Travel reservations for work on personal card

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verbose
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Travel reservations for work on personal card

Post by verbose »

My boss signed me up for a conference in June. I’m expected to make air and hotel arrangements on my personal credit card, to be reiumbursed after the trip.

I’ve done this before, but this time, I know (and my manager doesn’t) that I’m searching for a new job. It’s a casual search with no current prospects and maybe I’ll still be here in June, or maybe not.

I don’t want to be stuck paying for plane tickets I may not use but I also don’t want to arouse suspicion by refusing to pay for them on my own credit card. Managers have company credit cards but non-managers generally do not.

Ideas?
DSInvestor
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Re: Travel reservations for work on personal card

Post by DSInvestor »

Do you have the option to buy a refundable ticket? Even if you were still with the company in June and attend the conference, I wouldn't want to wait 3 months to be reimbursed. If you have to buy non-refundable tickets, perhaps you can submit that for reimbursement immediately after the purchase.
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Silk McCue
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Re: Travel reservations for work on personal card

Post by Silk McCue »

verbose wrote: Wed Mar 28, 2018 1:27 pm My boss signed me up for a conference in June. I’m expected to make air and hotel arrangements on my personal credit card, to be reiumbursed after the trip.

I’ve done this before, but this time, I know (and my manager doesn’t) that I’m searching for a new job. It’s a casual search with no current prospects and maybe I’ll still be here in June, or maybe not.

I don’t want to be stuck paying for plane tickets I may not use but I also don’t want to arouse suspicion by refusing to pay for them on my own credit card. Managers have company credit cards but non-managers generally do not.

Ideas?
My first thought is that you aren't a bank for your employer. Any charges made on behalf of this business need to be paid to you well before the bill is due, not after the conference. Incidentals should be paid for after the conference.
btenny
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Re: Travel reservations for work on personal card

Post by btenny »

Do not make plane reservations until May. Tell your boss you are waiting and do not want to float the air fare cost for a long time. Point out that the cost will be higher if you wait and there may be issues with getting good timely reservations. If he objects tell him you will make the reservations now but want to file a travel voucher now that you have made the air reservations and bought non-refundable air fares. Likewise you probably have to make reservations at the conference hotel as well. That may also require a non-refundable partial payment fee. Check this out. If that is the case also discuss this with your boss.

I know when I traveled the company provided the air tickets but we paid for the rest of the stuff with our own credit cards. We also did all our reservations through a company travel agent. This was way back when and some how they did not get charged for the script tickets until they were used.

Good Luck.
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archbish99
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Re: Travel reservations for work on personal card

Post by archbish99 »

Waiting until after the trip to be reimbursed is fishy. I always wind up filing two expense reports per trip -- one for pre-paid expenses (flight, registration fees, hotel deposit) and a second for time-of-trip expenses (hotel, food, laundry). If they're not willing to reimburse prior to the trip, tell them you won't/can't purchase the ticket in advance of the trip and you'll have to pay more to buy a few weeks before you leave. That applies regardless of whether you're leaving, by the way.

Now, I was in basically this situation when I left my last job. Since I actually was going to go on the same trip for my new employer, I had hoped to just reimburse the cost of what they'd already paid and then expense it at my new employer. However, they did make me cancel my ticket and registrations. Their travel agent was able to pay a name change fee and transfer the residual value of the ticket to another person on the team; I filed a negative expense report for non-flight expenses which got refunded to the corporate card. (Then I went and bought a new ticket and re-registered using my personal card and filed an expense report with my new employer.)
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ddurrett896
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Re: Travel reservations for work on personal card

Post by ddurrett896 »

verbose wrote: Wed Mar 28, 2018 1:27 pm
I don’t want to be stuck paying for plane tickets I may not use but I also don’t want to arouse suspicion by refusing to pay for them on my own credit card.
Ideas?
You should be able to purchase the ticket now and expense right away.
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verbose
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Re: Travel reservations for work on personal card

Post by verbose »

Thanks. I will approach it from the “float” issue.

This manager is so disorganized that maybe there is another way to do it and he just hasn’t said or doesn’t know (the manager is the #1 reason I don’t want to work here anymore). This is a megacorp and there should be a common sense policy.
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Re: Travel reservations for work on personal card

Post by Jack FFR1846 »

I've worked for companies who allow an advance when I had to book future travel at my own expense. The advance was applied against travel expenses when I completed my trip.
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mhadden1
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Re: Travel reservations for work on personal card

Post by mhadden1 »

Apparently you work for a cheesy company if they expect you to front them big travel expenses like plane tickets. Lunch at Taco Bell on the way to the airport? Sure.

I would seriously assess whether I wanted to continue working for this company. There are plenty of great companies around. Unemployment is 4%.
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Pajamas
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Re: Travel reservations for work on personal card

Post by Pajamas »

I would contact whichever department is responsible for reimbursing travel expenses and ask if you can get reimbursed immediately. That still leaves you with the problem of buying tickets that you might not use, so also ask them what happens if for some reason you end up not being able to go to the conference.
mhadden1 wrote: Wed Mar 28, 2018 3:39 pm I would seriously assess whether I wanted to continue working for this company. There are plenty of great companies around. Unemployment is 4%.
That's the source of the problem: verbose is looking for a new job now and might not be working there when the conference takes place.
Last edited by Pajamas on Wed Mar 28, 2018 3:49 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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mhadden1
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Re: Travel reservations for work on personal card

Post by mhadden1 »

Pajamas wrote: Wed Mar 28, 2018 3:46 pm
mhadden1 wrote: Wed Mar 28, 2018 3:39 pm I would seriously assess whether I wanted to continue working for this company. There are plenty of great companies around. Unemployment is 4%.
That's the problem, the O.P. is looking for a new job and might not be working there when the conference takes place.
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