We've never had any client question expenses, but two business class airfares plus one to two weeks of hotels in Australia and the other associated expenses probably runs about $50K. Our fees for the trip are $100K to $175K, so the ratio is nowwhere near 1:1 but I'd be thinking about it if I were the client.

I guess that our fees are relatively high for the travel expenses so $10K to $15K for one person going to Europe for a few days is not that big a deal. We do offer to use non-refundable fares where they are much lower, but the client has to be responsible for any change fees and increased fares if we switch, no matter the cause of the change in reservations. Some clients take us up on this; others do not.