xcalibir

Hey guys, I recently joined a company that has a policy that states "All international travel must be booked in economy class."

I am flying to Asia for a two week business trip. Do you think booking premium economy is acceptable?

jrl767

nobody here will be able to give you a definitive answer unless they happen to work in your comapny's travel or accounting department

unless you get a definitive "Yes" from your immediate management, and from those travel and accounting people, you will likely not get reimbursed for the excess over economy; moreover, you may well risk some sort of corporate discipline -- up to and including termination -- for violating policy

Yoshi212

I concur with jrl767 and be sure to get the answer in writing.

Most but not necessarily all companies will not cover PE when they state Y for travel.

LondonElite

Why don't you ask your travel department?

bexfrepp

We book flights for businesses, and can see a couple trends:

1. the longer the people are with the company, the more able they are to book premium or business when it makes sense
2. people who try to get travel perks alot and straightaway usually dont last long (or at least we see that after a few months they arent making anymore bookings)

hope that helps

Often1

No way to answer OP's question because individual companies get to define terms anyway they want.

The purely theoretical answer is "no" because PE is not Y. But, perhaps your company chooses to define "economy" to include premium economy.

If there is nothing written on this, ask.

Statman

Why are you asking random strangers on FT rather than asking your travel department?

mdkowals

A few things you need to figure out:

(1) Who has the authority in your company? The travel department, or your supervisor? If it's your supervisor than you may have some wiggle room (i.e. the supervisor may have the authority to allow for PE on flights longer than 8 hours where the cost gap is <$1000....or something like that). If it's a 3rd party agency or separate travel dept. with final authority, then you're probably screwed.

(2) Are you allowed to pay for the upgrade yourself? It's a value judgement, but if DFW-PEK is $1,100 in Y and $1,400 in PE I would:
(a) Check Seatguru or FT on the exact plane making the route to determine if PE is closer to domestic F, or just Y with 2" more leg room
(b) If closer to Domestic F and I only infrequently have to travel for work (1x international trip per year), I'd consider just forking out the $300 if that was an option.

(3) If I'm a frequent international traveler (> 10 ocean crossings per year), and it HAS to be in Y, I'm probably looking for a new job.

Annalisa12

No. Economy is different to PE. If they wanted you in PE i think they would of said that.

KDS777

One good thing about the company I used to work for until a few months ago when I quit was that they refused to book travel in basic economy. They would have had a revolt on their hands had they done so.

thelark

As more and more carriers phase out F and introduce PE, I fear that PE will become the new “business class.”

our corporate policy is >5h is J, but if budgets are tight some depts ask people to fly Y (not mine, fortunately). PE seems to be a compromise that others make. It’s only a matter of time...

BearX220

Business class has been the scene of steady "opulence creep" since it was introduced in the '80s. It's now more commodious and luxurious than F class in those days ever was.

As such business class no longer fulfills its original mission: to give business customers somewhat more comfort than Y without charging them to lounge up front with movie stars and millionaires -- while helping them avoid attendant expense-account difficulties.

PE now gives the market what business class was originally conceived to provide.

As for the OP's question, I would say the answer depends on the route and the airline. I doubt a travel manager will go crazy over the slight surcharge that comes with booking into UA E+ or Delta Comfort. But on BA, AF, CX, a few AA routes, etc., PE is a whole different, segmented, more comfortable product priced accordingly and I would not book that cabin without prior approval.

Often1

Another reason to deal with this internally is that there are written travel policies and then "the way it is done". Some companies are fairly rigid and the written policy is the law. But, others ignore written policies all the time.

You won't know until you speak with your colleagues and determine whether this is an issue which you just do, seek approval, and what the consequences are.

mdkowals

I posted in the other thread (commercial Business/First Class policy), but I can see this coming full circle. Businesses start specifying PE on long haul, J starts selling poorly, airlines cut J to about 8 seats to resemble what F used to be, PE starts to get upgraded to fill the void left by cutting the J cabin.....

pinniped

No. For a trip like that, I'd find business class acceptable, not PE.

Please feel free to print this response and provide it along with your expense report.