When I resigned, I was informed by fleet that I would have to pay for all tickets that were booked on TRIPS. I subsequently discovered that this is
wrong!
Salary deduction is still used as the payment process up to 45 days before your departure from EK. After that point you have to pay for your tickets.
As soon as you resign you can no longer book a ticket and get it issued instantaneously, as is often the case. Even before your last 45 days when tickets are still paid for using salary deduction, the ticket request needs to be looked at and approved by someone in staff travel. Therefore you can't book a ticket at the last minute and expect to travel. In fact a window of 3-4 days should be given to allow your ticket to be approved, unless you visit Staff Travel at the ESC and they can approve the request on the spot.
I booked a ticket at the start of my notice period and the status of my ticket showed 'being processed' or similar once I had requested the ticket. I thought that was the point where I needed to go to the ESC with my credit card and pay for my ticket. In the end I didn't need to pay and the ticket request just needed to be approved and it took a matter of seconds.
Also you can use unused ESCs after you leave as well! Worth refreshing yourself on the ESC rules, as you can book up to six sectors per ESC ticket.
