That sounds ridiculous. I work for the government. I get comp time for travel. I too have to pick the cheapest option and sometimes it results in layovers...but at least I'm getting compensated for my time. I have also been able to take more costly flights because they would result in additional costs - like late night taxi fare instead of being able to take the metro. I'd refuse if I were you too. Good luck!

Anonymous wrote:I have been a consultant for 15+ years. Only the government allows billing travel time. That said, any reasonable private company understand this and respects if you choose the higher cost flight for direct/timing/etc. If you arent billing your time then book the more expensive, direct flight out of convenience.

There's a difference between travel time being billable time and having to travel on your own time, though. I also work for a consulting company and while we don't bill our customers for travel time, we don't expect our consultants to travel on personal time (i.e. Sunday evenings) unless there is a specific customer meeting or need that requires it. Even then, we allow for flex time to accommodate that travel time. We also give non-billable utilization for customer travel time so it gets recorded, just isn't billed to the customer.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have been a consultant for 15+ years. Only the government allows billing travel time. That said, any reasonable private company understand this and respects if you choose the higher cost flight for direct/timing/etc. If you arent billing your time then book the more expensive, direct flight out of convenience.

I have worked for a startup, a PR firm, a small non profit, and a large international organization and I have never even heard of the expectation that one would travel on their own time.

I’ve worked at a bunch of different places. I’m curious what everyone is defining as ‘your own time’. If I need to be someplace by 10am, I’ll catch a 6am flight. If I need to be someplace at 8am, I’ll take the 5pm flight the night before. I don’t view this as ‘my own time’. Traveling Sunday PM or Friday PM - yes. Hate it and avoid it if at all possible. Are you suggesting that you wouldn’t book a flight before 8am or that arrived after 5pm?

Why is it ok to travel the night before a flight (when you theoretically would not be working otherwise) but not on the weekend? That’s my time when I could be with my family, running errands, whatever. But if I fly the night before, I am not able to do any of that and it is giving up ‘my time’. Now I do travel super early AMs, the night before, etc. If I must. But I mostly would fly after 8am if I can choose to do so.

OP here. The issue is not traveling on the own time. It is minimizing travel expense and traveling on my own time.

I rectified it in this situation. Simply stated, I said I have personal plans/obligations that prevent me from leaving before 3 PM ET. I just did not say the plans were to sit around the house in my bathrobe.

They will allow me to fly on company time, but I have to do it during normal working hours. I work for a larger (>30K employees) DOD contractor.

This is really a problem when one is on international travel and the only option is a red-eye. I am unable to function the next day. What I do then is just tell my manager what I am doing, and have never had problems.

It is now the penny wise on the cost of the flights. I have no problem with saving money, but please value my time. You pay me close to $100 per hour. That means the cost saving should be $100/hr. Usually, the most expensive thing on travel is my time, and not the travel expense.

I would find another job.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have been a consultant for 15+ years. Only the government allows billing travel time. That said, any reasonable private company understand this and respects if you choose the higher cost flight for direct/timing/etc. If you arent billing your time then book the more expensive, direct flight out of convenience.

I have worked for a startup, a PR firm, a small non profit, and a large international organization and I have never even heard of the expectation that one would travel on their own time.

I’ve worked at a bunch of different places. I’m curious what everyone is defining as ‘your own time’. If I need to be someplace by 10am, I’ll catch a 6am flight. If I need to be someplace at 8am, I’ll take the 5pm flight the night before. I don’t view this as ‘my own time’. Traveling Sunday PM or Friday PM - yes. Hate it and avoid it if at all possible. Are you suggesting that you wouldn’t book a flight before 8am or that arrived after 5pm?

PP here. No, of course I would fly on a Sunday, Monday, Saturday, 3am, 11pm... I prefer not to travel during the weekends and holidays, but I make it up with flextime (e.g. taking Fridays off), or coming into work late, or asking for a comp leave day or two (e.g. if traveling for work over a weekend).

