________________________ October 16, 1997 ________________________ GSBCA 13993-TRAV In the Matter of SUSAN REED Susan Reed, Tuscaloosa, AL, Claimant. Lyn M. Bussells, Voucher Audit/Fiscal Service, Department of Veterans Affairs, Tuscaloosa, AL, appearing for Department of Veterans Affairs. WILLIAMS, Board Judge. Claimant, an employee of the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center (VAMC) in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, seeks $275, a portion of the cost of her airline ticket for travel to Minnesota which combined annual leave with official business. Because her travel was approved by the agency prior to her departure, was incident to her official duty, and was in the best interest of the Government, we conclude that claimant is entitled to be reimbursed for the round-trip incurred cost of her airfare between her permanent duty station and her temporary duty station up to the government rate. Background As of early July 1996, claimant was scheduled to be on annual leave between August 9 and August 20, 1996. She planned to spend her vacation in Duluth, Minnesota, and she purchased a personal, nonrefundable, roundtrip ticket between Birmingham, Alabama, and Duluth. The ticket cost $275. Subsequently, claimant was asked to serve on the faculty at a Health Information Management Professionals conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on August 19 and 20. Claimant agreed to have her personal ticket modified and reissued so that she could fly back from Minneapolis to Birmingham on August 20; she maintained her original outbound air travel from Birmingham to Duluth, planning to drive from Duluth to Minneapolis. The cost of the reissued ticket was $301. There was an additional reissue charge of $60. On August 1, 1996, the VA approved claimant's travel to and from Minneapolis, recognizing it was official business. Both claimant s request for travel, dated July 29, 1996, and her Travel Authority for Temporary Duty, dated August 1, 1996, indicated that her personal ticket was to be reissued to include the authorized official travel. On August 13, claimant flew from Birmingham to Duluth for her vacation. On August 19, claimant drove 167 miles from Duluth to Minneapolis for the conference. On August 19 and 20, 1996, claimant attended the conference. She flew from Minneapolis to Birmingham on August 20, 1996, and traveled by taxi to her home in Tuscaloosa. Claimant sought reimbursement of $562.50 for her travel expenses between Tuscaloosa-Duluth-Minneapolis-Tuscaloosa, including airfare, per diem for August 19 and 20, local transportation, and the reissue fee. The agency reimbursed claimant $287.50. This represented all of her claimed expenses except $275 of her airfare. The VA has requested this Board to evaluate claimant s claim for $275 in airfare costs and make a determination if the regulations were interpreted correctly. Discussion The relevant statute, 5 U.S.C.  5702(a)(1) (1994), states in pertinent part: Under regulations prescribed [by the Administrator of General Services Administration] an employee, when travelling on official business away from the employee s designated post of duty, . . . is entitled to any one of the following: . . . . (B) reimbursement for the actual and necessary expenses of official travel not to exceed an amount established by the Administrator for travel within the continental United States. As we recognized in Lorrie L. Wood, GSBCA 13705-TRAV, 97-1 BCA  28,707 (1996), the statute uses the word entitled -- a strong verb which means "to give a right or legal title to; to qualify (one) for something." The regulation which implements this statute, Federal Travel Regulation (FTR) 301-2.5(b), addresses the interrelationship between personal and business travel and states: When a person for his/her own convenience travels by an indirect route or interrupts travel by direct route, the extra expense shall be borne by him/her. Reimbursement for expenses shall be based only on such charges as would have been incurred by a usually traveled route. 41 CFR 301-2.5(b) (1995). Applying the statute and regulation, we conclude that claimant is entitled to reimbursement of allowable travel expenses between Tuscaloosa and Minneapolis, including airfare at the government rate in effect at the time. This Board has interpreted 41 CFR 301-2.5(b) to mean that an employee who travels via an indirect route is entitled to reimbursement up to the amount the Government was going to spend on the direct route. See Phyllis G. Thompson, GSBCA 13691-TRAV, 97-2 BCA  29,067 (reimbursing the entire cost of airfare, even though it included a personal trip to San Diego between temporary duty (TDY) assignments); Lorrie L. Wood, 97-1 BCA  28,707 (reimbursing transportation costs in the amount the Air Force was going to pay for two round-trips, even though claimant spent a week on annual leave in San Antonio). The agency relied on a series of General Accounting Office (GAO) decisions to deny reimbursement of the original cost of the ticket. These decisions hold that an employee who is required to perform TDY during leave and returns to his permanent duty (PDY) station after the TDY, may only be reimbursed for the difference between what it cost him to return to his PDY station via the TDY station and what it would have cost him to return to the PDY station directly from the place where he was on leave. 56 Comp. Gen. 96 (1976); 30 Comp. Gen. 443 (1951); 16 Comp. Gen. 481 (1936); 11 Comp. Gen. 336 (1932). The general rule underlying those decisions is that when an employee proceeds to a point away from his official duty station on annual leave, he assumes the obligation of returning at his own expense. These cases are distinguishable because they involve employees who had already departed on annual leave at the time the agency determined that they would have to perform TDY prior to returning to PDY. In contrast, claimant s TDY and travel were authorized prior to her departure on annual leave. A more pertinent GAO decision concludes that an employee who is authorized, prior to departure on annual leave, to travel to a TDY station and to return to a PDY station, may be paid travel expenses not to exceed the cost of direct travel from the PDY station to the TDY station. 24 Comp. Gen. 443 (1944). This is consistent with the Board's rulings in Phyllis G. Thompson and Lorrie L. Wood. Decision Claimant is entitled to be reimbursed for her airfare in an amount not to exceed the cost of a round-trip ticket between Birmingham and Minneapolis on a contract carrier in August 1996. ____________________________ MARY ELLEN COSTER WILLIAMS Board Judge