On 21 July 2010 15:13, Alan Greenberg <alan.greenberg@mcgill.ca> wrote:
Do you mean submit claims instead of per diem, or for air travel??
I personally most like your proposal to let individuals make their own bookings if within budget. The ICANN appointed travel agents have just blown it too many times. Also, if someone knows the're eligible to go long enough in advance, they can book the flight months ahead (not weeks), saving ICANN many hundreds of dollars in costs. The formal process is so slow to get moving, many of the low fares are gone by the time they even send out the paperwork. Another good reason for the claims approach to booking air travel is that it allows the traveller to pay for the difference if the specific itinerary they want is too far over budget. So far it's been an absolute yes/no call with the traveller not being able to "top up" the cost of a more-expensive option. I also strongly approve of your comments dissuading against use of charter/vacation airlines. I was booked on one for part of my trip to Brussels (Thomas Cook Air) and wouldn't recommend that to an enemy. As for "premium economy", I'm not so sure. AFAIK the only real benefit of that fare is that it allows for no-cost or low-cost itinerary changes, lets some frequent flyers upgrade more easily and sometimes gives more mileage points. I'm not sure that such a policy would affect more than a handful of people, and even then provides them only an increased _chance_ of business class. As someone who might directly benefit from such a policy I think this one may be the hardest to defend. There are a few airlines<http://www.united.com/page/article/0,6722,1314,00.html>that have an explicit "permium economy" area with more legroom; in those cases the fare can be justified but I'm not sure that the other features alone are worth it. - Evan