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Many years ago our company implemented a policy preventing employees from "benefiting" from business travel, which prohibited "splitting the difference" on taking a coach flight instead of business class.
Recently, with an downturn in the consumer products industry, and simultaneous increase in airfare costs they have implemented a temporary policy: The difference in fare between coach/business flights will be passed to the employee, up to $1000 round trip. To qualify to even take a business class flight, it has to be an 8 hour trip. Taxes are deducted from the $1000, bringing the amount to around $700. I doubt many downgrades wouldn't max out the $1000 maximum.
For me, this is a no-brainier. To date this year, I've logged 24 work-related flights (7 international business-class), and about 60,000 miles in the air (wish this policy was in effect earlier). I'm expecting to keep that pace of travel up for the rest of the year. I'm young and flexible, so I fit into tiny seats easily. I'm a recent college grad, so I'm not unaccustomed to sleeping in weird positions, or in noisy locations. I pretty much live in hotels, so bad food is kinda' normal. I figure I can take home an additional $4k this year from this policy, but some of them are going to be looooooonnnng (16 hour) flights in coach.
So, as a hypothetical, is it worth $700 in your pocket to fly 16 hours in coach versus business class. I figure it's about $45 hour, which is pretty darn good for sitting on your bum and watching movies.
Recently, with an downturn in the consumer products industry, and simultaneous increase in airfare costs they have implemented a temporary policy: The difference in fare between coach/business flights will be passed to the employee, up to $1000 round trip. To qualify to even take a business class flight, it has to be an 8 hour trip. Taxes are deducted from the $1000, bringing the amount to around $700. I doubt many downgrades wouldn't max out the $1000 maximum.
For me, this is a no-brainier. To date this year, I've logged 24 work-related flights (7 international business-class), and about 60,000 miles in the air (wish this policy was in effect earlier). I'm expecting to keep that pace of travel up for the rest of the year. I'm young and flexible, so I fit into tiny seats easily. I'm a recent college grad, so I'm not unaccustomed to sleeping in weird positions, or in noisy locations. I pretty much live in hotels, so bad food is kinda' normal. I figure I can take home an additional $4k this year from this policy, but some of them are going to be looooooonnnng (16 hour) flights in coach.
So, as a hypothetical, is it worth $700 in your pocket to fly 16 hours in coach versus business class. I figure it's about $45 hour, which is pretty darn good for sitting on your bum and watching movies.
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