Example

A state employee purchases a commercial airline tickets for multiple duty points with a total fare of $1,000. The ticket consists of four flights:

• The first flight occurs August 10, 2022, and the ticket shows a $150 cost for the flight.
• The second flight occurs August 28, 2022, and the ticket shows a $300 cost for the flight.
• The third flight occurs September 5, 2022, and the ticket shows a $250 cost for the flight.
• The fourth flight occurs September 15, 2022, and the ticket shows a $300 cost for the flight.

In this situation, appropriation year 2022 must be charged for $450, and appropriation year 2023 must be charged for $550.

Example

Mike, a state employee traveling on state business outside his designated headquarters, catches the flu. He is unable to perform his duties and determines it is necessary to visit the nearest appropriate hospital before returning home. He drives his personal vehicle to and from the hospital. The mileage Mike incurs is reimbursable at the applicable reimbursement rate.

Example

Julie is a state employee headquartered in Houston. She travels to Dallas to conduct state business, and attends business meetings in Dallas on Monday and Tuesday. She has another business meeting in Dallas on Friday. Julie's agency determines it would not be cost-effective to reimburse her to return to Houston, her headquarters, and then back Dallas, her duty point, on Friday to resume state business. Julie agrees to stay in Dallas on personal leave on Wednesday and Thursday. Therefore, she may be reimbursed for meal, lodging and transportation expenses incurred at the duty point while she is on leave. The expenses she incurs both on personal leave and while conducting state business are only reimbursable up to the applicable maximum reimbursement rates. If Julie decides to drive her vehicle to a location outside the duty point or incurs meals at a location outside the duty point, the expenses would not be reimbursable.

Example

Pam, a Department of Public Safety (DPS) undercover agent, is threatened due to the nature of the duties she performs. DPS determines that Pam and her family should travel to an adjacent city to ensure their safety. All related travel expenses including lodging, transportation and meals incurred by Pam and her family may be reimbursed by DPS.

Example

Rosie is a state employee who uses her personal credit card for most of her monthly purchases because her credit card company offers a bonus structure for use of the card. She is able to trade in points that she earns from her credit card purchases for air miles. Rosie decides to use her air miles for a state business trip, and therefore she does not incur any out-of-pocket costs for the airfare. She would like to claim what the ticket would have cost her on a travel voucher. Rosie is not able to do so because she has not incurred an airfare expense for reimbursement purposes.

Example

Joe, a state employee planning a business trip to Amarillo, finds a great price for a packaged trip online. The package includes airfare for $200, rental car for $30 per day and lodging for $90 per day. If Joe were to book the airfare separately, it would cost $400. Reimbursement of each cost is limited to what would have been reimbursable if it had not been included in the package. For example, the applicable lodging rate is only $85, so the additional $5 spent on lodging is not reimbursable. When Joe submits his travel voucher for reimbursement, he will need to include documentation that states separately each type of travel cost combined in the package.

Example

Anna is a state employee headquartered in Dallas. She flies to Albuquerque on a Monday morning to conduct state business. The state business begins Monday afternoon, temporarily ends Friday afternoon, and resumes the following Monday. Anna's reimbursing agency reviews the amount it would cost to fly Anna back to Dallas on Friday and then to Albuquerque on Monday, and determines that the estimated meal, lodging and transportation reimbursement for Anna to stay in Albuquerque for the weekend would be less than the cost of additional airfare. The agency advises Anna that it would be most cost-effective for her to stay in Albuquerque over the weekend and complete her state business the following week. The lodging, meal and transportation expenses Anna incurs over the weekend are reimbursable up to the applicable maximum reimbursement rates.

Example

Ron, a state employee on vacation in New Mexico with his family, is called back to his state office in Dallas by his supervisor during an emergency situation at the agency. He travels from New Mexico to Dallas and completes the state duties required by his supervisor, then returns to New Mexico for the remainder of his vacation. Ron may be reimbursed for reasonable travel costs incurred to get him to Dallas to conduct his business and then back to New Mexico to complete his vacation.

Example

David, a state employee headquartered in Austin, travels on state business to Dallas. David is also a member of a professional organization that will pay for his lodging cost while in Dallas because he will attend one of the organization's functions during one night of his stay. Since the professional organization is paying for David's lodging cost, he may not claim a lodging cost on his voucher for reimbursement from the state. David may claim his other reimbursable expenses incurred for state business, such as meals, transportation, incidentals, etc.

Example

Gloria is a state employee who is planning to travel to Florida for a business meeting. The maximum lodging rate for Florida at the time is $100 per day, and the maximum meal reimbursement rate is $45 per day. Gloria finds a hotel very close to where her business meeting is being held, but the hotel charges $110 per night. Gloria decides that she would like to reduce her meal reimbursement from $45 to $35 so that she can use the $10 reduction to stay in the convenient hotel.

Example

Carol and Jennifer are employed by the same state agency and are planning a business trip to Colorado. The maximum lodging rate for the area in Colorado where they will be staying is $90, but the women would prefer to stay at a specific hotel that is most convenient to the location of their business meeting. The only problem is that the room rate in this hotel in $140. Carol and Jennifer decide to share a room so they can stay in the hotel of their choice. The women are charged the $140 per night, but since each woman would be allowed up to $90 per night, the lodging cost is reimbursable. Carol and Jennifer may each claim their share of the lodging expense, which is $70 per night.

Example

Rita, a state employee traveling to Dallas, Texas on state business, decides to stay at a hotel that costs $100 per night. Rita is limited to the maximum lodging reimbursement rate, which is $85 per night, but she wants to pay the $15 out of pocket to stay at a different hotel. When she checks out of the hotel, she is charged a six percent hotel occupancy tax on the $100 room rate, totaling $6. Rita is only able to claim reimbursement for six percent of the $85 maximum rate, totaling $5.10, so she will pay $.90 of the tax out of pocket.