Work only pays for Y - techniques for better class (not ripping company off)?

[rtyuiop]

Hi folks,

I have the misfortune to work for a company that won't pay for anything other than cheapest possible economy fares for anyone lower than a VP (to be fair, that's fairly standard for the industry).

I'm likely to be increasing my rate of long haul travel soon, and have kind of had it with flights over 6 hours down the back of the bus! Happy to pay a bit of my own money to get into a better seat (premium econ is my goal), but the paperwork restrictions make it hard to book anything other than Y.

Anyone else out there in a similar situation who's had any luck at this? Found an airline who manages to make the process of making a Y booking, invoice that, then a separate payment for an upgrade easy? Found a search engine that lets you search for Y and Y+ pricing on the same flights easy? Managed to convince their boss that Y+ still counts as economy?

Cheers,

Danny

 

[juddles]

Have never had to do that, but perhaps you could research needed trips and demonstrate to your boss what a Y fare would be, explain you want to pay the difference to a better class, pay the full ticket yourself, and have them reimburse you what the Y flight would have cost them? Sorry if this is not practicable nor innovative, just thinking aloud!

 

[ozmille]

If your company uses a TA to make the bookings then they can put in dual form of payment. Our travel policy says premium economy to Europe but with some searching around sometimes you can find cheaper J seats and we can suggest those and they get booked.
Where do you usually fly to?

 

[eastwest101]

Juddles suggestions are good and fair - I have tries the same thing with varying success - but this will fail in the case of plain tight-as#$ businesses, or large very inflexible companies. A company that dosen't just pay lip service to motherhood statements about their staff will be reasonable about this, so if you ask and are refused then at least you know how they value their employees. If you ask and they are reasonable then they are worth sticking with!

A few ideas, obviously some will not be for you. Relocate to an area/airport not served by LCC's, identify the worst days to be travelling and restructure work/projects to avoid them if possible, dip your toes in as many loyalty schemes as you can (for a reasonable cost), use status matches ruthlessly to clamber your way up. Surprise your corporate travel arrangers to keep them on their toes - bit hard for them to chuck you into $29 Tiger fares if you give them 1 days notice to travel.

I haven't tried it yet but I would think that with some fare classes you can use points to upgrade with VA and QF, JQ are a real problem with their extortionate rebooking and bundling of stuff you don't want with stuff that you do. I agree that if I had people flying regularly on international flights >4-6hrs I would be looking to see them in Y+

 

[ashleyn]

I believe the "standard" in most industries is 6 hours + you fly in J. If your Company won't do that, pull out the Health and Safety card and tell them they are putting you at risk of DVT. That should get them thinking.

 

[oz_mark]

I believe the "standard" in most industries is 6 hours + you fly in J. If your Company won't do that, pull out the Health and Safety card and tell them they are putting you at risk of DVT. That should get them thinking.

May get them providing you evidence that it is not an economy class thing!

 

[Simo]

Very hard but it also depends on how much notice you get to travel.

I booked a flight on a few hours before I had to travel and booked J because there was only a few dollars difference between fares.

I also needed some flexibility as I might have been able to get the earlier flight and I made the earlier flight by about 20 mins.

 

[Austman]

Happy to pay a bit of my own money to get into a better seat (premium econ is my goal), but the paperwork restrictions make it hard to book anything other than Y.

Anyone else out there in a similar situation who's had any luck at this?

Me. I offered to pay the difference between Y and J. And my company had no problem with that (although the booking and claim process was a bit more complex). Note too that I always claimed and was always allowed the fare difference as a tax deduction.

 

[rtyuiop]

Many thanks all - there's been some good tips through here.

Unfortunately my employer does fall into the large and inflexible category - I'm in the IT industry, and for the most part you need to be a fairly high up manager to rate J - doesn't matter how good, senior, or well paid you are as a techie. Obviously exceptions apply! Going via a travel agent who can do two separate payments sounds like the best plan so far, I think I can make that work.

Austman, I really like the point of claiming the the fare difference as a tax deduction - that increases the amount I can justify to myself! I'd wondered if it was doable, but it's good to get confirmation.

ozmille, this upcoming surge of travel will be a bunch of separate destinations, but probably Europe, India, and the US for the most part. I've done them all before multiple times in economy, and the thought of a bunch in quick succession fills me with dread!

Cheers,

Danny

 

[notzac]

I'm in exactly this position (no fares above lowest logical whY unless VP or above). Add this to our corp TA that is unwilling / unable to charge multiple CCs when ticketing flights and a travel policy that requires all travel to be booked on the corporate card..

I have done a deal with my boss that I can charge whatever airfare I want to the card, but I MUST get a quote for lowest logical and use that for my expense claim (I pay for the balance myself direct to AmEx).

If you have a TA that won't charge multiple cards and can do a similar deal with your boss, I recommend making sure you set up an itinerary that meets the requirements of your travel policy and have it held until you actually receive the quote - that way you have written evidence of what the fare would have been so you expense the correct amount. Kind of upsets financial type people if you don't

Once you have the quote, call the TA, cancel it and rebook what you actually want.

