Flexible preferences

Yes, 6 months I believe.

mjh0

The other good trick here is to push for mid-week to mid-week travel for your work trips - e.g. Fly out on a Tuesday or Wednesday, and return the following Wednesday or Thursday evening, and not do this "Fly out on a Saturday, get home the following Saturday" that I see so many other folk end up doing.

By doing midweek to midweek, you aren't destroying those weekends book-ending your travel at home with travel/sleeping, you're flying in company time and not your own, and you actually don't lose the downroute weekend to travel at all, instead you get a weekend to go and explore.

PAL62V

Any idea how to do it? I had a look at my profile, etc and there doesn't seem to be an option. (Sorry, this is totally OT...)

Flexible preferences

Use the contact us link under Help

https://www.flyertalk.com/help/feedbacktxt.php

SanDiego1K

Check the wiki in this thread.

Change user name / username / handle: Can I? How?

TPRun

layz

I actually remember your original username It stuck in my mind because yours was the first account I remember seeing with a different username.

Nimrod1965

I wouldn’t take a job that required a long haul flight every month with travel eating into my weekends whatever the class of travel. My current job involves some short haul European travel, all in economy and preferably as cheap as possible but I don’t stick to “cheapest” if involves really early or late flights or flights from Luton or Stansted. TBH, I’m fed up of the little amount of business travel that I have to do but as I’m the only person in the company that has the knowledge required for the tasks, I don’t have any other option. Trying to identify a successor but it’s proving difficult.

bren586

I am currently being tempted to move my contract role into a permanent role and the sticking point is travel. I want it in my contract. I would get it if I was the grade above. It applies to hire cars as well. I do not do well in a compact car.

I am 6 foot 5 and my shoulders are 24 inches across. Y just does not work for me.

There is an exception policy (for health and so on) but it is a one time thing. When I went to Brazil I applied and got it but then there was an India trip and I had to apply again and it did not come through in time. My comment at the time was that I have not got shorter.

What is swaying them is that I do all my personal travel in Club World/Europe (40+ short haul and 1-3 long haul returns a year (I live in another country from that of my employment). Also my contract of employment with my own company has J as standard for travel.

Y was fine when the people making the decision about what class you fly were flying Y. Now it is uncomfortable and probably unhealthy. I am 53 years old and have a crush injury in my spine. Nope, it is not a thing I am willing to give up on.

If you choose to spend a small sum of money to fly on holiday then that is your call. If work wants you to go some where then they have a duty of care and regular flying should be in comfort, not discomfort.

layz

Not having control of travel booking is actually one of the things I don't like about a permanent job. Fortunately I do very little travel for work but would probably move on if I had to travel economy (or standard on long distance trains) everywhere. As a contractor you control your own budget, if you're happy with economy then that's more cash for you. If you're happy with a Travelodge or cheap B&B then fine but if you want a 4-5* hotel then that's fair enough too. When I was a contractor my policy was to travel the same way as I would do for leisure travel and if I was in control of others travel budget I'd not expect them to have to compromise either.

My personal (as in what I do for leisure travel) is J or above longhaul (with ex-EU if needed) and J when reasonably priced on shorthaul (as mentioned in another thread I'd even POUG on a short flight like LHR-LUX). For trains I'd never pay first class on trains that don't have a better on-board service in first class (e.g. most London commuter franchises) but do use first class wherever the price is decent on InterCity services, even the 70 minutes trip from London to Grantham on Virgin EC can get you a complimentary two course meal on the 18:33 service on weekdays. London to Newcastle or beyond would always be first class on the train.

Roadster Man

More and more large and successful companies are going to Y class only. It's a fact of life and an easy cost to control. My reflection on reading some of the comments is that these folks must be REALLY valuable to be able to pick and choose which employer to work for based on their travel policies. In the real world, it is expected to fly from the US to EU on Y, arriving morning next day with meetings scheduled at 12:30 on the arrival day. That is SOP. Tired? Jet Lagged? Tough! You have a job to do! Working on Thursday in San Francisco with meeting in Boston on Friday? Take the red-eye in Y, get up and get to work in Boston. That is what coffee is for. As a father of four, weekends are of course paramount. But if meeting in EU start on Monday, I need to kill most of a Sunday to get there. If I won't go, there are plenty of people applying to HR every day for my job who will.

Unfortunately flight status will not get you into lounges on US domestic flights (UA Premier 1K means nothing). So I do use my own miles to upgrade above Y occasionally by dealing directly with United after booking.

Bottom line, if you are valuable enough to dictate/decide company policy, great. For the rest of us working stiffs, this is reality. Deal with it.

RaoulM

Measure it - if it's like most US brands it's actually closer to 40". I know, I also wear 36 waist jeans, but when I was measured by a tailor for a suit I was mortified.

capin

BAEC Gold or Silver gets me into AA lounges for US domestic travel.

My company has a Y domestic and J/F international travel policy. Fortunately, I've managed to eliminate most of my trips out to SCV. I wouldn't do what you've mentioned above, I'd give up work, Life's too short for that BS.

bigwalrus

I work in the corporate world and we've recently moved to a Y only policy too - it caused a bit of a shockwave with some of the executives but it's saved a ridiculous amount of money. Groups of 10 who were making 4 annual trips between Houston and London all travelling in Y has cut about 80% from the travel costs.

It's all very deliberate - the policy is forcing people to question whether it's really worth travelling. People are deciding that a video conference session is preferable to a long haul Y flight.

I've recently booked a flight with work and paid the difference to get to W (~£75 so a very good rate).

Could you push the J option on medical grounds? Perhaps a note from the doctor to support it may help the cause?

Woodbinerich

My old company used to have J for six hours and above, which I thought was pretty ok. I would consider it, but wouldn't be too keen on a company with a Y only travel policy.
But I agree with the comment about video conferencing. Even with a decent policy, all employees should be looking to not waste resources.
We invested a lot in Tandberg and other equipment and those machines, despite being around $50k each, all paid back very quickly in reduced travel costs and better work/life balance.