Originally Posted by
accountinggal
To some extent, I agree. It's great to have those perks and I've taken advantage of them myself over the last few years. I don't think as employees we have a right to live in a lap of luxury, however, simply because we have the budget to do so. Being good stewards of company money is important as well, otherwise those rights may be taken away, IMO.
Lap of luxury? No.
I have seen this from both sides -- from a company that lets me book everything myself and trusts that I won't buy J tickets or tickets that cost $1000 more than the competitors (but understands the concept of "penny wise, pound foolish") and a company that would try to force a 4 hour layover to save $12 on a ticket. I have never had to buy an airline ticket away from my preferred carrier, but I have bought red eye flights to save $300 and booked 5:30AM departures to save money as well. I stay in mid-tier hotels (every stay, when possible, with SPG). I rent from one agency. Never has this cost my company money I wouldn't have spent myself.
A middle ground is required. The people that set travel policies, IMO, should be frequent travelers themselves, not beancounters that think business travel is glamorous and that we're out eating foie gras every night on the company dime.