Originally Posted by
Quark999
This is something I have wrestled with for years - my employer pays only for economy tickets, but I like to pay for the difference out of my own pocket and upgrade to Club Europe.
During most of my professional life that was pretty much impossible to do, as expenses would be charged to the corporate card, and I could only ever pay for upgrades after the fact - at which point change feeds would be added on top. My current employer actually allowed reimbursment for expenses on non-corporate cards, so I used a loophole where I would book the economy ticket within policy, expense it, cancel it within 24 hours, and then pay for a Club Europe ticket straight out of my own pocket. I was obviously never really comfortable with this anyway, but I also didn't want to risk waiting for POUGs every time.
For better or for worse, my employer has now introduced a corporate card - so that loophole is no longer available to me. It's probably for the best. But is there any way of paying for the ticket on my corporate card and then immediately upgrading with my personal cash without incurring the change fees?
Whilst there has been some debate on this, and you should ensure you are comfortable with any action you are taking, but the upgrade cost may be eligible as an allowable expense and you may be able to offset it against income tax. I warn you - not everyone is in agreement on this point!