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Old 26th Apr 2012, 12:29
  #14 (permalink)  
WHBM
 
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: London UK
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Originally Posted by Ancient Observer
All of the large Companies have an "attitude" to travel, which often starts at the top, is then mediated by bureaucrats in beancounting and by morons in purchasing.
Normally the bureaucrats in beancounting and the morons in purchasing do not do any "added value" travel, so they have a view on costs, rather than creating value.
I long ago discovered that, while the beancounters do indeed get turned on by minimising cost, those in purchasing who are responsible for selecting the travel company, etc, who handles the corporate account (all bought for minimum cost, remember) are always the first targets for travel agent freebies (which of course are supplied through the trade by the actual airlines etc). Do watch out for that. You'll never see them yourself.

Some years ago a colleague was going from London to a convention in Orlando, just asked our corporate travel agent for "a ticket", but was a bit puzzled that, without further discussion, it was on TWA, connecting through St Louis, which seemed a long way round, and also expensive. I showed him an article in a recent Travel Trade Gazette which described a TWA incentive plan for agents in Britain that was just announced. He said "Oh well", but the connections were missed in both directions and he exploded when he got back. Exit that agent. Good, they were the same agent that told me that on a London City to Dublin trip, I must check in an absolute minimum of 2 hours beforehand "because it is international". When I pointed out that it was an 0700 departure from LCY and the terminal building there was not even open at 0500, the standard line was just repeated.
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