Originally Posted by
Often1
First, do more research on what the corporate TA books. If the company books a corporate discount but into published fares, that is one thing. But, if its TA uses consolidator or BULK fares, those cannot be upgraded or may only be upgraded with great difficulty. Also find out what other policies exist. Are you booked into the lowest fare for what someone else determines is the best timing? Will the employer pay for seat assignments if in that position?
Speaking from an HR perspective, if I had an applicant start asking those sorts of detail questions about how a company vendor operates internally I'd move on to the next candidate. There are always more people out there that can do the job well. Everyone thinks they're a special snowflake in terms of skillset and experience, but that's seldom really the case. The times that you genuinely can't find someone else to do X or Y job usually means you know the 2-3 people globally who *can* do it on a first name basis already.
Second, at least as a middle ground, have the TA book you into your preferred class of service and provide a personal CC for the excess over what is allowed. Upgrades are purely discretionary and if you make general use of them, will slowly go away. You also can't be sure that BA won't change its policies tomorrow.
You expect Carlson-Wagonlit et al to be able to manage that?! Ahahahahahaha.......
And as an aside, splitting the payment creates tax problems given a single charge in the books. They're a PITA to reconcile.
Fourth, do understand that these people are ready to bump your compensation by $24,000 + taxes on that in order to entice you. If they want to do that, they can also sign a contract for J travel over some number of hours. The CEO may fly in the middle seat in steerage because it sends a message to shareholders, but you are not the CEO.
No, they may not be able to alter it. Depends entirely on the company.