 

[Tortuga]

Pretty much in the same situation, I travel every 5 weeks in whY on low bucket fares (seamans tickets). Majority of flights are over 10 hours.. I envy those who are in the position to get J class. I know of 2 situations where people in my company developed deep vein thrombosis.. Mixing a medical exam with a blood test + 20 hours flying in whY is not a good idea. The guy ended up in a Rio hospital for a week and got sent home after that. So much for HSE.. I know I am no where near as productive as I could be after long haul journeys in whY. I had a deal with our crew manager where I was able to request specific flights/airlines as long as it wasn't a lot more expensive than what they were looking at booking. Getting an upgradeable fare however and paying for it might be difficult and involve travel expense forms and proof of fare prices.. It would also take some time to get the money back in the case of my company.

 

[Moopere]

Me. I offered to pay the difference between Y and J. And my company had no problem with that (although the booking and claim process was a bit more complex). Note too that I always claimed and was always allowed the fare difference as a tax deduction.

Mmm. Thats worth a thought. No way I'd subsidise the business by forking out for tickets that they _should_ be just stumping up for J on, but the tax deduction thing could work ... still not right IMHO, but our business stopped paying J on anything less than 12hrs and even then, theres ongoing argument about whether a transit or stopover breaks the trip and allows Y right through, even for very long trips.

Its pretty hard to take frankly. Pre GFC 6 hours was the marker line for J. So, Y to everywhere domestically, but J to pretty much everywhere internationally. Times are tough now, but I note that those making these new rules don't actually do any flying ....

So how do you do this? Get your company's travel people to give you two quotes? Or do you simply get a flex ticket issued to you and then do an upgrade on your own?

 

[DeKa]

So how do you do this? Get your company's travel people to give you two quotes? Or do you simply get a flex ticket issued to you and then do an upgrade on your own?

I tried doing this... I got the work travel agent (who will only charge one credit card) to issue a ticket which I knew was flexible. I then called the airline and asked them what the difference was to change to a Y+ fare. They said they couldn't touch the ticket until after the first sector had been flown as it was the travel agent's responsibility to manage it up until at least the point of first departure.

 

[cmon0005]

Any large company that sends their staff on work trips in Y for trips longer then 7 hours are stupid. IMHO.

Only time I would except it is if the company gives you 3 days 'recovery days' after you arrive before starting to work and after you get back.
This means 3 days to relax in the hotel, catch up on sleep and see some local sights in return for flying Y.

Sure times are tougher now, but we're talking health and safety here, as well as fatigue and productivity. Also if your company is lucky enough to be getting business opportunities overseas especially multi-million dollar contracts then you should be providing your staff J.

My previous company had a policy of any staff going overseas and flying more than 7 (most of our flights were 17 hours) hours gets J fare without question, however you were expected at the Office the next day after arriving that night, which was fine with me, arriving @ around 11:30pm sleep til 6:30am be at office by 8am. Felt refreshed and got straight into work. = more productive.

 

[ozmille]

Any large company that sends their staff on work trips in Y for trips longer then 7 hours are stupid. IMHO.

Only time I would except it is if the company gives you 3 days 'recovery days' after you arrive before starting to work and after you get back.
This means 3 days to relax in the hotel, catch up on sleep and see some local sights in return for flying Y.

Sure times are tougher now, but we're talking health and safety here, as well as fatigue and productivity. Also if your company is lucky enough to be getting business opportunities overseas especially multi-million dollar contracts then you should be providing your staff J.

My previous company had a policy of any staff going overseas and flying more than 7 (most of our flights were 17 hours) hours gets J fare without question, however you were expected at the Office the next day after arriving that night, which was fine with me, arriving @ around 11:30pm sleep til 6:30am be at office by 8am. Felt refreshed and got straight into work. = more productive.

I completely agree. We have to fly in whY to Asia or whY+ to Europe and we get 1 day at the destination to get over the jetlag. Not enough in my opinion. The only good thing is that when you get back to Oz on the Saturday you do get the Monday off. So I plan my trips leaving on the Friday to Asia then spend the weekend there and leave on the Friday back home and have a 3 day weekend to get back in my routine. We only get to fly J to Europe if it is cheaper then whY+ (which doesn't happen often).

 

[Moopere]

I have done a deal with my boss that I can charge whatever airfare I want to the card, but I MUST get a quote for lowest logical and use that for my expense claim (I pay for the balance myself direct to AmEx).

This sounds like the go to me. I think I'll give this a try.

 

[yohy?!]

Also some airlines may allow you to "buy up" from the Manage My Booking screen once you have your ticket or at the airport on the day of departure. (Virgin Atlantic and Thai are some examples along with many of the US airlines).

 

[rtyuiop]

This sounds like the go to me. I think I'll give this a try.

Yeah, me too! I'm not hopeful I'll be able to get away with it though.

 

[reductionist]

In the past I have done this (with prior consent of my employer of course).

1. Found the cheapest Y fare as per their policy.
2. Personally booked & paid for the cheapest upgradeable Y fare.
3. Put in an upgrade request using my own points.
4. Submitted a travel expense claim for the cheapest Y fare (found in point 1).

End result is they have paid for the cheapest Y fare and I have coughed up for the rest. I've been happy to do this because I have taken a few extra days either side of work activities for my own leisure travel.

For the record even for MEL-SFO they ship us off in Y. I think only board members travel in J. Recently the wife of one of our senior staff died suddenly due to DVT. I don't know if that will influence any future travel decisions however as I'm lead to believe Y pax are at the least risk of DVT?

 

[simongr]

I don't know if that will influence any future travel decisions however as I'm lead to believe Y pax are at the least risk of DVT?

I think that the risk is the same in all classes rather than higher in J/F.