Corporate travel policies

[Rebekkap]

Hi folks, and happy new year!

I'm seeking the collective wisdom of the group, and would very much appreciate any thoughts you have to share.

I'm currently reviewing our corporate travel policy as the organisation I work for is going to have a lot more (mainly domestic) travel than we have had previously. When I first drafted the policy (around ten years ago now) I tried to make it as employee-friendly as possible based on my own experience of almost constant travel for several years in my previous role - but a decade out of the game, and I could use some help keeping it that way!

In summary, we allow choice of airlines if the price is reasonably equivalent or if the employee wants to pay the difference, choice of hotels (with a four star limit and consideration of price), meal reimbursements under the ATO's guidelines for reasonable amounts (as a whole per day, not broken down by meal), business class over four hours and economy under that unless you're connecting to a longer international flight. Staff can fly the night before they need to be somewhere if necessary (ie if they would have to get up at 3am, we're not expecting them to fly morning of a meeting, but they need to be reasonable)

So I have two questions for you all, which I would really appreciate hearing your perspectives on:
1. What is one thing you'd change about your employer's travel policies if you could? ie what causes you the most pain/frustration/unnecessary admin?

2. If your organisation currently uses a corporate travel agency, are you happy with them (or not) and would you recommend them (or not!) - if you don't want to post this info on the thread, I would love to hear from you via PM.

We're considering outsourcing bookings and ensuring compliance with the policy to a corporate travel manager, so keen to hear these thoughts!

Thank you!

cheers
Rebekka

 

[Captain Halliday]

No strong views on Q2, but for Q1:

Not being able to book flex is something I’d change in our policy.

Granted that means higher fares, but it eliminates:

• Change fees when trips are cancelled.
• Change fees when meetings run over and you have to fly later.
• Change fees when you need to stay an extra day.

For the employee:

• (Effectively) allows fly-forward when things finish early. The value to people who travel frequently of getting home on time or early shouldn’t be underestimated.
• Can self manage changes rather than cancel and rebook via the agency.
• No need to justify / reconcile change fees.

I’ve omitted SC in my benefits list as it’s not the motivation for wanting flex in my case. But I acknowledge it would potentially be of benefit.

 

[SeatBackForward]

Make sure the policy takes into consideration the travel to/from airport as well.

• For example if the employee needs to drive 3hrs to/from the airport and is expecting to board a 6am flight, they should really be allowed to stay much closer to the airport the night before.
• Is that time included in the 4hr threshold is - ie. is it specifically the flight time, or the time expected from door to door etc.

Also, are you issuing corporate cards for expenses or are they paying out of pocket and being reimbursed, then ensure they collect receipts etc.

Perhaps not relevant if its mainly domestic travel, but I always frustrated at how international reimbursements were supposed to be made.

 

[Rebekkap]

No strong views on Q2, but for Q1:

Not being able to book flex is something I’d change in our policy.

Granted that means higher fares, but it eliminates:

• Change fees when trips are cancelled.
• Change fees when meetings run over and you have to fly later.
• Change fees when you need to stay an extra day.

For the employee:

• (Effectively) allows fly-forward when things finish early. The value to people who travel frequently of getting home on time or early shouldn’t be underestimated.
• Can self manage changes rather than cancel and rebook via the agency.
• No need to justify / reconcile change fees.

I’ve omitted SC in my benefits list as it’s not the motivation for wanting flex in my case. But I acknowledge it would potentially be of benefit.

Thanks, excellent points about the flexibility. We do allow for it in our policy but I hadn't really thought about benefits for employees

 

[Rebekkap]

Make sure the policy takes into consideration the travel to/from airport as well.

• For example if the employee needs to drive 3hrs to/from the airport and is expecting to board a 6am flight, they should really be allowed to stay much closer to the airport the night before.
• Is that time included in the 4hr threshold is - ie. is it specifically the flight time, or the time expected from door to door etc.

Also, are you issuing corporate cards for expenses or are they paying out of pocket and being reimbursed, then ensure they collect receipts etc.

Perhaps not relevant if its mainly domestic travel, but I always frustrated at how international reimbursements were supposed to be made.

Thanks, good point. Four hours for economy vs business is scheduled flight time. And we do account for things like 3 hours door to door by saying they can fly the previous night - but I can't see why we couldn't also allow them to stay at an airport hotel the night before if that works better for them for whatever reason. Execs have corporate credit cards, and generally airfares/accom are booked by the company rather than the individual, and cabcharge cards provided if you need a taxi. So non-exec staff do have to pay for meals, etc out of pocket and then be reimbursed. For overseas trips we do per diems up front in (foreign) cash.

