To expect business-class travel when taking a business trip long haul?

[Mexxo]

Have been asked to attend a conference which is a 10 hour flight away. I work for a large international firm. Having said yes I will attend conference, was surprised to be told I am expected to fly economy overnight and get off and go straight into 2-day conference at other end. Then fly back overnight and go straight to work, or take the day off as holiday.

AIBU?

Well, tremolo, those days are long gone; none of us at Oxford can do business class now, and a friend at Princeton can't either. The only people who do pay from their own pockets.

I also think performance at these things is perhaps a little less laid-back now :(

I'm not blaming anyone, but the OP didn't say she was expecting to do a 15+ hour day.

Sorry, I meant to say I travelled economy everywhere, but it wasn't so bad as it would be if I had to do that now... doh!

No it's just a standard day 9-5.

Consensus seems to be that premium economy might not be too much to expect. I might try and garner some assertiveness to ask...

Well then if it is company policy, pull them up on it. Seems more of a perk than a basic necessity to me though.

That timing is unreasonable but economy is sadly not. Business is probably another £3-5k.

DH gets to fly Economy Plus because he is too tall for Economy. He uses his air miles to bump up to Business or First when he can.

Are the flights only daily, or could you be moved on to an earlier outbound and later inbound?

Can you sleep in Economy? I can fall asleep anywhere so would be fine to go straight into the conference.

It might be expensive to fly business but if I've flown through the night economy then my company loses two billable days - a lot more than the cost of the upgrade

If it's written-down company policy then you should get to fly business class.

YWBU to expect business class as a general rule, but YANBU to expect them to stick to their policy.

My DH travels long haul a lot and they have tight margins on the client contract. His deal is business class if he is expected to work on arrival or premium economy if he gets a full night's sleep at his destination before he's expected to work. This is just about doable but he is still knackered when he has to fly premium economy as you can sleep properly in business but not premium economy.

YANBU to not put up with the deal you've been offered. To me a 10 hour flight in economy with no full night's sleep before working is not acceptable.

YANBU given that you are expected to go straight into work at both ends. sounds to me as if the rules have been set by somebody who has never travelled and done business in this way - often the case.

My DH is travelling for business more than he is on the ground and gets to fly first class - it's not a perk, it's a pure survival thing - the only way to get enough sleep to be a functioning employee.

Your travel time should not be counted as your time/down time. It is often anything but - 10hrs in economy next to a screaming baby is hardly relaxing.

I would rather have a day off either side than Premium Economy - it wont make that much difference to the sleeping.

Ours is Premium for anything over 5 hours. We have never had Business though.

I am a partner in a similar firm. I think this is pretty outrageous. If it is firm policy that Qual staff go Business Class then why not you? If this is coming from HR, ignore them and talk to the partner in charge

YABU. My DH is director level in a public company with offices worldwide. Recently his company has started insisting that everyone travels economy, at all times, even long-haul, and if he insisted he was unable to work after the journey you describe he'd be laughed out of the office.

Sure it's tough, but lots of people have to put up with far worse cost-saving measures and unless your industry is riding out the recession unscathed I'd smile and suck it up.

Honestly I'd suck up the economy flight in exchange for a day off after you come back.

My experience is that unless your boss is actually travelling with you then they assume because you are going somewhere forrin you are travelling by magic carpet in pampered luxury.

The reality is that they will cheerfully send you off to the arsehole end of the back end of beyond with not a care for your personal comfort or safety. In the interests of economy your flight to Brazil is routed via Moscow with a 23 hour layoff in the airport terminal (if it was 24 hours they would have to book a room for you). As it is your flight will be subject to a 7 hour delay though by that point you are just too tired to care.

When you get to Brazil (Sao Paulo not Rio) you will be given a card which says:

in the event of being kidnapped, phone this number........

The flight was an exageration, I did actually get given a kidnap card in Brazil!

vixsatis I think the divergence from policy is because of the actual cost of the BC ticket. Am just going to say "I assume I am not expected at work on the day of return given that I will have flown overnight?" and see what they say.

Economy everywhere is pretty common - it's the policy in my company (which covers a lot of countries!) for everyone but the top 5 individuals. I think it is unusual not to have any recovery time either end. Where are you flying to and what local time do you land each time?

Its a false economy IMO. When DH worked for a large multinational he always flew business, even on short haul because flexible economy tickets are normally more expensive than business class (which are always flexible).

It only takes a couple of non-flexible economy flights to be missed due to a meeting overrunning/client changing arrangements and the whole thing works out more expensive than flying first.

Also, what are you going to do re showering etc? Most business class arrivals suites have showers and suchlike so you can go straight from airport to meeting.

Completely unreasonable to expect you to step straight off a flight into a meeting. What are they thinking? I'd put my foot down if I were you, nothing 'troublemaking' about it - people who stand up for themselves tend to get more respect at work than those who just suck it up, no matter how unreasonable 'it' is.

It is unreasonable to expect you to travel economy then step off the flight (unsurprisingly smelling like someone who has slept in their clothes) and go straight into a meeting.

Unfortunately sometimes the bleedin obvious does need to be pointed out.

Mexxo Good strategy. May be worth looking at range of Business Class fares: some are not as steep as, say, BA.