Often1

On a more sophisticated system, the TA simply enters the allowable fare and fare basis in a miscellaneous field and either charges the corporate card or, in the case of a business where employees charge a personal card and are then reimbursed. Anything above that is run against the personal card. That miscellaneous field is tied to the general ledger of the business just as the total fare field would be in a less enlightened employer's system.

If this is an employer billing a client, all of this is described in a fully transparent entry in the client-billing software. Again, all automated, so no real costs.

All of the above takes one set of programming and creates a lot of employee goodwill for no cost other than the one initial investment in programming.

mc0107

that sounds pretty slick! by chance, any idea if AMEX global business travel can do this?

findark

This is also what I do (and then book using the corporate rate & TA directly into F so that we get the spend onto the corporate contract). I consider myself fortunate that we have the flexibility to book to a personal card and reimburse based on screenshots.

Miggles

Air travel sucks, and is getting sucker especially in economy. So if Corporate happens to say that your upfare practice is not okay, then I would suggest pursuing the matter to help them understand that you are not trying to pull a fast one and to give some leeway. From an accounting perspective this should be extremely simple. Just allocate the portion of the cost above the economy fare as non-billable/non-reimbursible. As another poster mentioned, a more progressive policy here would pretty much be a zero cost morale booster.

As for me, I have my own company now and am far happier booking travel my way rather than through some dumbed down site like Concur or American Express. What I do is book in economy, save the pdf of the United receipt and then same day change it to an up-fared ticket if I so desire. I then submit the original receipt for the lower fare when I bill the customer. They have never asked for something as obsolete as a paper boarding pass.

VegasGambler

At my company (and my previous company) a screenshot is/was sufficient to document the economy price and get a partial reimbursement.

You need to ask someone at your company (1) if this is allowed, and, if so (2) what would be considered sufficient documentation.

david_oz

mozilla

They don't care if you do that for your own leisure travel, but there may be various reasons why they ban this for corporate travel.

They may not want that one employee flies in more comfort than another employee, because it could create friction in a team; of course, those who make the rules, C-Suite and HR, can fly in more comfort.

Or they may want to avoid even the slightest hint of doubt that a client could have about how his budget is spent, not everyone understands upgrades as good as we do. Related to this, they may not want to be associated with premium travel at all because it could create an image that the corp wastes money on frills.

There could be many other reasons. It really depends a lot on the market you are in and the type of customer you're dealing with, for some it's a big issue (for example, when taxpayer money is involved), for others, it's less an issue or not an issue at all (Silicon Valley, oil industry).

To be sure, my opinion as well is that any employee should be free to upgrade his travel on his own dime, without repercussion.

glbltvlr

brp1264

Book the E ticket, let it ticket, print the receipt PDF after ticketing, cancel the flight within 24 hrs for no penalty, book the ticket you want in whatever fare class, and submit the receipt for the original E ticket that the company would have paid for.

StuckinITH

My main employer does not request the boarding passes but my other employers (in Europe and Asia) do request them. So, that method would not work very well as the PNR number would be different. But none object to the boarding pass showing a seat in Business if they only have to reimburse the Economy fare.

tarheelnj

I've always booked a ticket as soon as I determined I needed to travel and have been successful getting lower fares. I always wait to get the email confirmation before then attempting to upfare or apply a GPU/RPU. When I do, I sometimes get another email from the travel provider notifying me of a change in my booking and showing "BUSINESS" for fare class. Only challenge in upfaring is if you have to cancel or change your trip - then things can get messy. My employer's travel system just looks to see if I accepted the lowest coach fare offered. There's no issue with what I do afterwards on my own dime.

In a previous job, I saw some travelers intentionally wait until the last minute to book their tickets, as a way to book a higher fare (and sometimes upgradable M or B fares) while complying with the "lowest fare" requirement. An astute manager should track the time between approving travel to when it was booked. Granted, this strategy increases the likelihood of a middle Y seat if not upgraded, but produces higher PQD and upgrade priority.

mc0107

The only downside to this is that Amex GBT charges $9 a reservation online. 1K has its costs!! :-)

I've seen that movie too. But, it can also mean that fares have more flexibility.

brp1264

Ahh, didn't know you were booking via AMEX agent. I presumed since you were using your personal card that you just booked directly with United and then got reimbursed appropriately.

Guess this wouldn't work too well using AMEX. I remember my last job made use use AMEX (with a corporate card), and they typically were just a major PITA to do anything with versus just booking it on your own.

brp1264

Gotcha, yeah it definitely falls apart if they want to see the BP as well. I've never had that as a requirement for any of my jobs fortunately.

docbert

$9?!? Clearly your companies travel staff are better at negotiating than ours as we're over 50% higher than that...