Work paying for F and J flights

[Shano]

are you impressed with the M5? My last 2 employers provided Dell (C640) & IBM (T42) however the new employer provides the Tecra M5 and I must say its a powerhouse...eats multiple 'power hungry' apps not probs! the 2Gb of RAM helps

Im ok with the smallish size screen when out of the office and have a dual screen set up when in the office - overall very happy with it

...sorry for pushing this thread off track even more

The M5 is a great machine, but I purchased with only 1 GB RAM (2 x 512MB). Need to now upgrade to 2GB. Does run pretty warm though. I find much easier to cart around than previous 15" and 15.4" notebooks that I have had.

 

[whereisfifty]

One year was lucky enough to be working mostly for a crazy US Gov't client who expected contractor's staff to follow their own policy (J for anything over 8 hours - my own company's policy (for the non-execs anyway) is Y for everything). They had this policy of in-person meetings, rather than tele or vid conference, hence several RTW itineraries for one day meetings. :shock: Anyway, after about 3000 SC and still no Chairman's Club invitation, and with another few months left in the membership year, I started flying another airline!

Re ownership of points, given my company expects me to fly and often work in my own time, i regard those points as a very minor form of personal remuneration to be used on family outings.

 

[Rae]

I look after 4 small businesses (1 is my own) and I'm employed by the other 3. For all four the policy is whY, but mostly because we send an average of 6 people per flight (there's approx 20 of us in the four businesses combined) and we book an average of 18 flight legs (x ave 6) a month. - too expensive any other way!

I keep that same policy for myself (no heirarchy here), but do pay out of my own pocket to fly J on most long hauls these days.

To answer the other question, my SC's this year are 2,725.

 

[Jobu]

I previously worked for a Big 4 firm where there was a hierarchy which determined what class you flew. Domestic it was Y for everyone below directors. International was different depending on whether it was long haul or short haul, but also meant that partners could sometimes fly first class.

Now work for a global mining company where the policy is J for anything more than 3 hours.

 

[Jobu]

Anyway, after about 3000 SC and still no Chairman's Club invitation, and with another few months left in the membership year, I started flying another airline!

Unfortunately mate Chairman's Club has no relevance with how much you fly, but more your position in your organisation (~Chairman) and how much your organisation spends on Qantas (~$1m+ pa).

One of my colleagues earned 7000+ SCs each year for about 5 years straight and still got nothing more than WP.

 

[winetraveller]

I set my own budget, depending on the targets I have, and obviously this has to be reasonable and justifyable in relative terms.

Currently my travel budget is $190,000 per annum. I generally fly Y domestically in the US where most of my short haul is taken, and almost always J internationally. On occasion I fly Y trans Atlantic, but can generally upgrade using points or eVouchers. I do shop around, and manage all my own travel.

I often use rtw fares, currently flying an SQ F RTW which was great value at $9000.

I don't mind using my own points to upgrade to F as I generate so many just don't use them otherwise.

 

[winetraveller]

Also I dont get paid for conference calls at 11PM or 5Am - given that the value of FF points is say 1c per points - I basically get a bonus osf maybe $3K per year

I occasionally get Oz based work mates who think that I swan around the world grumbling about flying Y domestically when I get to fly at the pointy end internationally.

They do seem to forget that I work almost alone, and fequently am travelling and working dreadfully long hours, and often speaking to them at 1am my time, just because it suits them.

On the other hand I get free PJ's and caviar.

 

[Flashback]

On the other hand I get free PJ's and caviar.

Touché!

 

[Harpoon]

For work, anything over 4 hours (total flying time, if theres stopovers) is a J seat. Anything under 4 is obviously Y. No F seats unless company V.I.P. or special circumstances.

We also have to choose the cheapest J fare if going to Asia, which rarely means QF.

 

[Jobu]

We also have to choose the cheapest J fare if going to Asia, which rarely means QF.

Perhaps you should try convince your company of the virtues of selecting one airline (QF) and negotiating preferable fares...

 

[simongr]

For work, anything over 4 hours (total flying time, if theres stopovers) is a J seat. Anything under 4 is obviously Y. No F seats unless company V.I.P. or special circumstances.

We also have to choose the cheapest J fare if going to Asia, which rarely means QF.

Maybe you should suggest DASxx fares - Circle Asia flying on a combination of carriers and travelling to multiple locations - can be very cost effective...

