Originally Posted by
Science Goy
I'm not saying I'm uniquely "wired," just that there are many, many people like me who are thrilled to have jobs that let us travel hundreds of thousands of miles in Y (and are willing to use an unpaid personal day beforehand and afterwards, if extra rest is needed). Given the reservoir of such talent out there in this economy, I'm surprised anyone can demand J/F travel from their employer. If they said "I can't do my job properly unless you send Beluga caviar to my office every day at noon," they'd be laughed out of the HR office, but somehow a $10,000 international J ticket (in place of a $1500 Y ticket) is considered reasonable.
In any case, it sounds like some companies realize that in fact the work gets done no matter what class the employees travel in (e.g. the Cisco example), otherwise the employees get replaced. Hopefully this will mean the end of the J "perk" sooner rather than later.
I don't think anyone here is "demanding" it. My company offers it, and it's one of the things that keeps me there instead of going somewhere else. The grass is greener here.
That said, my flying in J or F is not dependent upon the company offering it. I fly so much I earn the status pretty rapidly, and UG's are frequent. If I am facing a TPAC for 14hrs and there is no auto UG, I can use the miles I have to buy up to F. And it makes a huge differance as to the quality of the work that gets done.
Showing up in Asia with a thrombo in your leg and baby barf on your shoe is less likely to close that deal or get that account than walking off that plane rested and calm is.