This question is directed to business travelers whose company pays for your travel. These are hypothetical situations. There is no right or wrong answer. Just curious as to which one you would choose.

Your company has to send you on a last-minute trip between New York and San Francisco, leaving on Tuesday and returning on Thursday. Your company's policy is that they will put you on any carrier you choose, but if you choose to fly a low-fare carrier which saves the company money, they will split the cost savings difference with you.

If you fly AA JFK-SFO, your company pays $2,444.50 and off you go. If you fly jetBlue JFK-OAK, the cost is $488.00. This saves your company $1,956.50, so you'd get a check from your company for $978.25. (Note: AA had a flight JFK-OAK for $515.00, but it was sold out for your date of travel.) Would you choose the AA SFO flight for the miles or would you fly jetBlue and pocket the cash?

Same scenario, different city-pair. DTW-SEA. You can fly Northwest nonstop for $1246.00, or you could fly Southwest with a connection at MDW for $790.00. Choosing Southwest would save your company $456.00 and your cut of that would be $228.00. Which would you choose?

In both cases I would fly the low-fare carrier and pocket the cash. For those of you who are addicted to a particular airline, how much money would have to go into your pocket before you'd consider flying the alternate low-fare carrier?

Mike

For me there are other considerations beyond the obvious cash vs. raw miles. For instance, how many miles is my butt gonna be in a coach seat? In the case of JFK-SFO, 5,000 RT miles is a looooong way. The DFW-SEA trip is comparatively 3k RT miles - still a long way, but better.

I would also consider the time of travel and the time of year. In the summer time, when afternoon flight times have frequently meant to me the pain of sitting off gate for 2+ hours waiting for an FAA clearance because of storms in the flight path somewhere, there's no way I would risk that in coach.

Consider also that by not flying my preferred airline, I diminish my chance of retaining status that would keep my butt out of coach when it really matters, and it becomes a complicated decision.

I guess it would depend for me whether I had a new toy I wanted to buy with the money, and whether I had at least SOME interest in accumulating a few more miles on the cheaper airline.. otherwise, I go w/ my preferred airline. It's house money, after all.

Would I fly the low-cost carrier if the savings was one dollar. Of course not! What kind of FT'er do you think I am? Would I fly it for a ten-thousand dollar savings? Sure I would. Now, what does that make me

My spouse had a similar situation a few years back. The company would send their employees transpac and to Europe, occasionally in business class, through a well-known corporate travel agency.
I made the company an offer: if I could send all of our family over for less, would they cover it? In other words, if I could arrange our ticketing/accommodation for less than the price they were going to pay for my spouse anyway, would they go for it? I might have mentioned in the bargain that their employee would be happier having the family along, might be agreeable to even more business trips, etc.
The company did go for it. It was a breeze to find consolidator fares for four that beat biz fares, but I could usually do it for regular coach fares too. We stuck to a lot of Holiday Inns due to their kids free policy (a bargain in Japan especially). We still managed to rake in miles for future family trips.
So everyone came out ahead, thanks to a flexible company policy.
In a sense, then, we got miles and cash. And they had a contented employee.

First of all, I would like to work for this hypothetical employer.

My decision would based on length of flight vs. money I would receive. On a shorter flight, $200 would probably be enough to get me onto the low fare carrier. On longer trips, say ATL - PDX, it would take more. Maybe $4-500 would be the threshold where I would go on the cheap.

Interesting question.

[This message has been edited by bnaboy (edited 03-10-2002).]

Well, the system you describe sounds like it's wide open for abuse, because someone can run out and survey airlines to find the highest possible fare and then use that as a basis for comparison.

The usual method I've ever seen/heard of is that the corp. travel dep't will price out an itin. for you using the preferred carrier. If you can find an alternative way of getting there for less than the preferred carrier (another carrier, different return date, etc..), the company will split the difference with you. That's a win-win.

In all the jobs I've had, I've never run into the situation that you're talking about. If I save my employer money by taking a cheaper flight, they keep the money and I get, well, nothing.

But, in your hypothetical situation, I'd take the cash. Cold hard cash is always better than points or miles.

But I still won't fly ConAir.

My more frequent experience is that they price it out for the lowest possible fare - if I can find an airline/route I prefer and the difference is not MORE than $150 (just for example.. tho it has been as little as $50), I can fly my preferred airline.. otherwise, I can book it myself, pay for it myself, and turn in the approved amount as a reimbursable expense..

My company kinda has the same type of deal. They will put you up in a hotel, pay for dinner and entertainment, if and only if, you can prove to them that spending that extra day (or two if you can swing it), will substantionally lower your transportation costs.

For example, I too was asked to go to Miami for a client meeting. This was on Fri morning I was asked. On Tues afternoon I was on a plane to MIA. As you might see, the airfare was out of control. Add a Sat stay and it droped signifigantly.

I ended up making it a long weekend (with them paying!)

Rationalizing a $2000 higher fare just because someone else is paying for it is how airlines get away with this.

How about this -- instead of splitting the difference between a reasonable fare and a rip-off, how about the employer pays the reasonable fare and YOU pay the $2000 more to fly AA if that's what you want.

Yea - that's what I was describing that I more frequently encounter. Using the examples that started this thread - the company would pay the lowest fare. If I wanted the higher fare, I had to pay w/ my own credit card and could only submit the lower fare as a reimbursable expense. I HAVE had companies who would give me $50 or $100 fudge factor - that meaning if I could find a ticket I preferred that was within $100 of their best fare, I could have it completely on their dime.

FF miles aren't taxable; that check for $1,000 pre-tax is probably less than $600 after fed & state are done with you.

My previous employer had a similar policy that worked two ways: (1) If you took a connecting flight vs. a direct flight, you got 60% of the savings as a check, and (2) If you stayed over a Saturday night, you could spend up to $100 less than the non-Saturday-night-stay fare on lodging, entertainment, meals, etc.

I took advantage of the second option many times for fun weekends in interesting places on their nickel. I never did the first because at the time the savings wasn't that great, and those checks are taxed as ordinary income, so the difference in my pocket was seldom worth the time spent. In the example by the original poster, I'd certainly take the $$$, because it is significant (even after taxes). In my cases, it always seemed to save $150 before taxes, so 150 * 0.60 = $90 * taxes = $40-60 = not worth the three hours.

First of all, I've heard that these policies are getting rarer and rarer. My company implemented one for a very short period of time, and then just switched to "get the lowest fare" as the policy. The concept of a "Preferred" carrier no longer exists to any great degree.

Having said that, I have always flown major airlines, collecting miles, status, and upgrades. I do a pretty good job of seeking out the lowest fares AND getting my company a good deal. Sometimes I even go out of my way to take an earlier/later flight than required by policy to save the company a few hundie. It's a win-win. They don't throw Southwest or Vanguard in my face, and I am conscientous about sniffing out good fares.

But hypothetically-speaking, if my company offered this option, I'd say my openness to accept it would vary by situation. Specifically: what is my risk that I will require customer service from the (non-status-for-me) airline? For a nonstop flight, no checked bags, low risk of me needed to alter the ticket, and a good ontime record, I take the money if it's the situation described above. (~$450 after-tax in pocket vs. ~6,000 status/13,000 total FF miles) Exception: It's December and I really need that AA flight to reach the next elite level.

However, if my itin included connections, a good chance I would need telephone support at some point, or any scenario that required a wait at the check-in line, I probably don't gamble. I take the AA flight.

I do exactly this. I'm reasonable; they're reasonable. I also use the long weekend trick (I go to San Francisco for $220 instead of $1200 and spend half (or so) of the difference).

Mike