receive the same benefits they would on a commercial ticket, including priority boarding and expanded seat availability.⁸ Complimentary status-based upgrades are generally permissible because they cost the government nothing extra. The line is paying more to get more.

Unused Tickets

Unused tickets have real monetary value, and agencies are required to recover those funds. If your trip is canceled or your itinerary changes, return all unused tickets or ticket portions to your agency for refund processing. An unused ticket should never be filed away, destroyed, or thrown out.⁹

For tickets paid through a centrally billed account, the agency coordinates with the Travel Management Company to confirm the credit posts to the agency account. For charges on an individually billed government card, the credit goes back to that card. You remain personally accountable for the value of issued tickets until every coupon is either used or properly reported on the travel voucher.⁹

1
eCFR. 41 CFR Part 301-10 – Transportation Expenses
2
U.S. General Services Administration. City Pair Program FAQs
3
eCFR. 41 CFR 301-10.111 – Exceptions to Contract City Pair Program Fare
4
General Services Administration. Government Airfare Types
5
U.S. General Services Administration. Airfare Rates – City Pair Program
6
eCFR. 41 CFR 301-10.100 – Use of Other Than Coach Class Accommodations
7
U.S. General Services Administration. Fly America Act
8
U.S. General Services Administration. Myth Buster – Seating
9
General Services Administration. U.S. Government Passenger Transportation Handbook