 

[GDSman]

we allow choice of airlines if the price is reasonably equivalent or if the employee wants to pay the difference, choice of hotels (with a four star limit and consideration of price

These both sound like favourable policies for the traveller but potentially very hard to police without a TA doing the comparisons and reporting objectively on potential policy breaches - would be very onerous for a non-travel person to accurately validate...I assume you have a TA already and Q2 is just asking for comparison points?
>4hrs for J is very generous - I'm guessing your travellers are pretty high revenue people to warrant that - the best I ever got was >6hrs.
I like the Captain's point re employee-friendly policy of paying more for flexibility - it was always something I appreciated in a corporate policy. Getting home even an hour earlier puts a smile on everyone's face.

 

[Rebekkap]

These both sound like favourable policies for the traveller but potentially very hard to police without a TA doing the comparisons and reporting objectively on potential policy breaches - would be very onerous for a non-travel person to accurately validate...I assume you have a TA already and Q2 is just asking for comparison points?
>4hrs for J is very generous - I'm guessing your travellers are pretty high revenue people to warrant that - the best I ever got was >6hrs.
I like the Captain's point re employee-friendly policy of paying more for flexibility - it was always something I appreciated in a corporate policy. Getting home even an hour earlier puts a smile on everyone's face.

We do not currently have a corporate TA, but people are almost never doing their own bookings, we have a couple of admin people who are well versed on the policy and who save screenshots of the search along with documenting any reasons why cheapest fare wasn't chosen. Internationally we give a little more flexibility - cheapest of the safe, most direct routes, ie we won't make anyone fly an airline that has a poor safety record or add significant extra time to a trip.

Regarding the four hours plus for J - it essentially means all domestic travel is in Y, plus NZ would be in Y (although I don't think we've ever had anyone go to NZ!) We have very few instances where there'd be travel within for example the US where you might have a domestic flight over that length - and I think it's sensible to recognise that (a) US domestic travel is a pretty awful experience in Y and that giving people a little extra comfort while working flat out on the other side of the world for a few hundred dollars extra is not a huge deal for the company but may be a huge deal for them, and (b) by the time you add luggage fees etc etc etc and likely book flexible Y anyway, there may be very little difference anyway. We don't measure our people's value in terms of revenue but those travelling overseas are generally senior people (not in age, in position in the company!) Plus you can do some work in J/F and that's pretty much impossible in economy on the US airlines.

 

[SeatBackForward]

cabcharge cards provided if you need a taxi

I'd be looking into a Business Uber account also. Uber have been very good in that a person with Uber already on their phone, can toggle between their own personal account, or business accounts and it all works through the same app. I currently use Uber with my personal and two different business accounts and just set the payment depending on the purpose of the trip.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Nice policy and very employee friendly!

The only thing with using corporates is to get someone with a bit of knowledge in the company to review quotes. EAs aren’t necessarily the best people to understand schedules and options.

On one trip we had been quoted for and booked on involved a flight leaving Australia at 6am, followed by an eight-hour transit, arriving at the destination early evening.

A simple google flight check found a flight leaving at midday, with a two-hour transit, also arriving early evening. The latter was also considerably cheaper! (Both top tier airlines, and in business class, one stop only)

The second option wasn’t even presented. Corporates don’t necessarily put time and effort into thinking about the client… just producing something that meets the minimum requirements (A->B)

 

[Happy Dude]

@Rebekkap wrt Q2, the company that I work for uses Reho, who are appalling.

They always stuff up flight and hire car bookings and we spend much admin time/change fees fixing it. Their best party tricks are booking lower buckets or fare class than requested ("Oh you didn't say that you needed luggage"), claiming that the fare is not available (despite real time screenshots) or booking a much smaller car than requested or booking the requested car at a higher rate. They're not as bad on hotels but rarely get rates better than publicly available.

They also will not add status to car hire or hotel bookings, and add their own ABN to flight bookings to skim off a few FF points. We get to pay a fee for this shabbyness too. I don't go through our admin team for travel bookings anymore even though it means I get told off by someone in the finance team.

 

[Happy Dude]

I'd be looking into a Business Uber account also. Uber have been very good in that a person with Uber already on their phone, can toggle between their own personal account, or business accounts and it all works through the same app. I currently use Uber with my personal and two different business accounts and just set the payment depending on the purpose of the trip.

