Computation of Constructive Travel Entitlements

A Federal employee appealed a settlement which denied his claim for per diem allowances. The employee, who traveled by privately owned vehicle for his personal convenience on temporary duty, claimed per diem for time that he would have spent traveling by airplane. Since the employee's travel orders authorized actual subsistence expenses and not per diem, his constructive travel should have been computed by using the actual expense method for the time he would have spent traveling by airplane. Therefore, his agency computed the constructive travel entitlement properly, since it is unlikely that the employee would have incurred additional expenses had he traveled by airplane. Accordingly, the employee's claim was denied.