Originally Posted by
FLgrr
hard part about this is that you may not be able to book it yourself on the airline and use the hotel of choice. You will get what they book for you, possibly not a preferred airline or with one you have any status. Then comes the odd routings cause the person booking it just bought the cheap flight, but did not really understand where you lived. Could turn into a great waste of time and effort. But if the goal is FREE - achieved!
well then you could either build miles and status on everything or try to sweet talk the person booking for you into doing something that does work for your needs.
I recall my father being asked to come out to Cali for a business gig and they wanted to fly him on some odd connection and stay in some crappy hotel. What he did was spend a small bit of time writing up a small report on how flying on his non stop choice and staying in the hotel he wanted (SPG) would actually not only give him what he liked but also save the company $123.45
I remembered those numbers of course.
They bought it because after all, everyone was into trying to say they were saving money. And the company had no real relationship with the hotel or airline they were going to send him on anyway.