 

[Dave Noble]

We also have to choose the cheapest J fare if going to Asia, which rarely means QF.

They are providing business class travel ; I would be happy with that ; QF isn't the best carrier in the world

Dave

 

[garyjohn951]

They are providing business class travel ; I would be happy with that ; QF isn't the best carrier in the world

Dave

Sounds like good business practice to me. The employee gets J travel, lounges, etc to keep him fresh and compensate for extra time if that is included. It is not the employers responsiblity to pay more cash for the employee to load up points and SC's.

 

[Harpoon]

They are providing business class travel ; I would be happy with that ; QF isn't the best carrier in the world

Dave

Oh don't get me wrong, free J class fares is awsome The reason I personally like flying QF is mainly because it's an Australian company. Some might say that's a stupid reason if work's paying but... /shrug.

I agree QF J is not the best around. Malaysian J is easily better on the 772, as is Singapore J. Never flown Cathay J or Thai J so don't know about how they rate in comparison.

Perhaps you should try convince your company of the virtues of selecting one airline (QF) and negotiating preferable fares...

There is some room to negotiate the fare and which airline to go with, mainly to do with scheduling and whether it's safe to arrive at a certain time etc. Work's very safety conscious with business travel which is nice to know

 

[NM]

I agree QF J is not the best around. Malaysian J is easily better on the 772, as is Singapore J. Never flown Cathay J or Thai J so don't know about how they rate in comparison.

I would not bring is down to one carrier vs another. It all depends on where you need to travel. "Better" will vary greatly depending on the route. for example, CX operate three different business class products between Australia and HKG. Similarly SQ. QF operates two different business class products (Skybeds and Dreamtimes). and I am just considering seat types here.

But even more important can be the destination. SQ is always going to route via SIN, MH via KUL, CX via HKG, TG via BKK etc. At least QF can provide direct services to the largest number of Asia destinations.

 

[WTL]

If you work for the federal government (not as an MP interestingly) they insist on QANTAS not giving employees any points (do get status however ). So you can't upgrade to J or even book an award for yourself, even if you wanted to for work.

Never worked out how QANTAS can figure out how not to give FF points for employees but MPs, via the same booking office, QANTAS can never seem to stop them getting the points :?:

I understand that government travel policy says MPs should use their FF points for official travel "whenever possible", but because of the need for flexibility it's not often "possible".

Very convenient.

 

[Must...Fly!]

Sorry to bump such an old thread...

I've enjoyed reading through this one though, interesting finding out what people do that lets them travel so much! As a university student going in to the second year of business school (double degree Economics & Commerce) it's given me an idea of where I should be looking once I get out of Uni and long term.

Thanks guys!

 

[NYCguy]

Sorry to bump such an old thread...

I've enjoyed reading through this one though, interesting finding out what people do that lets them travel so much! As a university student going in to the second year of business school (double degree Economics & Commerce) it's given me an idea of where I should be looking once I get out of Uni and long term.

Thanks guys!

I would recommend working very hard at Uni and trying to excel - these days the best opportunities go to the highest achievers.

It seems that the people who fly the most are either senior management types, often working for multinationals, and/or individuals with a set of highly specialised skills who get flown around the world as consultants to, or contractees of, corporate or government clients.

 

[Cyclogenesis]

Work has a fly J policy for flights over 8 hours... Due to a limited budget I always opt for Y so I can actually travel...

There is always another side to the coin though... I have the option to head into management etc... but I find my Y flying job (scientist) extremely reading and just plain good fun (sometimes I get paid to chase thunderstorms!)... I am happy to sacrifice the trappings of executive life for that!

That said I will be putting in my first ever UG to J request on my next MEL-LAX flight (SWMBO is SG and will be doing it for me) so fingers crossed!!!

 

[Lancair]

If you work for the federal government (not as an MP interestingly) they insist on QANTAS not giving employees any points (do get status however ). So you can't upgrade to J or even book an award for yourself, even if you wanted to for work.

Never worked out how QANTAS can figure out how not to give FF points for employees but MPs, via the same booking office, QANTAS can never seem to stop them getting the points :?:

MP have to relinquish the FF points they earned traveling on the taxpayer's dime when they leave Parliament.

I understand that government travel policy says MPs should use their FF points for official travel "whenever possible", but because of the need for flexibility it's not often "possible".

Very convenient.

One MP was told by the parliamentary travel office tell that they weren't going to book any more travel for him until he started using some of the four million FF points s/he had earnt....