ACAS is a very decent bloke (for an engineer!) and not at all pretentious.
On the matter of 1st class rail tickets, irrespective of the business case, hell would freeze over before tickets such as are permitted by 'the system'.
A while back a friend of mine was on duty in the UK when a crisis struck the capital where he was an attache. His flight was cancelled the nigt of the crisis but he needed to get back to Post and to his family who were holed up in their apartment. He managed to rebook another, and rather convoluted, series of flights back to Post from Manchester. The main leg was Business Class (but cheaper than standard) and he flew through the night and back to the war-torn capital and drove back through road-blocks manned by militia, past bombed streets and burnt-out buildings and vehicles, finally arriving at the sand-bagged Embassy - and a very fraught wife and two rather excited kids.
Roll on reconcilliation of his GPC account (Government Procurement Card). The MOD have sought to invoice his for the entirity of the BC flight as it was done without 'authorisation'. He's pointed out that he was to return on that day anyway; the original flights were cancelled (and refunded) by the airline and his new flights - and the only seats he could get - worked out at about the same cost (but would have costed more by standard class). He's also been questioned by non-SMEs as to why he had to get back 'in such a hurry'. Approaches like this make people throw their hands up in despair. And, I suspect, the nature of this travel and the circumstances that brought it about, would be accepted by even the most dimmest of Daily Mail readers.
Last edited by Whenurhappy; 17th Oct 2016 at 12:33.