Xyzzy

At some point those proposing doing this need t step back and ask themselves, "Is it worth losing my job over this?" Not every boss or employer is going to be happy with this sort of behaviour -- even if the employee were to personally pay for every dollar of additional airfare.

glbltvlr

This. In spades.

I worked for a Fortune 50 company that used Concur. Profiles were assigned to each employee. Those on the lowest ring of the ladder were not shown anything other than economy fares, with a profile rule that flagged any purchase that wasn't non-refundable or the lowest available fare (as determined by Concur over a 4 hour window). A notification was fired off to the employee manager and director on purchase, and at the end of the month a list was published of all policy violations over $1.

Any changes to the ticket, even on your own card were reported to the company. Those changes included no cost upgrades to the cabin. The company had a flat out ban on flying domestic first / International business. Using miles or your own card to upgrade cabins was shown to the company and I had at least one call from HR asking me to explain why I flew business to Asia on my own dime. Automatic receipts to the company expense system meant that the total cost of the ticket had to be accounted for. Exceeding a certain percentage for personal expenses on an expense report triggered an HR audit flag.

Travel is seen as the number one controllable cost. Basically, now days most companies have systems in place that will catch anything out of policy. Even if you don't like your current company, getting tagged for messing with travel can follow you. Best to make sure your boss is fully on board with what you are doing before you do it.

txflyer77

I used to work for a very large consulting firm that required us to submit boarding passes after someone was caught booking refundable tickets, expensing them, then getting a refund from the airline (or so the story goes).

(That said, they didn't care if we upgraded with our personal resources unless we were flying with a client. Another reason I'm glad to be out of client-facing work)

TBD

It isn't your money, so it isn't your call. If you don't like it, ask to see the travel policy as you interview somewhere else.

In addition to the above, it is quite common for Concur (or similar) to be set to log any selection of a fare higher than the lowest available. IOW: It doesn't matter how you run your search. If there was a lower economy fare available on any flight within some hours of your departure, then your decision to pay a higher fare (and the $ difference) can be logged and reviewed at any time in the future.

A travel agent who is applying specific fare basis codes for this purpose is also risking his/her job.

mozilla

No, there are systems that go by fare type instead of RBD. The former is the safer choice as it is standardized among airlines, unlike the latter which creates mismatches whenever an airline changes its booking class table (very recent examples can be found not far from this thread)). Even some web-facing systems did so and that could be demonstrated when the discounted F fares were Economy fares in disguise. Nowadays they aren't anymore, and I haven't found a single web-facing system that supports something else than "lowest price in a certain class" and would show fare by fare type instead of RBD - mainly because of the first cause - making it impossible to quote Y-UP except in very rare circumstances.

If all else fails, I guess this is where the consulted TA will step in and make sure the fare is "accurately" classified by fare type. I wonder how it is displayed on actual GDS terminal screens though, knowing that our beloved EF, which bases its information on GDS queries, also goes by fare type and classifies Y-UP as an Economy fare. I'll try asking my TA for a screenshot next time.

mc0107

My company does not have corporate cards, so we pay for everything on a personal card and submit for reimbursement. Are you suggesting booking an F ticket but submit for reimbursement for the E ticket? If so, how do you document the cost of the E ticket? Forgive me if I'm misunderstanding that you're simply suggesting submitting the original TA record for an E ticket and then paying for F separately (currently what I do).

Regarding some of the other comments on this thread: my company is explicitly fine with upgrades via cash, miles or CPU so long as they aren't expensed; all changes are reported back by email through American Express since they issue the ticket so indeed there is a log of changes; my booking system allows me to select a fare class in E or F and I can see pages of rules underlying each fare but I don't think I see the level of detail to know if it's an up fare.

fumje

The basic point is that if your booking practices are misleading, you're likely to find trouble.

I don't have enough experience with amex travel or other agencies to know if you're investigating legitimate ways to purchase F fares under your company's travel policies (i.e. you are allowed to purchase such), but the title sounds like not.

mc0107

No, it's not one bit my intention to be misleading. I am playing by the rules, using my corporate travel system to book tickets in E but upfare them on my own dime to earn more PQD. The problem is upgrading on the website prior to travel or TOD does not earn more PDQ. Can't book on United.com, so I can't get the post-purchase popup to upgrade and earn PDQ, which also seems inconsistent based on the thread about earning PDQ. Point of starting the thread was to hear if anyone buys F but screenshots what E costs and expenses E dollar amount, or if calling for buy-ups is the right way to do this and the same/similar cost to upgrading online, or learn about some other method that makes sense.

fumje

I think the most common practice is to book, then call to upfare with your own payment. If you are required to book flexible fares, then that can be tricky, as the upfare isn't guaranteed to retain the flexibility of your company's travel portal.

In my personal experience (which doesn't include upfaring), as long as I retain documentation that I travelled to the location I was supposed to do on the days I was supposed to do, and that all the expenses were as-permitted, I have not had trouble.

mc0107

Thanks! I'll try calling to upfare on upcoming travel and report back.

StuckinITH

I think I can answer this question. I don't do this for domestic flights as i can easily survive in Economy on 4-5 hours flight. But for International long hauls, if I find a good P fare, I do purchase that. At the time of purchase, I print a screen-shot of the lowest Economy fare for the same flights. When I submit my expense report, I have to submit the receipt for my P fare and the screen shot for the economy fare and I get reimbursed that economy fare.

mc0107

In advance of this practice, did you confer with your boss or travel team to make sure this would be ok?

AndyPatterson

"How do you document the cost of the E ticket?" -- what I do is a partial booking, and print out (to PDF or on paper and then scan) the record showing the cost of the E Ticket, and submit that for reimbursement. I then go ahead and book the ticket with an upgrade to F or J (whether miles or cash).

This only works if your employer (1) allows you to use personal credit card for work travel; and (2) does not ask to see the boarding pass. YMMV!

mc0107

Great process. I'm good on items 1 and 2, so I'll check with my employer to see if this works for them, too.

StuckinITH

No. I did not have to confer with anyone. I read the travel policy of my employer and saw that there was nothing forbidding this practice. My employer also uses a travel agency but we are not forced to use it. I noticed on my last trip to Asia, some of my colleagues used the travel agency: the economy fare that they got was $500 more expensive than the economy fare of my reimbursement.

I think, in your case, it would be easy to ask your boss or travel team if this is acceptable. If not, the upfare would be a solution if that's the route that your boss or travel team prefer. However, then, it's better to do the upfare on the phone with United to make sure that you get the PQDs and PQMs. Some of the upgrades online do not give additional PQDs.