Update: Concerning Goverment Waste

So in my previous post I wrote about the expensive airline tickets for my flight to Rochester. The story gets better.

Now Government workers get a bad rap for waste but sometimes it is systematic errors. I received an email from the travel agency because they said my airfare expired. I called in to the travel agent and gave them a credit card to purchase the JetBlue tickets on. Well they waited and waited and now the price has gone up.

So they contacted me saying that they needed to rebook the flight. The fare went up and they couldn't purchase it at the price the told me when I called in. Now the airfare has hopped up to $423 from $229, and I am flying a puddle jumper in and out of LaGuardia.

Now why didn't the travel agent take my credit card number and not buy the airline tickets? This baffles me. What bothers me more is that I could have done it myself using jetblue.com except for some department of labor policy that requires us to book through the travel agent.

The office is full of economists who, for the most part, value efficiency. This is due to our schooling. When things like this happen, everyone in the office gets agitated. Weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth have been known to occur. But the waste is not due to me. I can find a better way of doing it but what they really want is the most cost efficient way within their parameters.