Flying for work -- how to add personal travel?

Talka

I work in San Francisco. For a week in April, my company wants me to work from our Atlanta office.

I have friends in Washington DC who I'd like to visit after my week in Atlanta. What's the most appropriate way to suggest this to my company?

It'd be cheapest to get a multi-city flight (SF --> Atl --> DC --> SF), but then how do I determine what part of that flight to pay for myself and what part to let my company cover?

The alternative is to get separate round trip tickets between SF / Atl and Atl / DC.

Would it be at all inappropriate to ask my company to cover the normal cost of a round-trip SF / Atl flight, then use that and my own money to buy a multi-city flight?

imdointhis

I would ask openly and honestly and in writing.

Darkewolfe

To add to that, there's pretty much no way that a multi-stop flight to Atlanta is cheaper with a stop in DC due to hubbing. In those situations, it is standard or legally required (depending on how your accounts are audited) that you pay the difference out of pocket to your company.

Gizzy

I've done something similar .. but the prices probably weren't as extreme since it wasn't all the way across the country.
I did Memphis -> Austin -> Tampa on the company, then a one-way ticket Tampa -> Memphis on my own.

Just clear it with your boss before you do anything.

Unknown

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kuhlmeye

One option, if they let you would be to look into openjaw flights. That would be

Sf -> atl
DC -> sf.

Booked as a single ticket. Then you just figure out how to get to dc for your return trip.

You'd probably have to book direct through the airline, Rather than Expedia or the like.

cmsamo

Myself and my colleagues used to do this quite a lot when we travelled for work, and a colleague at my most recent job just did exactly this - he was connecting via london to a european city, having flown from west coast US. He asked that he be able to take a week's vacation in between the end of the business travel, and his flight back. In the meantime he paid for his own flight to Poland (and back to the UK so he could make the connection back to the US)

In general, if you can find a flight deal that is cheaper (or the same cost) than what your company pays for your initial travel, and you have approved vacation time, I think you would probably be OK. I wouldn't suggest it to them until you have researched the flight costs and figured out that it saves them money though.

Unknown

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Dhalphir

My work lets me do this all the time flying on business. In terms of flight costs, it makes no difference in cost whether I stay for three days or for more, they still pay for a single return flight either way, so I don't have to pay any flight costs - just book the return flight later than otherwise.

My work covers every cost while I'm away - accomodation, rental car, all food purchased, etc. Usually I just pay any extra costs associated with staying, any extra accomodation, and any food purchased after the work-related part of the trip is over.

Gizzy

It's a little trickier than that in this situation since he wants to vacation in a diff city than where work put him.

Unless you are suggesting he just book a round trip from SF- ATL on the company and tweak the dates. Then book a round trip on his own bt ATL - DC and time it to return in time to catch the company paid leg.

a5ehren

kuhlmeye wrote: »

One option, if they let you would be to look into openjaw flights. That would be

Sf -> atl
DC -> sf.

Booked as a single ticket. Then you just figure out how to get to dc for your return trip.

You'd probably have to book direct through the airline, Rather than Expedia or the like.

This is what I would do. Your company probably already has a policy about this kind of thing somewhere, so ask around.

illig

a5ehren wrote: »

...Your company probably already has a policy about this kind of thing somewhere, so ask around.

almost guaranteed... i used to be able to do this quite a bit as a consultant (hell - i had friends who didn't even rent apartments - they just flew to interesting places each weekend on the company dime ) but recently i've seen company policies restrict this due to insurance reasons (i.e. they're obligated to cover you for business travel, but not for personal travel - and the liability in case you get injured/dead on a mixed business/personal trip is tricky to determine)