The smart way to handle this if you really want to fly business class is to pay the upgrade cost difference yourself. Mark it on your expense report when you turn in the receipts.

Your sponsor then may say "no worries, we'll take care of the upgrade cost!" then you're golden. In any case they'll respect your integrity.

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ghaff 2 days ago | parent | next [-]

Companies usually have certain travel policies including who can fly business and under what circumstances. If you're within policy I don't see the issue.

	▲	WalterBright 2 days ago \| parent [-]
		Yes, if it is written policy, then there is no issue. Also if you get agreement in advance then it is not an issue.

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scarface_74 2 days ago | parent | prev [-]

I’ve worked for three cloud consulting shops, they would never allow this. One of those consulting shops is AWS’s internal shop.

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thebiss 2 days ago | parent | next [-]

I have worked for similar consulting companies, though not AWS. We had to always book an initial ticket that was policy compliant (economy, or higher only if it was similarly priced), and then optionally upgrade the seat. That causes the upgrade to come through as a separate charge.

Later, when submitting expenses, the upgrade had to be marked as a personal expense, to be netted against per diem or paid back directly.

Early in my career managers did a very poor job of explaining that this was allowed.

	▲	scarface_74 2 days ago \| parent [-]
		Of course, I overlooked the scenario that the parent mentioned about paying for themselves. I frequently took my wife with me on work trips and we would stay a few extra days. I would buy her ticket separately, have separate receipts when we ate out so I could have mine reimbursed and put the extra days as personal in Concur. Our favorite chain hotel is Embassy Suites where you got a good free breakfast and an afternoon happy hour with free alcoholic drinks so she would benefit without it costing the company. Funny enough, since expenses reimbursement approval was done by a department outside of the US, they consistently disallowed my hotel expenses because it showed two people in the room even though it didn’t cost more and was within policy. I just had to tell the hotel only to put 1 guest. I know the hotel check in thought I was having an affair with someone even though my wife was standing right there with me.

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WalterBright 2 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Never allow the employee to pay for the upgrade himself? Wow.

Companies also tend to overlook excessive travel expenses if the employee is bringing home the bacon. But don't put hooker expenses on it! (Yes, I've seen this happen.)

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scarface_74 2 days ago | parent [-]

The three companies have travel policies that apply to everyone. It also depends on who is paying I guess. I am a post sales consultant where for the most part, my company gets reimbursed by the client and in the contract, they have the guard rails as far as allowed travel expenses.

Then on the other hand, you don’t have to choose the cheapest airline possible, so you can choose the one where you have status and get automatic upgrades (Delta Platinum Medallion in my case) and a higher chance for upgrades.

Of course you can pay for the upgrade yourself. But why would I spend my own money to do so. They are so strict though that every time my receipt after flying showed I was in an upgraded seat, I had to also send in the email as proof that my upgrade was free because of status.

	▲	WalterBright 2 days ago \| parent \| next [-]
		> They are so strict though Most likely because they were tired of being defrauded. As usual, it only takes a few bad apples to sour things for everyone.
	▲	ghaff 2 days ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		When available trans-Pacific, I did sometimes use miles to upgrade to business (and generally paid the co-pay myself). Pretty much always flew my usual carrier (United) when that was an option.