antichef

We are all ears, the whole point of this thread

Badenoch

When encountering that type of silliness I look to recoup the cost in other more "creative" ways.

Does the company cover other travel-related medical requirements such as immunization, insurance, emergency evacuation, etc.? If it does I'd also be asking if this new policy extends to them too.

dodgeflyer

I had one the other week, and whilst not company endorsed, endorsed by an employee. Our travel policy is business class 5hrs or longer but imagine (as subject to approval) doesn’t necessarily apply to lower level employees.

Sent a request to the person booking my flight that I needed business - she subsequently wrote the travel agency to book me in business if the cost was ‘reasonable’ - this isn’t a defined term for us, business was €5k; economy €1.8k. Was fairly livid at this interjection from someone who simply had to forward my request (not to mention that this was also billable to the client, on the same flight and in business).

Super Mario

As the other poster stated, it's a similar scenario here. It's a lot harder than it is worth. My manager's approval means nothing in the booking process. I can't even book the room at all due to restrictions through the portal. I would need to send it up to corporate travel department as to "here is my math why I need to override your corporate policy". Then if it does go to the manager, the manager is likely to say "just follow the policy as this creates too much headache for everyone".

yyznomad

Sounds like this interjecting person was under zero obligation to put a caveat to your request... and they aren't accountable to a comptroller/controller...

Qwkynuf

Ok, how about some rental car fun?

Midsize is the only category that is "in policy". I cannot reserve a compact or economy, even if the cost is lower. Same for "Full Size". Cost is not a factor. That said, apparently all that is required is that the word "midsize" appear in the description. For a recent trip, National had a Midsize available that was showing ~$250 all-in for a 5 day rental. They also had a "Midsize SUV" category available that was over $4,600 for the same 5 days. That was also "in policy".

I have a team meeting in a couple of weeks. The 6 of us will be meeting in Atlanta for 6 days for training. My manager asked me to rent a full size SUV to haul all of us around. Reservation was rejected *twice* for being out of policy. Ultimately, it took me sending an email to the approval desk asking them to confirm that they were requiring us to rent 6 in-policy cars at $250 each, rather than one out of policy one for $400. It probably didn't hurt that I copied the email to the national director of our professional services organization...

Got in trouble once for renting a car without pre-approval. Spent all day flying from PDX-PBI on a Friday for a trade show. We were setting up our booth on Saturday, and the show was all day Sunday and until noon on Monday. Didn't originally rent a car because the hotel was easy walking distance to the conference center, and an easy shuttle ride from the airport. I get to my hotel at about 6pm on Friday, and almost immediately get a phone call from our booth manager. She was in a tizzy because none of the consumable supplies for the show had been delivered. Apparently they had been missed during the load-out, and were still sitting in our warehouse in New Jersey. I made a bunch of phone calls to vendors, suppliers, and customers, and at 8pm found a customer who was willing to meet me at their location Saturday morning and loan me what we needed to get through the show. Only problem was, that customer was in Tampa. So I shuttled over to the airport, rented a car, and drove to Tampa. Got there at about 1am & checked into a hotel. In the morning I met the customer, loaded up the supplies, drove back to Palm Beach, and saved the day!

My expense report was rejected (and a nastygram email sent to me and my boss) because:

1. Rented car without approval (despite them being gone for the weekend by the time I needed it)
2. Rented a hotel room without approval (same as above)
3. Submitted two hotel rooms for reimbursement for the same night (apparently I should have checked out of the conference hotel when I left, and then paid walk-up rates when I came back?)

I have also been dinged on a couple of occasions for buying gas for a rental car twice on the same day.

I don't even lose sleep over the stupid stuff anymore. I figure that if they fire over dumb crap like that, it will make for a fun story to share at my next interview!

yyznomad

Reading some of these stories, and given the current times... maybe it's best to join the Great Resignation cohort! Just sayin!

GUWonder

Accounting types having a conniption of sort over business travel and office relocations being done on youth/student fare tickets or by those using flight coupon books to save the employer/clients money? Seen that too, while the expense reports for $1500+ monthly cell phone bills would just get approved without a blink or thought even as to me it was an obvious sign that the persons hadn’t done what they could to try to keep costs down.

jrl767

because those were oddities/exceptions, and *even if there's an explanation in the submittal* said accounting types *are not and have never been* paid to apply common sense when looking at expense reports for conformity to policy