ISSUANCE OF TRANSPORTATION REQUESTS TO TRAVEL AGENCIES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP57-00384R000400190148-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 5, 2001
• Sequence Number: 148
• Publication Date: April 8, 1950
• Content Type: MEMO

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Office Memorandum ? UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT
To : General Counsel
FROM : Chief, Services Division
DATE: 3 April 1950
SUBJECT: Issuance of Transportation Requests to Travel Agencies
1. The Standardized Government Travel Regulations As
Amended 30 January 1942, provide in Section III, Paragraph 20, as
follows:
"20. Used for all official travel.--Transportation
requests should be used, when practicable, to obtain
all official transportation where the amount involved
is $1 or more, but should not be issued to companies
other than transportation lines commonly recognized as
such. Transportation requests must not be used for
personal travel."
General Regukions No. 108 issued by the General Accounting Office
under date of 21 November 1946, under the heading "USE OF U.S.
GOVERNMENT REQUESTS FOR TRANSPORTATION", provides in part "United
States Government requests for transportation will be furnished...to
transportation companies in the United States...."
2. It has been and continues to be a matter of standard
practice on the part of most Government agencies and departments to
issue Transportation Requests to Thos. Cook & Son, Inc., the American
Express Company, and other similar travel agencies, which, as a matter
of business, procure reservations and actually purchase transportation
reservations for individuals, both public and private, from the trans-
portation carriers. This is done in order that travel is continuous and
uninterrupted, and that connected arrangements by air, steamship, and
surface transportation can be made, thereby resulting in great con-
venience to the traveller. There is also a considerable saving in con-
nection with per diem paid to Government employee travellers by the use
of these facilities in that they are not required to lay over at
various points throughout the world where they are changing from one
transportation carrier to another. Another advantage is that the in-
experienced traveller will avoid many personal problems which he would
ordinarily encounter in connection with foreign travel. Also, he may
not always use the 9gheapest =Se of travel or routing, thereby resulting
in serious fiscal cAfficulties in obtaining reimbursement or approval
of his travel voucher.
V rpretation of the above quoted regulations,
it appears that Transportation Reques cannot be issued to other than
transportatAns- ~ ~ I~ fi g travel agencies, such as
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 Approved Forlease 2006/11/05 :.CIA-RQP57-0038000400190148-6
Thos. Cook & Son* Inc. This question was recently raised by the
United States Lines in connection with travellers desiring to go
to Austria, in which case an attempt was made by the Transportation
Branch, Services Division, to make travel arrangements through Thos.
Cook & Son, Inc. This was discovered by the United States Lines,
who demanded that Transportation Requests be issued directly to the
carrier, i.e., in accordance with the Standardized Government Travel
Regulations, apparently for the purpose of avoiding the payment of
commission to the travel agency, Thos. Cook & Son, Inc.
4. Transportation carriers do not offer the services
offered by Thos. Cook & Son, Inc., or other travel agencies, and the
actual cost to the Government in Issuing Transportation Requests to
such agencies is exactly the same as it would be in the case of
issuing the requests to the initial carrier itself. It seems that the
elimination of difficulties to the traveller and to the Government
,as a whole justifies the issuance of Transportation Requests to
ktravel agencies as is now being done.
5. There is some feeling that the regulations were issued
for the purpose of eliminating the use of Transportation Requests in
connection with taxi service and other transportation facilities not
having proper arrangements for correctly billing the Government for
transpcrtation services. This is not the case of Thos. Cook & Son,
Inc., or other similar travel agencies, as a great majority of the
business conducted by these companies is for Government agencies and
Government employee travellers.
6. The services of Thos. Cook & Son, Inc., are, of course,
only utilized where it is advantageous to both the Government and the
traveller and are not used in the discrimination of any transportation
carrier.
7. An opinion is therefore requested as to the application
of these regulations and whether or not Transportation Requests can
continue to be issued to travel agencies. If you find that the
intention of these regulations is not entirely clear, it is recommended
that a decision of the Comptroller General be requested in order that
this point may be fully clarified. STPA-NqffL
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