I would agree with this policy, too. This addresses what I perceive to be one of the reasons why some companies (like my own) only pay economy regardless of time in the air, and that is to provide an incentive to employees who don't pay much attention to find the cheapest business class available, and upgrade with miles or instruments whenever possible. Because, frankly, many of my colleagues would buy $7K business class when $4K was available (or $2K plus 40K miles) if we didn't have the "only economy" rule. Our company has mostly domestic travel, and even on domestic flights, we have an issue with procrastinators paying $1K+ at the last minute when with a little planning they'd pay half that. I've sometimes bought early and taken a cheap upgrade offer out of my own pocket to get into domestic first when my colleagues on the same flight have paid much more to sit in the rear row. It still surprises me that there are a lot of people out there who have assistants book their travel, don't pay attention to minimizing the expense by booking early, to the quality of the airline, to whether they are on a large plane or regional jet, to their mileage accounts, to their connections, to SDCs, don't check in online, and so on, not to mention not bother about upgrades (though they will let you know if they see you in the front cabin).