+1 This is similar to my roles at a PR firm and a boutique consulting firm and this is how we have operated. My companies have never made a stink about when we choose to fly, and when going to the West Coast I have certainly had "travel days" where I am flying during the work day. (And, of course, do work if needed and able.)

Anonymous wrote:When I worked in big 4 for eight years I did flight, Texas, Tokyo, Florida, Chicago, Canada, Atlanta you name it all on my own time. Any real job you don't travel in work time.

Define real job. We are a dod contractor. The travel time for technical personnel is all billable. For company management it's their own time but they make triple what the technical personnel makes and don't have direct billable hours to the customer anyway (and show up at 11 to the office)

When I worked in big 4 for eight years I did flight, Texas, Tokyo, Florida, Chicago, Canada, Atlanta you name it all on my own time. Any real job you don't travel in work time.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have been a consultant for 15+ years. Only the government allows billing travel time. That said, any reasonable private company understand this and respects if you choose the higher cost flight for direct/timing/etc. If you arent billing your time then book the more expensive, direct flight out of convenience.

I have worked for a startup, a PR firm, a small non profit, and a large international organization and I have never even heard of the expectation that one would travel on their own time.

I’ve worked at a bunch of different places. I’m curious what everyone is defining as ‘your own time’. If I need to be someplace by 10am, I’ll catch a 6am flight. If I need to be someplace at 8am, I’ll take the 5pm flight the night before. I don’t view this as ‘my own time’. Traveling Sunday PM or Friday PM - yes. Hate it and avoid it if at all possible. Are you suggesting that you wouldn’t book a flight before 8am or that arrived after 5pm?

PP here. No, of course I would fly on a Sunday, Monday, Saturday, 3am, 11pm... I prefer not to travel during the weekends and holidays, but I make it up with flextime (e.g. taking Fridays off), or coming into work late, or asking for a comp leave day or two (e.g. if traveling for work over a weekend).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have been a consultant for 15+ years. Only the government allows billing travel time. That said, any reasonable private company understand this and respects if you choose the higher cost flight for direct/timing/etc. If you arent billing your time then book the more expensive, direct flight out of convenience.

I have worked for a startup, a PR firm, a small non profit, and a large international organization and I have never even heard of the expectation that one would travel on their own time.

I’ve worked at a bunch of different places. I’m curious what everyone is defining as ‘your own time’. If I need to be someplace by 10am, I’ll catch a 6am flight. If I need to be someplace at 8am, I’ll take the 5pm flight the night before. I don’t view this as ‘my own time’. Traveling Sunday PM or Friday PM - yes. Hate it and avoid it if at all possible. Are you suggesting that you wouldn’t book a flight before 8am or that arrived after 5pm?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have been a consultant for 15+ years. Only the government allows billing travel time. That said, any reasonable private company understand this and respects if you choose the higher cost flight for direct/timing/etc. If you arent billing your time then book the more expensive, direct flight out of convenience.

I have worked for a startup, a PR firm, a small non profit, and a large international organization and I have never even heard of the expectation that one would travel on their own time.

Agreed. My company consists travel time to be work time. That means, of course, that you buy go go in flight internet access to respond to emails and do work. ?

Anonymous wrote:I have been a consultant for 15+ years. Only the government allows billing travel time. That said, any reasonable private company understand this and respects if you choose the higher cost flight for direct/timing/etc. If you arent billing your time then book the more expensive, direct flight out of convenience.

I have worked for a startup, a PR firm, a small non profit, and a large international organization and I have never even heard of the expectation that one would travel on their own time.

Anonymous wrote:I think I would have personal commitment on Sunday that I couldn’t reschedule and that would run until about two hours before my preferred flight.

Yep! Its a shame that that cheaper flight isn’t going to work with your other plans.

State what you can do. Do not openly argue policy, just be firm when you state what you can do. Who is telling you which flights to take? They look good of they save the company money. Most likely the company made decisions late, less timely than they sound. It costs more.

I have been a consultant for 15+ years. Only the government allows billing travel time. That said, any reasonable private company understand this and respects if you choose the higher cost flight for direct/timing/etc. If you arent billing your time then book the more expensive, direct flight out of convenience.