Franci and all:

He has to buy a ticket that is written as a United (or another US carrier)
flight.  This comes under "code-sharing" and federal regulations are pretty
specific.  At present a flag carrier is an airline which is a U.S. flag
carrier or a partnership (code-sharing) arrangement between a U.S. carrier
and a foreign carrier as long as any travel on the foreign carrier is with a
ticket written by and using the U.S. carrier's flight information.  (You
often encounter that a flight you are on which goes to an international
destination will have two different flight numbers; for example,  American
Airlines 123 and Canadian Airlines 456 are really the same flight, but show
different numbers depending on who is writing the ticket.)

You might want to look at the November 13, 1998 February Register (63 FR
63417) for more info.

But, the reality is that things haven't changed much in terms of cost--cost
is no issue when making flag-carrier decision and flying on federal funds.
The carrier is the issue.  Make liberal use of code sharing arrangements.
Follow the rules for stopover exceptions, etc. (the NSF GPM is a good source
of info here).  And be prepared to disallow the cost if the rules are broken.

Happy Friday.

Jane

>Here's my Friday afternoon question:    What defines a US flag carrier?    I
>have a PI going from the U.S.-London-Stockholm with a stopover in London.
>Apparently there are no US-carrier flights from London to Stockholm, but he
>can buy a "United" ticket for a flight which is actually an SAS flight, just
>with a United ticket.    The United ticket costs more than the SAS ticket.
>Is he supposed to buy the United ticket in order satisfy the Fly America
>rule?   Or because SAS is flying the plane anyway, can he just go ahead and
>buy the SAS ticket because there are no US carriers actually flying that
>route?
>
>And is there someplace where these Fly America questions are answered?
>
>Franci Farnsworth
>
>Frances Vinal Farnsworth
>Coordinator of Sponsored Research
>Munford House
>MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE
>Middlebury, VT 05753
>Tel:  802-443-5889
>Fax: 802-443-2081
>email:  xxxxxx@middlebury.edu
>
>
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Jane A. Youngers
Director
Office of Grants Management
University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio
7703 Floyd Curl Drive
San Antonio TX  78284
voice:  210-567-2333
fax: 210-567-2344
email:  xxxxxx@uthscsa.edu

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