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  • pbcold 375 posts

    I have provisionally been asked to do some work in Texas next year. I have had an email from the company concerned which inludes this sentence:

    “Would you be willing to let us purchase flights for you–exactly per your request–so that in case anything goes wrong and we have to cancel, we could reuse the flight credits in the future? Let me know.”

    Would an arrangement such as this make any material difference to them or me? The flights will be in J – presumably I can add my BAEC number once I have the booking and my only “loss” is the AmEx points for the cost of the flight. Thank you.

    BA Flyer IHG Stayer 2,761 posts

    lol at them thinking there wold be any soert of ‘flight credit’ if there is a voluntary cancellation.

    If they want flight credits in those circumstnces then they need to book you on AA not BA

    Advantage of them booking is you don’t have to put up any of your own cash and await reimbursement.

    No issue with you adding in your BAEC number etc

    pbcold 375 posts

    Thank you very much – I did think it a rather odd question, as you say, and appreciate your feedback.

    strickers 931 posts

    If they have a corporate contract they may have more favourable cancellation terms. Almost certainly they will be booking on or through a US airline.

    Swiss Jim 159 posts

    They’ll also very likely get a kick-back (depending on volumes) so financially advantageous to them. No issue from your perspective I can see.

    Lady London 2,308 posts

    Be careful some travel agents they may use could be incompetent or you could end up ticketed badly due to company or their travel agent incompetence or targets. Tickets may end up with suboptimal routings when better is available cheaper, or restricted in various ways that you won’t find out till it matters.

    I let a US client purchase my ticket as the cashflow and not having to wait for reimbursement is tempting only to find that:

    1. Ticket was via JFK to Detroit adding 6 hours to the journey. When easy cheap direct flights were available weirdly, on same major airline and another one

    2. Ticket price was about 50% more than the pricing of most other options including the direct ones

    3. On calling Delts on a minor query ahead of the return flight, having put my Virgin Gold number into the booking, the agent mentioned I had been upgraded on the overnight flight back and she would just process thst also. Then she said uh oh no she couldn’t process the upgrade, as the US travel agent had issued the ticket [at the much higher price] with no changes allowed.

    So their pet travel agent chose an unnecessary indirect route, at 50% higher price to my client than they should have paid, so much higher than the price of (changeable) nonstop flights that were available, and had unnecessarily made the ticket non-endorseable, ie non changeable, as well, ripping off his client and losing my upgrade.

    To say I was spitting bricks was an understatement. Couldn’t object timely as it was very much a family company and I had a feeling to get away with such liberties there was possibly a personal connection between travel agent and someone important. But quietly mentioned it at a different time.

    pbcold 375 posts

    Thank you very much indeed for these kind, helpful responses. I have said yes with the caveat that I choose the airline and the route which they have agreed to so I am happy.

    Matt 412 posts

    The only issue I could see (assuming they book what you want competently) is that in the event of a downgrade, the reimbursement would likely go to them, not to you.

    pbcold 375 posts

    An interesting subtlety that I hadn`t thought of, thank you. I am reasonably confident that if things go ahead they would want to maintain a good relationship under these circumstances.

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