Business travel is not as glamorous as some may think. There is nothing wrong for an employer to “pamper” employees a little by allowing them to fly business class on a long flight and some flexibility to choose flights that are most convenient to them, even allowing them to build some personal R&R into the trip.

Having said that, it is reasonable to impose some limits to what the employees are allowed to do.

Most companies adopt a policy of requiring employees to fly the airline offering the most direct route with the lowest logical fare.

Employees are usually allowed to choose the preferred flight and airline so long as fare is not significantly more expensive, usually a % or fixed $ amount.

Employees will not be allowed to fly AC if another airline with comparable routing, class of service and schedule is selling at a price that is significantly cheaper than AC by more than the pre-determined % or fixed $ amount. The converse is also true.

For example, YYZ-LHR, if BA is cheaper than AC by more than the pre-determined % or fixed $ amount and the departure and arrive time are comparable, the employee may book AC only if the employee will pay the fare difference from his/her own pocket.

If AF is cheaper than BA and AC but requires an intermediary connection at CDG, the employee may decline the AF flight but must pick the cheaper between BA and AC. The deciding point is again usually a pre-determined threshold % or $ amount. The employee may pick either BA or AC if both fares are comparable.

Time is money. Employer may pay a little bit more to get you to the destination faster as well as avoiding intermediary connection points as it means probability of misconnection and delay. Such journey is usually longer.