Originally Posted by
W213Sal
Thinking of switching jobs, and there is one on the horizon with potentially a lot of travel. Business is engineering/pharmaceutical consultancy. How do I bring up the class of travel without sounding like a plonker? potentially a lot of travel to US and SEA from IE. Sounds to me like they might be a Y or W only type of crowd. I'd be okay with W, not sure about Y. Also, they probably would let me book the travel myself (full flex fares seem standard now), so push comes to shove, I would be getting decent avios/TPs
How do you bring up the travel policy?
I always thought the travel policy came at the same time as healthcare, company bonus programs, vacation, etc -- With a small company as others have said, there is more flexibility. Unless they have their sights on you it sounds like it is still the early dating stage. The best thing is to have them want you as their ideal first choice, then see all points that are being offered, then negotiate for what you want. Some companies have various perks - health club memberships, commuting stipends, etc. so I would wait to see what they are giving you. If you can equate that you don't need x, y and z but want to fly W and the money is equivalent or close, they may be open to it. I had a colleague who negotiated extra cash compensation because he didn't need health insurance since his spouse had it and the COO knew the direct cost the company subsidized per employee, so he got 75% of that amount.
I don't believe in the "I will be more productive" approach as they probably are of the mind that their current employees are productive despite flying Y, so essentially "You'll find out it's not as bad as you think. Our team has never had a problem."