Sometimes the cheapest flight doesn’t exactly save any money.
There are other things that have to be considered like hotel costs, taxis and time of day.
In today’s story, one businessman is notified that his flight has been changed for an upcoming work trip because the new flight is less expensive.
However, the people who made this flight change didn’t consider the consequences!
Let’s see how the story plays out…
I (56M in the UK) was working in Africa as an operations manager for a large global security company from 2009 to 2014.
The country I was working in had been through a long civil war and was very underdeveloped.
(Think no paved roads, people living a very traditional African lifestyle).
At the time I’d been working there on a 10 weeks in country, 2 weeks at home rotation for about 4 years.
He knew the most effective way to fly there.
I’d flown to and from work so often that I had the journey down to the bare minimum travel time.
It worked out the cheapest option for the company because travel days were paid from when I left home.
The shorter my journey the cheaper it worked out for the company.
A higher up at work decided to change the travel arrangements.
Someone in the head office had looked at cutting down on travel costs, probably to make themselves look good and get promoted.
As a result i got an email after a week at home saying they had changed my normal flight which was 5pm on Sunday from my nearest UK airport, via Amsterdam, then on to Nairobi, connecting with a 9am flight to the war torn country on Monday morning.
The change was from the from a 5pm departure to a 5am departure the same day, same route, and saving about £80.
To clarify, the 9am flight from Nairobi was the first flight to war torn country because the destination airport was the only surfaced runway in the country.
It had had no runway lights or radar so all flights had to be in daylight.
Now he needs a hotel.
Anyway, I agreed to the flight time change, but they had to move it to the Monday so I don’t lose a day at home (All will become clear).
They agreed because still saved £80 on the ticket, no skin off their nose.
Once I got the flight confirmation I contacted the travel desk asking for hotel and taxi bookings.
When they asked why I need these I explained that to make a 5am departure required a check in at 3am, so I needed a hotel at the airport on Sunday night.
No trains were running to get me the 3 hours to the airport from home for that time of the morning.
The flights they booked would get me into Nairobi for 7pm – after dark – so I’d need a Hotel there and a taxi each way to and from the hotel to get me onto the 9am flight on Tuesday – the same flight I would have been on if I’d left at 5pm but a day later.
All the arrangements were made.
A couple of days go by and I got a phone call from the company travel desk telling me the travel plan was confirmed.
I was on the 5am flight with a hotel reservation at my UK airport the night before, a hotel in Nairobi after landing and the taxi would collect me in Nairobi and drop me at the airport for my final connection.
I asked about the cost saving, they said £80.
I then asked about the hotels and taxis…
They replied, oh, they don’t come out of our budget, that’s the operations budget so you’re fine.
His boss wasn’t notified about the flight change.
I was happy, I was arriving back at work a day later, still paid the same amount with a night out in Nairobi to sweeten the deal.
My Boss on the other hand went nuts!
Nobody had told him of the changes.
Did they really save money???
My deputy flew out on the plane I flew in on, meaning I didn’t get a hand over of the work that was going on.
On top of that the cost for hotels, taxis and extra day’s pay had all come out of my Boss’s operational budget.
I think the total amount added was almost £1000, but hey, they save £80 on the flight cost!
Wow, that math isn’t exactly adding up the way whoever changed the flight probably anticipated!
Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story…
This reader completely understands why the flight change was made.
Another person explains why these seemingly crazy travel decisions are made at companies.
Another reader is anticipating malicious compliance at work.
This person explains their own travel malicious compliance.
It may not benefit the company, but it’s a pretty sweet deal for the employee!
Maybe he can relax a bit more on this go around.
If you liked that post, check out this one about an employee that got revenge on HR when they refused to reimburse his travel.
