Personal Leave with Official Travel (PLOT) is leave taken at an official TDY location; all travel takes place at locations in the official itinerary. The following applies to PLOT:

• Travel dates may vary due to leave.
• Use DTS for reservations and General Services Administration (GSA) Airline City Pair fares are authorized because all travel locations are official.
• The authorization must include all dates of travel (official and personal) away from the permanent duty station (PDS).
• The Per Diem module must show all unofficial days in a non-per diem status (i.e., leave, duty day, non-duty day) to ensure that per diem allowances are not paid for the unofficial days.
• Personal/unofficial expenses can’t be charged to the GTCC.

DFAS certification of DTS for PLOT includes all PLOT except for travel by privately owned vehicle in excess of 400 miles.

Policy & Guidance References:

• JTR par. 0333
• DTS Best Practices par. 7.8

Leisure in Conjunction with Official Travel (LICWO) is a type of PLOT, but includes personal travel to non-official locations. The below items apply to LICWO:

• Initiate the LICWO request through TMC assistance in DTS or by contacting the TMC directly.
• GSA City Pair fares are not authorized to or from places that are not official locations (e.g., leave locations).
• The TMC may be able to make official TDY and LICWO travel arrangements. Any extra costs for arranging LICWO travel are the traveler’s responsibility and should not be included in DTS.
• Personal/non-official expenses can’t be charged to the GTCC.

For NPS travelers, the following procedure is appropriate:

1. Arrange travel in DTS between your PDS and TDY location as if leave is not being taken.
2. Once approved in DTS, contact SATO at 855-744-4659 to request “split ticketing” and “early ticketing”

Once ticketed, request assistance making the desired changes to your itinerary for “leisure” purposes.  Any additional amounts must be charged to a personal credit/debit card account.

*IMPORTANT* SATO may offer an alternative course of action, however they do not have a comprehensive understanding of applicable regulations.

Policy & Guidance References:

• JTR par. 0333
• DTS Best Practices par. 7.9
• DoD Government Travel Charge Card Regulations par. 040504

An individual or department POC wishing to request an EFT or Check Trace may do so by emailing Travel@nps.edu.  Individuals may not submit requests on their own.  Requests must be submitted by the NPS Travel Office.

DTMO Link: 
https://www.defensetravel.dod.mil/Docs/DFAS_Check_Trace_Process.pdf

DFAS Link: 
https://corpweb1.dfas.mil/askDFAS/ticketInput.action?subCategoryID=18404

JTR par. 010206 states that an "order directs travel to, from, or between officials points and serves as the basis for the trip and associated reimbursement." 

JTR par. 020205 prescribed official points as those points listed in Table 2-2. 

While the approving official could authorize travel to/from a non-PDS or un-official location to accommodate an individual’s personal circumstances, the Government has no authority to incur additional costs associated with the arrangements nor can Gov’t fares be used for personal travel. Reservations in DTS may only be made between official points.  If a traveler wishes to depart from, or return to an unofficial point, please follow the guidance for LICWO above.  

The Prompt Payment Act requires that federal agencies pay vendors and agency personnel promptly. An agency must pay a travel claim within 30 calendar days after a payable claim is received (i.e. claim is not retured for correction).  If the Government does not pay a travel claim within 30 calendar days, the agency must pay prompt payment act interest.  Prompt Payment Act Interest is payable starting from day 31 to the date payment is effective (i.e., day 31 is 1 in the calculation).  The below web tools are used to calculate the amount of Prompt Payment Act Interest payable to travelers.

Treasury Website: 
https://fiscal.treasury.gov/prompt-payment/

< 30days: 
https://fiscal.treasury.gov/prompt-payment/interest.html

>30 days: 
https://fiscal.treasury.gov/prompt-payment/monthly-interest.html

Once calculated, an amendmend to the paid voucher is created to add a non-mileage expense for the amount of interest owed.

Cross-Over and Next Fiscal Year Travel

• Travel expenses anticipated and incurred in the next fiscal year may not be charged or obligated against current fiscal year accounts in DTS or otherwise.  Reimbursable and Direct accounts utilized for travel crossing fiscal years or wholly within the first quarter of the next fiscal year must request the next fiscal year account be established in DTS by the Funds Receipt Division.  The NPS Travel Office has established a tool at https://nps.edu/web/travel/load-loa-in-dts to facilitate these requests.  Due to the volume of requests and anticipated workload, a minimum of two working days is required before a Job Order is established in DTS by the Funds Receipt Division.
• The next fiscal year Contract City Pair fares and the next fiscal year discount government (DG) fares are not usually available in DTS until the end of August or middle of September, depending on when the airlines make those fares available to the Transportation Management Companies (TMCs) servicing the various DoD services.  Until they are made available, travelers can expect to see a large number of cost-prohibitive flight options for flights that are normally much less expensive.  Please continue to monitor both DTS and the Travel Office website for information on when the next fiscal year City Pair and DG fares are available.
• Travel in the next fiscal year remains contingent upon Congress passing a National Defense Appropriations Act (NDAA) or a Continuing Resolution (CR) funding the Department of Defense beyond the current approprriation.  Until the NDAA or a CR is passed, travel in the next fiscal year may only be performed by personnel deemed “mission essential”.  While it is never expected that the appropriation currently funding DoD will lapse, resulting in an emergency furlough or “Government Shutdown,” travelers are advised to coordinate with their chain of command to request “mission essential” designation if circumstances change and the mission cannot be rescheduled as a result of the furlough.
• For travel crossing fiscal years, a single set of orders will be issued with Job Orders loaded for both the current and the next fiscal year.  Once the next fiscal year City Pair and DG fares are available, travelers may begin arranging travel that crosses over into the next fiscal year.  If the the next fiscal year account has not been established in DTS at the time travel is arranged, travelers may schedule the round-trip airfare for the TDY but must adjust the TDY trip dates to end on 30 September.  As previously stated, the next fiscal year expenses and allowances may not be obligated or charged to current year accounts, even if the funding is valid in the next fiscal year.  The airline tickets do not need to be adjusted since the actual transaction (purchase of the flights) will occur wholly within the current fiscal year.  Once the next fiscal year account is available, travelers may amend or adjust their TDY dates and expenses to include the next fiscal year dates.

DTMO Guide: https://www.defensetravel.dod.mil/Docs/Processing_Authorizations_for_the_New_Year.pdf