Originally Posted by
CBreezy
I'm not trying to defend what XJT did today (I heard a rumor), but at many companies, you have to spend a significant amount of time organizing your own hotel rooms, transportation, etc. Sometimes you aren't given a company credit card, have to pay out of pocket and are reimbursed accordingly. Sometimes you end up paying out of pocket if you accidentally go over budget for the trip and sometimes the meetings are cancelled without your prior knowledge. Even worse, if you're a salesmen, you could have wasted 2 days of your life on a customer that wasn't even interested in the first place.
Imagine spending time at home on your days off answering emails and organizing travel. You have to scour the internet for flights that maximize your time while meeting the budget. Even worse, sometimes you start your day traveling at 4am and when you get back to your city, you have to come into the office because you're salary and have things to attend to.
Then that is a crap company to work for.
I used to work outside of aviation; we had a travel department. Sometimes, I got my own ticket and got reimbursed. I was ALWAYS paid correctly. If something was cancelled for some reason, I went back to the hotel, I did not sit around for hours and hours. I did work very long hours on projects at times, but when a project was finished, I went home on time. I did not pay for bi-annual medical exams, crashpads, and my food on company travel was paid for as well. I also was paid in 1998 what I make now as a 9 yr. captain.