constant_traveller

Hi,

I will be traveling to Zurich from NYC in early June on my companys dime in Business. I am allowed to book a ticket on any carrier of my choice.

Since my wife will also be traveling with me (we will be paying for her ticket), I am looking to see if there are any current 2-4-1 business class ticket offers?

Any help/advice will be highly appreciated.

Thanks

caritsa

You might want to look into getting American Express Platinum card. They have a first and business companion program. You can buy an international, full fare ticket and pay only taxes for your companion ticket.

slawecki

this fare is usually twice the fare a corporation would pay, so i would check with them about doing that stunt. it probably is not worth your job, and i would fire you for pulling that stunt.

erik123

Ask the corporate TA for options. Amex only works if you use Amex to book your ticket (if you have the Plat card).

clacko

friends have used ba full fare j & got a free companion.....this was to mid africa, but may be available across the pond.....worth a look, but probably requires the cc mentioned above....

nd2010

What if you book 2 coach seats on the company dime instead of 1 business seat, especially if that is cheaper than the cost of 1 business class seat.

acunningham

If your chosen option ends up costing your employer more (even a single cent) than just travelling on your own, make sure you inform your manager (or whoever authorised the trip) beforehand. It's the ethical thing to do. It's probably a good idea to inform them that your spouse will be travelling with you even if it doesn't cost the employer more, just to avoid the appearance of impropriety.

Wozza2404

Agreed. Particularly as this will increase your expense account expenditure (food, drinks, hotels, etc.)

I'd take a very stern line against someone who took their spouse on a business trip without informing me first.

We allow spouses to travel with employees from time to time (special occasions, or if an employee has spend a large amount of time away from home as a result of us making them travel), but if someone did it without informing me I'd treat it as theft.

emma69

I generally find the 2-4-1 Amex disproportionately high, and can normally get two discount business tickets for less than the 'special offer'.

Agree with the others on informing the company too - not just ethically, but also practically - if they decide to send you somewhere else, on other dates, cancel the trip etc. then you may be out of pocket on any travel arrangements for her. At my last company, we were ok if you informed management, and 2 economy rather than 1 business was ok, as long as it was booked through our travel agency and cost the same or less. A few folk visited China this way!

Where I am now, theoretically 2-4-1 fares are ok, but I have a REALLY hard time even thinking of charging the firm $14,000 to Asia when a discount business fare on the same plane, is ~$6,000.

Wozza2404

We have fare caps; it's much simpler.

Employees can use any airline they choose, and any route they choose, but we'll only pay up to Łx for GCC destinations, Ły for Asia and Łz for Australia. Any higher than this and they either drop down a class, or pay the extra out of their own pockets/miles.

emma69

How do you deal with things like last minute (eg has to go this afternoon) type instances, or required travel during peak times (eg if we have to send someone to London during the Olympics for example?) I am not sure it is fair to penalize the employee for such things.

The other thing that I have encountered, is that it may be possible to get to eg Tanzania for $X, to do so takes 2 days, v 1 day with another airline for $X + quite a bit more.

Wozza2404

I probably should have clarified this. This only applies when the employee is travelling for meetings, trade shows, etc. and transport is being arranged well in advance.

For urgent travel, we have an internal policy where flights, etc. are booked in-house and the employee is simply given a ticket.

emma69

Ok, that does make more sense. Thanks.

It's one thing I would love to be able to do with more accuracy, to manage costs across the division, but while some employees 'get with the program' and book months out for set meetings etc, others book the week before because 'of business reasons' (meaning they thought urgent client things could prevent their travel) and their tickets end up costing 3x as much! It isn't much better if we suggest they book refundable fares, as these are also much more expensive! For some routes, I do rather like the flight passes from Air Canada as a way to manage costs (changable, cancellable, and upgradable!) but they don't extend to everywhere I'd like them to!

Wozza2404

We just have a no nonsense approach, really. Business Class travel is a perk, and should be treated as such.

Our fare cap for GCC countries, for example, is Ł2000. Now, if you book well in advance you'll pick up a return on almost all GCC carriers for this.

Try and book two days before on a flex, and you may well struggle to find a fare under this figure.

An employee tends to only make this mistake once and have to sit in the back, the next time they book well in advance!

dchristiva

My thoughts exactly. ^