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Hovering through headwinds

MSU officials evaluate policy regarding work-related air travel

April 16, 2009

Despite racking up 18,500 flights-worth of miles last year alone, MSU doesn’t track frequent flier miles on flights for university business. MSU officials said they continue to evaluate this policy as the university weighs a possible tuition increase, program cuts and layoffs to address shortfalls in a budget plagued by rising costs and decreased state funding. These officials defend MSU’s policy, saying it would cost too much money to sign a contract with a specific airline to track and accumulate bonus miles and other perks.

“This notion that the dollars we’re spending can somehow be used for miles is just misdirected,” said David Brower, assistant vice president, chief financial officer and university controller.

Brower said instead of worrying about tracking how those 18,500 flights last year fits within the university’s $11 million travel budget, MSU advocates that university employees book the cheapest possible flight, regardless of airline.

Although other schools in the Big Ten mandate frequent flier miles incurred on university business must be used for other work-related flights, MSU’s policy only suggests faculty use their miles for the university’s benefit.

Lowest-available fare

Although the university advises employees to book the cheapest flight possible and use any accumulated frequent flier miles for future university business, there is no way to ensure this happens, MSU spokesperson Terry Denbow said.

“I view (frequent flier miles) as a huge red herring,” Denbow said. “Booking the lowest, logical available airfare makes much more sense.”

Brower said this method of booking flights is more cost effective than tracking every mile faculty uses.

“The university does not want travelers to book tickets based on getting frequent flier miles, because a lot of times, there are cheaper fares on other airlines that they may not be predominant in our area,” Brower said.

“We find it’s much more cost effective to encourage faculty and staff to — if they earn (miles) on university travel — to use it for that.”

MSU faculty can use university-sponsored travel agencies to book flights, or book flights on their own. However, Brower said faculty and staff are on the honor system when it comes to booking the lowest-available fare.

“I’ve flown on six different airlines during the past year,” Brower said. “To get frequent flier miles, you have to fly the same airline to ever make a difference.”

Airline contracts

Brower said airlines don’t allow universities to accumulate miles unless they sign a contract, something MSU is unwilling to do. He said MSU pursued a partnership with Northwest Airlines in the past to get discounted ticket prices, but the airline wanted exclusive travel from faculty and staff to certain locations.

“We found out over time that because this is a competitive marketplace, there are significant air-wars and discounts and better options that come into play that suggest we don’t want to align ourselves with one airline,” Brower said.

Brower said the state of Michigan and its employees have partnered with airlines in the past, but the state’s
situation is different than MSU’s.

State employees often have much less complex travel agendas, generally all within the country, he said. Because about one-third of the university’s travel is international, partnering with airlines is more difficult, he said.

If the university were to partner with an airline, it would miss out on consolidated tickets which are cheaper tickets for international flights.

“They are far superior in terms of what are available from the airlines themselves,” Brower said.

MSU and the Big Ten

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Although MSU encourages faculty to use frequent flier miles on university business, other schools in the Big Ten are more strict in their travel policies.

The University of Iowa, University of Wisconsin, University of Minnesota, Ohio State University and Indiana University all mandate that frequent flier miles incurred on university business be used for future work-related flights.

Debby Zumbach, the director of purchasing at the University of Iowa, said even though Iowa mandates frequent flier miles be used for university business, it’s impossible to track those miles.

“We don’t track the miles,” she said. “We recommend that the staff use their miles for business, but we don’t audit the miles. The cost of tracking those miles is more than allowing the employees to keep them.”

Other Big Ten schools such as the University of Michigan, Penn State University and the University of Illinois don’t have any requirements for frequent flier miles.

“There is no policy at the University of Michigan on how to deal with frequent flier miles for faculty that travel on university business,” U-M spokesman Rick Fitzgerald said.

“It is totally up to the individual on what they do with the frequent flier miles they receive.”

By using travel agencies and booking the cheapest fare, Brower said MSU is doing the best it can making university travel cost-friendly in tough economic times.

“When it comes to travel, we can’t oversee every aspect, but we try and suggest a way to help people … be more effective procurers of travel by suggesting they go through the two contracted agencies,” he said.

“By focusing on getting the lowest-available fare, we think that’s the best way to go.”

Staff writers Kayla Habermehl and Kate Jacobson contributed to this story.

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