State spent $544,000 on unused airplane tickets

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — State agencies spent more than $500,000 on unused airplane tickets over 2 ½ years, the Louisiana Inspector General’s Office says.
The money went for 1,190 tickets bought by 112 state agencies and not used within one year of their purchase, according to a report released Friday.
Louisiana State University and other universities accounted for the most money, with $123,000 worth of tickets bought by LSU expired during that period. LSU athletics had the second-largest amount: $43,000.
LSU’s unused airfare was 2 percent of its $7.7 million total, the university said in a reply published with the report.
A 2010 report found that from 2006 through 2010, state agencies let $230,000 in airline tickets expire.
The Office of State Travel should consider requiring all state agencies to explain why tickets paid for by taxpayers go unused, the inspector general said.
“If a ticket is unused due to a reason not approved by the agency’s department head, a determination should be made as to whether the traveler responsible for causing the ticket to go unused should reimburse the state for the cost of the ticket,” the report recommends.
It also urged travelers and travel schedulers to be more mindful of using the tickets for other flights before they expire.
Airlines don’t make it easy to use tickets before they expire, according to the Louisiana Office of State Travel, which is part of Gov. Bobby Jindal’s administration. Travelers cannot take advantage of partly-used airline tickets. Typically, an agency would have to pay a fee of several hundred dollars to change the person or date associated with the airfare.
The inspector general also didn’t account for money saved through a voucher program with American Airlines. Since Louisiana started collecting the vouchers 11 months ago, the state has saved $42,629 in airfare, wrote Tammy Toups, assistant director of the state travel office, in a letter to the inspector general.