Our firm has just started this too. It's terrific. The trick is to remember to switch to the business account from the personal account (which appears to be the default). I'm 1 from 2 so far.

 

[Sabot]

Hi folks, and happy new year!

I'm seeking the collective wisdom of the group, and would very much appreciate any thoughts you have to share.

I'm currently reviewing our corporate travel policy as the organisation I work for is going to have a lot more (mainly domestic) travel than we have had previously. When I first drafted the policy (around ten years ago now) I tried to make it as employee-friendly as possible based on my own experience of almost constant travel for several years in my previous role - but a decade out of the game, and I could use some help keeping it that way!

In summary, we allow choice of airlines if the price is reasonably equivalent or if the employee wants to pay the difference, choice of hotels (with a four star limit and consideration of price), meal reimbursements under the ATO's guidelines for reasonable amounts (as a whole per day, not broken down by meal), business class over four hours and economy under that unless you're connecting to a longer international flight. Staff can fly the night before they need to be somewhere if necessary (ie if they would have to get up at 3am, we're not expecting them to fly morning of a meeting, but they need to be reasonable)

So I have two questions for you all, which I would really appreciate hearing your perspectives on:
1. What is one thing you'd change about your employer's travel policies if you could? ie what causes you the most pain/frustration/unnecessary admin?

2. If your organisation currently uses a corporate travel agency, are you happy with them (or not) and would you recommend them (or not!) - if you don't want to post this info on the thread, I would love to hear from you via PM.

We're considering outsourcing bookings and ensuring compliance with the policy to a corporate travel manager, so keen to hear these thoughts!

Thank you!

cheers
Rebekka

Give people as much personal choice as possible, the focus should be on "Not taking the piss" if you get intent behind the policy right everything else will sort itself out.

 

[TonyHancock]

Give people as much personal choice as possible, the focus should be on "Not taking the piss" if you get intent behind the policy right everything else will sort itself out.

This is really the way to do it if you can. If you employ the right people you will get the right results. The CEO and managers need to take the lead. You soon find out whether you have a good team or not!! Much harder in a larger organisation of course.

 

[Forg]

>4hrs for J is very generous - I'm guessing your travellers are pretty high revenue people to warrant that - the best I ever got was >6hrs.

My work used to be that within Australasia it was Y, beyond was J … however when we started getting more jerbs in southeast Asia that started looking a little extravagant. So they added a middle tier of Premium Economy, and while I don’t know what the rules are exactly I think it works-out so that flying to Tokyo for a daytime flight means Premium Economy but if you have to do it overnight you can go Business.

 

[kookaburra75]

I think everyone has covered the main points regarding travel. When I started up the Australian arm for a UK company, I had a few battles getting a practical travel booking and expensing policy in place. I wrote the policy, so the total cost of accommodation had to be considered (hotel + taxis + meals) so the best overall option was available e.g. serviced apartment near the client site, and the team could self-cater and spread out a bit more than in a hotel.

For travelling to the airport, and total travel time, I covered that under our WHS policy, where fatigue had to be considered and managed. That one threw my boss in the UK, as he couldn't imagine people travelling that far in a day.

We used Corporate Traveller for flights and car hire bookings, who on the main were ok. For me runs to the UK I had to cross check the booking codes to make sure they had booked the 'right' economy, so I could try and upgrade using points.

 

[Rebekkap]

Nice policy and very employee friendly!

The only thing with using corporates is to get someone with a bit of knowledge in the company to review quotes. EAs aren’t necessarily the best people to understand schedules and options.

On one trip we had been quoted for and booked on involved a flight leaving Australia at 6am, followed by an eight-hour transit, arriving at the destination early evening.

A simple google flight check found a flight leaving at midday, with a two-hour transit, also arriving early evening. The latter was also considerably cheaper! (Both top tier airlines, and in business class, one stop only)

The second option wasn’t even presented. Corporates don’t necessarily put time and effort into thinking about the client… just producing something that meets the minimum requirements (A->B)

Thanks! That's a really good point about the corporates just meeting minimum requirements - I'm wondering if we should put "minimising travel time" as a requirement so that they have to consider this as well.

 

[Rebekkap]

I'd be looking into a Business Uber account also. Uber have been very good in that a person with Uber already on their phone, can toggle between their own personal account, or business accounts and it all works through the same app. I currently use Uber with my personal and two different business accounts and just set the payment depending on the purpose of the trip.

