Business-class travel will now be approved to destinations outside the continent of North America. For this purpose, the definition of North America includes: Canada, Mexico, the continental United States, Bermuda and the Caribbean islands. When these trips are charged to a WBS (work breakdown structure) element, the difference in cost between the lowest available coach and business class fare should be charged to an appropriate departmental discretionary account.
Federal regulations require that individuals whose travel is supported by federal funds use American-flag carrier airlines. See the web page for clarification on this issue concerning code-sharing.
For foreign travel, when no justification is stated on the travel expense voucher and first-class transportation is used, the reimbursement will be reduced to the appropriate fare on the aircraft used.
The Institute has designated two travel agencies as MIT authorized agencies; see the MIT travel page. When business-class travel is used, MIT's approved travel agencies provide the required documentation of the lowest available coach fare to be charged to the sponsored project. Travelers using other agencies are responsible for providing similar documentation from their agency.
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on July 12, 2000.
