Originally Posted by
World Traveller Fuss
I'm sure this is familiar to a number of people on this forum...
How do you book paid upgrades (above and beyond your companies travel policy or budget)? For tier points, personal sleep comfort, etc.
Often times, upgrading separately after booking incurs change fees and availability might be different. So there's an incentive to book into the preferred class of travel from the start.
Given businesses need invoices of exact amounts paid, offering to pay the difference through a different payment method, buying yourself and then expensing, or deduct from salary can get tricky since you muddy the exact amount the business is spending.
What do you do?
If you book through a corporate TA they should be able to calculate exactly the price difference at the time or even historically. You can then pay the difference with a personal card.
Have never actually done this yet as every time I have wanted to do it the fare difference hasn’t been within the range I was willing to spend. But in theory it’s doable.
My company policy is for Premium Economy on an overnight return from the US. I value the better meal (and genuinely think there is quite a difference on BA) but can’t sleep unless flat so it’s no different from Economy as far as that side of things goes.
I figure the company has made the decision that us starting the next day of work with a good night’s sleep is simply not worth the four-figure per person price difference. To be honest, your workers have to pull in quite a lot of value to make this worthwhile. I am in a role that costs my company money rather than generates profit, so it is not much use complaining and I am inclined to agree with them.