SweFlyer

Up until a few years ago it was Y only unless you were upper management where I work. The travel policy changed when we got acquired and J is now allowed for international travel over 6 hours.

We are also permitted to expense preferred seat in economy on flights over three hours. Work for a fortune 500 company.

warakorn

Well, most F500 wont pay for J for their employees.

closetasfan

Does Glassdoor say anything about travel policies?

Duck1981

My company allows J for 4hrs+; but when client pays it depends on client’s policy so have been plenty of time in PE/ Y.

I also fly several times a year in Y to the US when I don’t like to burn budget on one of my projects.

Catbert10

I work for a F500 company that would ship us to Asia in the cargo hold if they could get away with it. In all seriousness, many large corporations have travel policies written by people who don't travel and merely count the pennies.

_fx

Better find out in advance. Many companies you’d think are rolling in cash are Y only (examples: Amazon, Tesla). Should be documented so if you don’t want to ask HR directly, try asking a current employee on Blind or LinkedIn.

Michael El

It will depend on the company travel policy. My F200 firm allows J or F when the "block time" is greater than 8 hours regardless of destination. Some of us interpret that as total travel time and book J or F with no push back. A couple of my buddies travel on business to Hong Kong and Taiwan a couple times a year in Y. I've flown Y to and from NRT to the West Coast several times and lived to tell the tell.

MT_Switch

As others have said, there is probably a company policy set in stone for corporate travel (especially for proper corporates, like a F500, otherwise the auditors would have their tongues wagging). Which means, unless your wife is someone super special to negotiate her own package that deviates from the normal, she will probably be flying whatever has been stipulated.

danielflyer

Four trips a year to Asia isn’t very many. I wouldn’t feel comfortable hiring someone who insisted on business for this level of travel.

LAX_Esq

Thanks for all the responses. Seems like F500 travel policies vary drastically -- some paying for domestic transcon J/F for even low/mid level employees, others not paying for long-haul J even for fairly senior management. I'm a bit surprised there's such a range of policies. I guess she needs to find out the official policy, otherwise be in for a surprise.

To be fair, nobody asked you who you'd feel comfortable hiring. And nobody said my wife is insisting on anything -- or that she in any way thought as a non-exec level hire she'd be able to negotiate special travel arrangements from a F500 company. Obviously there's a company policy that dictates travel to Asia. No need to tear into people (and make it personal) for asking legit factual questions!

12939

I work for an F500 company that, officially at least, has an all Y travel policy for everyone.

The rest of the travel policy is reasonable - i.e. you can usually stay at a decent hotel and eat well either in the hotel or in a decent restaurant. Some managers like to impose their own less generous version of the official travel policy, though that's something I would fight tooth and nail over.

I would never take another job without asking to see the travel policy first. It tells you a lot about the company you're about to join.

BOSishome

For my F50 company, the travel policy officially allows J for anything greater than 6 hours block time.

In practice, J for TATL, TPAC, Latin America isn’t questioned at all... Depending on the manager, they might raise an eyebrow if you booked F or J on JFK-SFO, BOS-LAX, etc (despite block time being >6 Hrs).

limeyx

Small company here and its lowest cost Economy (officially up to approx +10% if you want to fly on a carrier thats not the absolute lowest cost). Right up to the CEO & Founder

Will be five (mostly miserable) trips for me in Y this year and no end in sight. Mostly alive

gfunkdave

I work at a smallish to midsize ($100m) private company and everything is Y no exceptions, unless you can upgrade yourself. But 99% of our travel is in the 48 United States.

A friend is CEO of a non-F500 public aerospace company and he just laments he doesn't fly UA enough to get Global Services anymore because he takes the corporate jet everywhere*, even though he told me he'd sell it when he became CEO.**

*Allow me to play the world's smallest violin.
**I asked him if it was really the best generator of shareholder value to keep a jet he had previously described as a waste of money and he told me that having a well-rested CEO for meetings was a bigger boon to shareholder value.

Visconti

For client facing positions, I've always felt it was important for J/F for int'l flights, especially to Asia.

Sometimes, the person whom one is meeting or negotiating with will often request an itinerary, and traveling in Y may be viewed by some in Asia as the person not being that important. There are times when some very important clients have insisted on arranging transportation and entertaining me for an entire duration of a trip, which, though I find exhausting, can't refuse. At the very least, I know they'd find it puzzling if I were to fly Y or stay in a cheap hotel.