4 ms·

I think what he is saying is... a lot of companies let you pay for the ticket yourself and expense (ask for reimbursement) the cost of the ticket. Most companie

by throwaway2016a 11y ago

I think what he is saying is... a lot of companies let you pay for the ticket yourself and expense (ask for reimbursement) the cost of the ticket. Most companies will pay the price of the cheapest ticket but won't care if you pay more than that. They just limit how much they pay you back. So if the cheapest ticket is X dollars and the ticket you buy is Y. The employer will reimburse you for X and you pay the Y-X yourself. Nothing illegal about that, it's the same as if a company says they will reimburse you for half your gym membership. You pay half the company pays half.

dogma1138 11y ago
companies get tax deductions for those expenses which means they need to submit receipts. They can't expense a random "market price" but an actual ticket, if you then upgrade it it's fine, if you just say airline a had it for 200 and airline b had it for 300 and you can't expense the cheaper one.
- mdorazio 11y ago
  I know this thread is dead, but just for reference in case you or someone else in the future are curious... Sure they can! No auditor is going to look at this situation and say, "Wait a minute, you took a deduction lower than you could have? That's a penalty" so it's generally not a problem. If you do the opposite (book a cheaper flight and then expense a more expensive one), that's definitely a big problem and also probably illegal. However, if your company has strict policies about receipts and expense amounts you can always do the slightly shady "book two, cancel one" move - book one seat at the cheapest rate and another that's actually comfortable, print the receipt for the cheaper one, then cancel it within 24 hours to get a refund. I don't recommend this of course, but it is a way to get around excessive red tape.
  - throwaway2016a 11y ago
    I was going to say something similar but I gave up. Just adding, anecdotally, I've never met a company that won't let you expense less than the receipt amount so haven't needed to do the refund thing. But I'm sure they exist.

dogma1138 11y ago

companies get tax deductions for those expenses which means they need to submit receipts. They can't expense a random "market price" but an actual ticket, if you then upgrade it it's fine, if you just say airline a had it for 200 and airline b had it for 300 and you can't expense the cheaper one.

mdorazio 11y ago
I know this thread is dead, but just for reference in case you or someone else in the future are curious... Sure they can! No auditor is going to look at this situation and say, "Wait a minute, you took a deduction lower than you could have? That's a penalty" so it's generally not a problem. If you do the opposite (book a cheaper flight and then expense a more expensive one), that's definitely a big problem and also probably illegal. However, if your company has strict policies about receipts and expense amounts you can always do the slightly shady "book two, cancel one" move - book one seat at the cheapest rate and another that's actually comfortable, print the receipt for the cheaper one, then cancel it within 24 hours to get a refund. I don't recommend this of course, but it is a way to get around excessive red tape.
- throwaway2016a 11y ago
  I was going to say something similar but I gave up. Just adding, anecdotally, I've never met a company that won't let you expense less than the receipt amount so haven't needed to do the refund thing. But I'm sure they exist.