I’ve been trying to find a good way to fly my dog to the desert in the middle of summer (more on that solution by septel) and it turns out I have to fly through FCO. The one-ways were crazy…thousands of dollars above the contract fares. As is my wont, I walked around FSI bitching about how hard my life was. Here’s the rub: you’d be surprised how many folks told me that I could use the contract fares on alternate routings (e.g. flying through FCO instead of FRA). Sorry, but no. Check out 14 FAM 546, which basically says that the only time you can use the contract rates are those that follow the orders to the letter (including stop-overs, if they’re on the way) and are the least-expensive way to get there.

As an aside, during my fare search my FCO-post segment was 3x cheaper if booked as a round-trip instead of a one-way. Carson Wagonlit is prohibited from booking a ticket like that, so you’d have to purchase the fare on your own. Before doing that, you’d want to make sure that your EX will reimburse your voucher.