In a month or so, I will be checking-in, board the plane and buckle my seatbelt as I head off to Jakarta. Yes, this is for work — our new local distributor there wants to get up to speed with our offering hence, workshops have been organised.
Travel to Southeast Asia is fairly hassle-free coming from London. But after 9/11, several airlines have discontinued routes that are not as revenue-generating as others. British Airways, for example, no longer flies direct to Jakarta. With this in mind, I would need to change planes in one of the major SE Asia: Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong or Bangkok.
Flying with Malaysia Airlines or Thai Airways has been somewhat premium as their fares are not competitive enough. So, the choices left for me are Singapore Airlines (flying via Singapore), BA (via Hong Kong) or Virgin Atlantic (again, via Hong Kong).
Now, our company has this policy that all longhaul travel must be in PREMIUM ECONOMY class. Yes! You read it right, not BUSINESS CLASS! So, by elimination, flying with Singapore Airlines is not an option as they do not offer premium economy seats. Virgin Atlantic, on the other hand, does have premium economy but very limited code-share partners that would make travel convenient. This simply means that I might need to check-in my luggage only until Hong Kong, claim it there and re-check it in for the connecting flight to Jakarta. Hence, BA seemed the likely choice as they code-share with Cathay Pacific so luggage could be checked all the way through Jakarta (at least, I reckon).
I asked our travel department to get me a quote — £2,547.10. But…this is premium economy on the London (LHR) – Hong Kong (HKG) and HKG – LHR legs and economy on the HKG – Jakarta (CGK) – HKG.
Recalling the bad not-so-nice experience I had with BA this year (alone!), it would really suit me if I could avoid flying with them completely. So, I asked for a quote on the cheapest business class ticket on Singapore Airlines. What I got back? £2,580…difference of £32.90!
Aah! 
I don’t think the company would mind spending the extra £32.90. But even if they do, I offered to cover the difference from my own money.
But no.
I was told that this had to be OK’d by one of the company directors as a premium economy ticket is available. This was after approvals were given already by the executives who will be charged for my travel, anyway! So, he went back to this said executive and, in a nutshell, implied that my request was out of line. They even suggested that I fly BA to Singapore (on premium economy, of course, to which Travel quoted £1,704) and then fly to CGK on another ticket, which will be arranged by one of our Asia offices separately. Can you imagine the hassle to that?
Before our Singapore office even had the chance to quote the SIN-CGK-SIN flights, I told the executive that “if money is the issue, I’m OK to fly economy on Singapore Airlines.” The quote for the economy class ticket on SQ flights all the way through CGK and back is £1,478.60.
I didn’t think I was asking too much for that business class ticket. I mean, I did offer to cover the difference from my own pocket so it should be a no-brainer. The company is not spending more money as it is and I get to travel in comfort (which should be their prerogative in the first place!). I guess I got it all wrong.
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