Would you question why you are being flown Economy?

[wlipwlop]

Work policy is that all flights over 4 hours are in Business Class. It’s a perk of working at the company.

I am flying to a conference for work. It’s in Buenos Aires so around 11-12 hours.

They have booked me in Premium Economy. My flight home lands back on a Monday morning because earlier flights were full in Premium Economy. This means my weekend is spent at the conference and then I go straight back to Canary Wharf.

Well I’d ask.

I would challenge this HARD!

Absolutely. That's a long ass flight.

If work can't book me into Business, they either put me in First or offer me a different flight

I should add, I have only recently joined the company, but it was something I checked before moving across.

You don't get a flat bed in PE, so to roll straight into work upon jet-lagged return? No way.

I think you should phrase it as "why haven't these flights that are 12 hours long been booked per the stated policy of business?"

^ this
And have a look at the flights/pricing yourself so you know what is available.

I’d be taking the Monday to sleep, but enjoying the weekend in BA

Just speak to them. Point out the policy and ask why this hasn’t been adhered to.

I think a better question is why wouldn’t you question this if it contrary to your employer’s policy? Just be assertive and ask that the policy is complied with.

I’d also expect some recognition of the fact that you’re away over the weekend eg. Monday off on return on maybe the following Friday to give you a shorter week.

A client with a similar policy and flight duration once offered me PE on BA or Business on the national carrier for a similar flight due to the cost to get everyone there.

I chose PE on BA cos I am little, wanted the points, and frankly can sleep anywhere (and didn't fancy the other airline I'd never heard of), but the important point was I was asked. I'd question why it's out of policy definitely

I work in business development for professional services so oversee a lot of travel. Our policy is the same as yours - on the basis that you’re either on the clock while travelling, or sleeping and you should be able to sleep comfortably. I’m guessing this might be an oversight if travel is usually charged to the client? 90% of the time when we have an issue it’s because people are trying to save money for the firm - never seems to happen when it’s travel being charged to a client account 😂

Was it booked internally or via a travel agent? We’ve recently reviewed our policies and are encouraged to book internally (either by the individual themselves or by a PA) rather than via an agent due to the costs. Either way I’d question it along the lines of ‘this doesn’t seem to be in line with the policy’ but going forward I’d offer to book your own flights. For starters it means you get exactly what you want but it also means you can pick up Avvios etc.

This ☝️

We had a similar policy @wlipwlop. But we generally tried to be reasonable so during day PE, red eye BC.

I'd say no to the return flight it has to be BC if its overnight, you will not be fit for work. Flight costs are ridiculous at tge mo, maybe try to find a reasonable BC flight yourself and suggest you take tgat home. We used to get our weekends back as toil days too - make sure to query that too.

What a shambles! No point having a pokicybif its not going to be implemented!

They can't expect you to go straight to work after no sleep on PE. I literally cannot sleep unless I'm flat. I managed the 24 hr trip to NZ on no sleep at all -a sleeping tablet and wine didn't help at all. I absolutely couldn't work the next day.
If you can't get the flight changed then I'd be going back to work on the Tuesday not the Monday.

I’m a PA and book travel for my company. I wonder if it came down to cost, the prices on BA business currently are through the roof. I’ve recently booked a U.S. round trip in business for £12k.

You should absolutely ask why you’re not in business.

Is it possible the airline doesn't have business class? I don’t think Virgin does? Just Economy, premium and upper?

Virgin Upper IS business class

My old employer used to have a policy that flights over 6 hours could be in business class, unless they’d cost over a certain amount, and then they had to be in premium economy, leading to the ridiculous situation where you could go to the east coast of the US in business class but a far longer flight to the west coast or Australia would be premium economy. Not at all related to the fact that we had one of our main office locations on the east coast so the execs got to jet back and forth in business class while sales colleagues who had further to travel did so in less comfort!

I would challenge the being expected to go back to work immediately from a 12 hours flight too on the following grounds:

When employees are required to travel for a business purpose, for example to meet clients or attend a meeting at a different site, this should be counted as working time.

For every 24-hour period, workers are entitled to at least 11 hours of rest.

If you have been travelling for work aka working time for 11-12 hours you then need an 11 hour break before you work again

Although I don’t work for the company (big FTSE) anymore they were shocking with this. We had a senior director who decided to shame people into going PE because the sector wasnt doing well. He announced this on a Zoom call with 100’s of people on it. He also announced that any medical issues would be taken on a case to case basis and stated he was too large to fit into PE seats so that was a ‘medical issue’!! He was a shocker and a known bully. He said anyone who went BC would be reported to him on a monthly basis and he reserved the right to call them personally and discuss with them why THEY thought they could spend all the hard earned profit.

As some brave soul asked on the call ‘ Mr xxxx can I say we really don’t travel abroad for fun’. Mr XXX asked for his name to be announced presumably so he could hunt him down.

This is very likely human error, nothing sinister. Who booked the flights?

Are you flying directly from the UK, OP?

If you don't return till Monday then Tuesday and Wednesday are Time Off in Lieu for your lost weekend, surely?

Business isn't a bed with most airlines (only first) , so PE isn't significantly different.

If you are heading to the Far East I'd avoid BA and go with Emirates or Virgin if you can (at school molar price) for a better overall experience in whatever class you get.

For work I've flown PE virgin one way snd business the other on BA several times and the Virgin is better. (Plus you get upgraded fairly often).

And if you don't get back until the middle of the night OF COURSE stay in bed the next day. Message them when you hit the airport and let them know you can't travel safely.