Originally Posted by
epicurus
Thanks for all the advices. For those who gave nothing but moral lessons, please do start another thread to lecture those who travel and work at the same time why we shouldn't be on this forum in the first place.
Now coming back to my original post... most travel policies give some flexibility on top of the "least expensive" option. In this case, I am talking about $200 difference on top of a $6K ticket. And this is not with the client's corporate travel department, but a designated 3rd party travel agent.
My offer to pay the difference was declined. To respond to my excuse of schedule conflict, the travel agent offered to book me a flight one day later, plus one night hotel (EUR200), rather than having me pick up the $200 difference and fly the night before. SO I guess there is nothing I can do in this particular case.
I wonder whether the travel agent has a reason to prefer that airline, either some commission arrangement or the sale of consolidator fare tickets at close to regular prices. They seem to protest too much, even if there's a business reason for your preference. To stay an additional day rather than paying $200 extra on a $6000 ticket for a later departure sounds a bit crazy to me. I once caught a designated business travel agency having a deal to get an additional percent-based volume discount on one carrier; they were pushing that carrier where it made no sense, not even giving schedule information when requested for other alternatives, in violation of our travel policy, and pocketing the discount for themselves. (This was an employer that was nervous at the time about the potential liability associated with demanding that we fly one particular airline.)