Lap of luxury? No.

I have seen this from both sides -- from a company that lets me book everything myself and trusts that I won't buy J tickets or tickets that cost $1000 more than the competitors (but understands the concept of "penny wise, pound foolish") and a company that would try to force a 4 hour layover to save $12 on a ticket. I have never had to buy an airline ticket away from my preferred carrier, but I have bought red eye flights to save $300 and booked 5:30AM departures to save money as well. I stay in mid-tier hotels (every stay, when possible, with SPG). I rent from one agency. Never has this cost my company money I wouldn't have spent myself.

A middle ground is required. The people that set travel policies, IMO, should be frequent travelers themselves, not beancounters that think business travel is glamorous and that we're out eating foie gras every night on the company dime.

haha, for the record, I'm not the "beancounter who thinks business travel is glamorous". I haven't been home in three months and have hit 8 countries/5 continents in that time. I'm not exactly sitting in my office counting every dollar my staff spends...but I'm not eating foie gras every night either (though the bife de chorizo is quite delicious here in Buenos Aires).

But if my staff, for example, have the option to go home from HKG for one week, and because we travel so much, it's a biz class ticket, they shouldn't spend the full $5500 fare in one week, there's no reason for it. They can have "alternative travel" and stay in very nice hotels in HKG, in China, in Thailand, wherever else they want to go, and stay well under the $5500. Heck, if they want to fly out their spouse on a coach ticket and spend the week, odds are they can stay under that amount. Why the need to spend every penny? A budget doesn't mean they can reward themselves just because they travel so much, that's the quickest way to get perks taken away.

Slightly OT, but in your example, going home to the US from Hong Kong and back a week later could mean some serious jet lag. The employee might decide it's not worth the hassle. Theoretically they could keep their body clock on the time zone they're used to, as I usually do for my cross-country roadtrips. But 3 hours difference is not the same as 12+.

Oh, I agree completely. That's in large part why the company offers such options.

accountinggal.. sounds like you have a very interesting travelling job.. what is the purpose of your company travels?

Bueno Aires sounds divine.^

I work as a financial auditor for a multi-national corporation. We go around to all of our facilities world-wide and make sure the accounting/finance personnel are doing their jobs right.

Buenos Aires is fantastic. I'm a big fan of south america (probably since I lived here several years and feel right at home). Highly recommend Chile or Argentina as places to visit, though.

I guess it also depends what company you're working for. I work for a smaller non-profit in the arts domain, and my travel budget is huge compared to our total expenses. I'll always try to save money. However, I sometimes pay from my pocket the difference between the cheapest airline and the one I want to fly...

At some places, if you don't use the whole annual budget, what you did use becomes the smaller budget for next year.

Call my brother then the Accounting Pal.. He doesn't travel but he's 34 and use to handle public financial reporting for Mullen trucking when the company was making quite a few acquisitions.. used to also a controller with 50 employees under him.. Nowadays, he works 2 days out of the week there, and 3 days for the family real estate holdings company.

We are eyeing up Europe, Australia, or South America for travel, but have 2 young kids.. so we are treading softly.

every discount involves some sort of trade-off, and the greatest risk from seeking (or imposing) such discounts is that it will end up costing more in the long run, for the employee or the company or both.

one expensive lesson i learned was that it is more cost-effective for me to book refundable tickets, as my work travel is constantly shifting. i paid the price when i booked a non-refundable flight for a trip i thought was fixed, only for the return date to change.

other trade-offs involve consuming too much time hunting down a discount, or giving up too much personal information. i have lost lots of opportunities because they would have required me to sign up for facebook, for example.

i personally believe that airline/hotel loyalty programs pay off for the employer as well as the employee. by flying the same airline and staying in the same hotel chain regularly, i know what to expect when i travel and know better how to deal with disruptions. i can get more work done in a delta club than by sitting by the gate. i always know what i'm getting when i stay at a hampton (internet, breakfast, and not having to pay for parking or wait for a valet), i have yet to travel anywhere for my work, other than some big cities, that didn't have a hampton nearby (and i'm sure my office doesn't mind that hamptons are consistently cheaper than many other major chains).

but every now and then some higher expenses are both justified and unavoidable. i had an interesting discussion with a client about some expenses i incurred on a business trip to hawaii, where i told him that all of his problems could have been avoided if the expense report had a billing category for hookers and blow.

If he wants to travel, we could certainly use him! I'm the only one in my dept with external reporting experience and could add another to the group who knows a bit...and doesn't mind filling up his passport with stamps.

I couldn't do this job if I had a family, I don't know how anyone could. So eventually I will have to stop, but at 28 I'm ok with it for now. South America or Europe would probably be easier with little kids just from a flight time. Hope you can find something that works!

He's got three kids at 34.. You do know that I'm from Canada, right? So the accounting system is a bit system is a bit different than the US.. but I imagine the company being international has nuances everywhere you go. But, I shall pass on the message. If he even entertains it.. his wife would.. well, we'll just leave it at that.