Current policy says ubers only to be used if other options unavailable - but we probably need to look at that again. Last time we checked, there were exponentially more assaults reported against uber drivers than taxi drivers, partly because taxis (at least in Australia) have cameras and ubers don't. We made the decision from a staff safety perspective that taxis were preferable.

Post automatically merged: Yesterday at 9:49 AM

Give people as much personal choice as possible, the focus should be on "Not taking the piss" if you get intent behind the policy right everything else will sort itself out.

That is definitely what we're trying to do! Work travel is hard enough without restrictive policies taking every bit of joy and comfort out of it! Plus we do trust our people.

Post automatically merged: Yesterday at 9:49 AM

@Rebekkap wrt Q2, the company that I work for uses Reho, who are appalling.

They always stuff up flight and hire car bookings and we spend much admin time/change fees fixing it. Their best party tricks are booking lower buckets or fare class than requested ("Oh you didn't say that you needed luggage"), claiming that the fare is not available (despite real time screenshots) or booking a much smaller car than requested or booking the requested car at a higher rate. They're not as bad on hotels but rarely get rates better than publicly available.

They also will not add status to car hire or hotel bookings, and add their own ABN to flight bookings to skim off a few FF points. We get to pay a fee for this shabbyness too. I don't go through our admin team for travel bookings anymore even though it means I get told off by someone in the finance team.

Thank you and noted! We're going to put out a request for tender and will definitely not include them!

 

[Rebekkap]

I think everyone has covered the main points regarding travel. When I started up the Australian arm for a UK company, I had a few battles getting a practical travel booking and expensing policy in place. I wrote the policy, so the total cost of accommodation had to be considered (hotel + taxis + meals) so the best overall option was available e.g. serviced apartment near the client site, and the team could self-cater and spread out a bit more than in a hotel.

For travelling to the airport, and total travel time, I covered that under our WHS policy, where fatigue had to be considered and managed. That one threw my boss in the UK, as he couldn't imagine people travelling that far in a day.

We used Corporate Traveller for flights and car hire bookings, who on the main were ok. For me runs to the UK I had to cross check the booking codes to make sure they had booked the 'right' economy, so I could try and upgrade using points.

Thank you - total cost is a very good point, and we do tell people in the guiding principles of the policy to consider it, but I might make that a bit more specific. Thanks for the feedback on Corporate Traveller too.

Post automatically merged: Yesterday at 9:51 AM

My work used to be that within Australasia it was Y, beyond was J … however when we started getting more jerbs in southeast Asia that started looking a little extravagant. So they added a middle tier of Premium Economy, and while I don’t know what the rules are exactly I think it works-out so that flying to Tokyo for a daytime flight means Premium Economy but if you have to do it overnight you can go Business.

Day vs night is a good point! I'm happy myself in PE on a day flight. J is so preferable for sleeping -- and doubly so if you need to work on arrival

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Thanks! That's a really good point about the corporates just meeting minimum requirements - I'm wondering if we should put "minimising travel time" as a requirement so that they have to consider this as well.

Not saying it’s *all* corporates, or even all of the time. It just happened to be this particular itinerary.

‘minimising travel time’ may also lead to perverse results… it could be that an itinerary is 10 mins shorter, but costs $2000 more.

It’s just having someone… like yourself… look critically at a quote and cross-checking against googleflights or similar.

We had two pax travelling on the above mentioned itinerary, but different PNRs because one returned a day later. The agency had booked one passenger in eurobusiness for intra-europe travel, but the other in economy. It was the same fare, same times, same everything else. We pointed this out and the second pax was rebooked into business. However we then noticed an agency fee because we had ‘requested a change to the itinerary’.

Err no… this was an initial error that had to be fixed.

Gotta be on top of what’s quoted, and do a critical review.

 

[SeatBackForward]

My work used to be that within Australasia it was Y, beyond was J … however when we started getting more jerbs in southeast Asia that started looking a little extravagant. So they added a middle tier of Premium Economy, and while I don’t know what the rules are exactly I think it works-out so that flying to Tokyo for a daytime flight means Premium Economy but if you have to do it overnight you can go Business.

I worked for an organisation that used to be J for any flights >6hrs. Then they decided that anyone not in a senior/executive role would be flown only upto PE, but that instead of overnight flights, they'd pay for an extra night in a hotel to book a daytime PE flight. Which in theory makes sense, except that most of us just wanted to get back ASAP rather than have a night in a hotel.