Since July 1, 2004, all travel orders are required to state whether transportation tickets are to be purchased using a centrally-billed account (CBA) or an individually-billed account (IBA). This change was made to help reduce the number of duplicate payments being made for airline tickets.
A CBA is a type of account where the traveler is not responsible for personally purchasing their airline tickets. A traveler will make their flight reservations through a contact travel office (CTO, and the CTO charges the airfare costs to a CBA and then submits the claim for direct reimbursement to Commercial Pay.
An IBA is when a traveler makes their airfare reservations through a CTO and their government charge-card was charged for the amount of the ticket. The traveler now has an out-of-pocket expense that they can claim on their travel voucher.
If your orders do not specifically state that you are authorized to procure your own airfare using your government charge-card (IBA authorized), then you will be required to obtain an amended travel order before reimbursement for the cost of the airfare can be made.
In order to avoid potential reimbursement issues, always ensure that your travel orders state “IBA Authorized” when paying for airfare related to a TDY with your government charge-card.
Page updated February 10, 2015