Originally Posted by NWA-PLAT
After reading all this I feel rather fortunate. I work for a 400+ person company that has about a dozen people that travel frequently. We have no official policy, but do have an unofficial travel agent that I no longer use. I book all my own flights, hotels, and cars. Would a travel agent ever book Southwest, Ryan Air, or Easyjet? Hell no, because they wouldn't get a commission!
A travel agent is alway going to book you on whatever he gets the best commission on. Our agent always uses Hertz. On my own I use Avis, National, and even Budget sometimes to save the company $.
Ummmm.. corporate travel consultant for 14 years here.. There haven't been any commissions in over 5 years on most airlines and they were slashed significantly going back as far as 1995. So, we don't work for the airlines. We work for the client. I know there are some really really really bad travel consultants out there. Some are just plain awful and lazy. But those of us that thrive in this industry are proud to work really hard for our clients. If I don't provide a service that is better than what a person can get directly from an airline or through a website, I lose the business and simply put, I do not lose business.
But as for the topic of this thread, I've often fudged on client's invoices. I will gladly print them an invoice for coach travel if I can book them in F class for a similar fare (YUP, QUP, etc).. Also works well when they need to buy upgrade certs. I can print an MCO which is exchangeable at the airport for EUA's. I just print an invoice with some flights on there and manipulate the price to reflect the cost of the EUA's. Do I ever feel bad? Hellllll no!! I have flown tons and I simply wouldn't want to sit in back even if I was paid to. Forget that! If my clients are spending their time away from family and home, then the least I can do is make sure they get sit up front.