We are a small company, so the benefits are not so generous.
$35 per diem. (Ouch!) Not a problem for me - I usually do a bowl of cheerios for breakfast (since most hotels now provide refrigerators, I can spend $5 and get breakfast for a week, plus the continental breakfast as a filler). I usually do a fast food lunch, so $30 for dinner isn't so bad. (Unless I find a batting cage nearby, in which case I'm eating McDonald's and spending the remaining $25 hitting baseballs!)
Mid-week coach fare is the basis. If I want to travel somewhere with a Saturday stay, I can use the difference for tickets for friends or family.
Duration of flight has no bearing on class.
Sometimes Saturday stay is required, in which case I get 2 additional vacation days.
Can use any car rental, airline or hotel chain.
RECOMMENDED stay at any <$100 hotel for onsite.
Can stay at a hotel near the airport (<$200) if I've got an early AM flight.
Bottom line, must stay within budget for the trip. Usually not a problem. With my next trip, I got great airfares, so I'm staying in nicer hotels and renting full-size cars (one trip has a 3 hour drive to the customer's site - and I'd rather be nibbled to death by rats than drive a Geo Metro that long!)
And the unofficial rule, if it is a trip to Arkansas, they send me as penance for my outspoken views of the Purjurer-In-Chief.
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"I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own."
[This message has been edited by Jon Toner (edited 08-04-1999).]