Expensing Multi-City Trips
 

I am doing more multi-city trips for work. I am wondering how others expense the ticket as I can't easily break out the fares, etc. when a multi-city ticket needs to be divided up for different clients? Thanks!

Book 1-ways that can be expensed to each client? Sure, it's sometimes more expensive, but the only true way that I'm aware of.

Doesn't that mean one client will have to pay a higher portion of the cost? I fly to city A and expense it, but then need to go to city B and then return to my home in city C. The second client would then be on the hook for paying to get me to city B and then also back to city C. The first client only pays to get me to city A.

If you could get the fare calculation line from the eticket, that would show the breakdown of the base fare for each segment (I think the taxes/fees might be a bit trickier). I don't believe AA's emailed eTicket receipts show this, and not sure if you can get it online, so your options are to call AA or have an agent at the airport print you the eticket receipt showing the original fare calculation. Here's one from a JFK-SLC r/t (on DL);

Fare Details: JFK DL SLC430.70KE0UA0FJ DL JFK115.35XEVNA0MJ USD546.05END ZP JFKSLC XF JFK4.5SLC4.5

I don't think it's complete with respect to taxes fees (though those are listed separately in their email), but you can see that the JFK-SLC leg had a base fare of $430.70 (fare basis code KE0UA0FJ) and the SLC-JFK leg was $115.35 (fare basis code XEVNA0MJ), for a total base fare of $546.05.

Book a multi-city itinerary and split 50/50 between clients? I think you are overthinking it.

You could use the EQD earnings to work it out, but you could also just split the cost equally amongst them - you are traveling for all of them after all and doing in one trip because of their schedules (maybe).

Alternatively, the nearest client pays the cost a normal round trip to them and the more distant client pays the premium above that round trip fare to go and visit them – and i think you could generalize this to any number of clients if you do more than two at a time.

In the end it depends on the nature of your contract with them and what you have told them you will charge in that.

Not the best as if a roundtrip costs $50 to one and $500 to the other, why should it be 50 / 50
1. Price the cost of roundtrips to each
2. Determine the percentage cost of that 2 roundtrip total that applies to each
3. Buy the multi segment total, use the percentages obtained above to determine the amount each pays

I am not overthinking it. Clients want receipts and producing a receipt for them for the actual cost of what I am billing them has been requested.

The clients need to pay to get you to their site and then from their site (normally to home on a simple r/t).
So you could charge Client #1 100% of the A-B fare and 50% of the B-C fare. Then Client #2 pays the other 50% of the B-C fare and 100% of the C-A fare.

But there are probably a dozen different ways to do this, some posted here by others. Surely your office has established some type of common practice?

Honestly - this is between OP and his company or between OP and his client. Without knowing the details of his client relationships and terms we don't have the necessary info to provide an informed option.

Does the client specify it must be lowest fare? Does the client specify how many days in advance the ticket needs to be purchased? Does the client specify whether non-stops are allowed over cheaper connecting itineraries? Are preferred airlines allowed? Etc...etc..etc...

Too many variables involved in airfare pricing to provide a uniform answer here. Look at the options, determine what's the best use of your time and your clients' dollars, and go from there.

Sure of course they do. And I've had clients who were plenty happy with the approach I've suggested - and a receipt showing notation with partial charge allocation. I don't know your clients and their terms, nor does anyone here, so I'm not sure how we can provide specific advice.

If it was me, I would price AAA-BBB-AAA and AAA-CCC-AAA and bill each client that amount.
Then book whatever you need. If you come out ahead by doing a multi city segment, that's part of your fee as a consultant.

The client in BBB has no business knowing where you are going next, and CCC has no business knowing where you came from. Nor should either be subsidizing the cost of your travel for the other one.

book them as a different PNR for each client.

Receipt 1: home to client 1
Receipt 2: client 1 to client 2
Receipt 3: client 2 to client 3 to home

Someone has to pay to get you home. If you were visiting any one of them for a single trip, they would be doing it anyway.

This is how I am doing it.

Is the fare A-C via B the same as A-C
If so, I would just charge the entire cost to the client at C

If the prices are different, then I would generally book A-B and charge to client at B and then separately book B-C-A and charge to client at C

I wouldn't do 2 round trip journeys which will just cost more and require additional travelling for no purpose

There are going to be a lot of contextual factors - what firm you're with (or self-employed), the type and demeanor of your clients, etc. But to me, the "cleanest" way to do it is just to book a bunch of one-ways. If the cost differential is an issue to the client then there are probably bigger problems.

Depends entirely on how the contract / statement of work is structured. If you live in AUS and have clients in DFW, DEN and PHX that you're visiting in a week you seriously might have to book: AUS - DFW, DFW-AUS (Client One), AUS-DFW-DEN-DFW-AUS (Client Two), AUS-PHX-AUS (Client Three) instead of the FAR more efficient AUS-DFW-DEN-PHX-AUS (Which could be done entirely on AA as well). Not saying that makes SENSE, but I've had contracts structured to where it's required.

Hard to believe, but as a consultant you can actually bill your client for LESS that the amount shown on the receipt (if they will allow it). Get two copies of the whole receipt, then bill each client for his pro-rated share. I never had a client who objected to paying less.

Again, depends ENTIRELY on the specific contract / SOW. I have absolutely had clients who did NOT allow me to bill less than the amount on the receipt and required that I adhere to the very specific travel rules EVEN WHEN they cost more than doing it another way. I absolutely HAVE had clients who objected to paying less! :)

To go further, I've had clients who when a $5 discrepancy IN THEIR FAVOR emerged in billing required us to do a FULL accounting and presentation on the account for why that discrepancy occurred. All of these WERE billable hours, so that client spent tens of thousands of dollars to get explanation and justification for a $5 error in their favor. And ironically, the issue ended up being a fee was refunded back on a hotel bill so the final billing didn't match the zero balance bill the hotel provided and our accounting office billed off of the actuals from the Amex and not the receipt submitted.

I've priced it out on ITA Matrix right before booking. That does list price per leg and I'll submit a PDF and provide that if I'm trying to allocate across different clients.

More often than not, I'm either splitting it 50/50 or just doing one-ways.

This thread makes me glad I got out of consulting. :p