Business/First class airfare tickets policy.

[Martin Michlmayr]

* Bdale Garbee <bdale at gag.com> [2019-02-13 20:40]:
> If so, I don't really understand what the problem is.  If a traveler
> is willing to pony up out of their own pocket for the difference in
> fare to fly in a higher class, I can easily interpret that as
> "putting more skin in the game" just as easily as an abuse.

I tend to agree.  I see where Bradley is coming from when he basically
says he wants to punish the rich, but Conservancy's mission is to
further free software and not fight poverty or inequality directly.
If someone wants to pay the difference for business out of their own
pocket, that's hopefully good for FOSS since it will (presumably) make
them more productive at the meeting.

I think another problem with the proposal is that it leads to
comparable situations being treated differently.  If I buy an economy
ticket and later upgrade to a higher class at my own cost, I would get
100% of the economy ticket.  However, if I buy the higher class ticket
directly, I'd only get 50% of the economy ticket because you want to
penalize me.  How is that fair?

> If the only element of failure to acquire preapproval is a traveler
> spending their own money to fly in a higher class of service than the
> current rules allow, I would strongly disagree with this proposal.

To be honest, I doubt I would have even thought about asking for
preapproval in this situation.  After all, I'm only asking for
reimbursement for an economy ticket, which is within policy.  Of
course I didn't actually purchase that economy ticket, but I didn't
ask Conservancy to pay for the business class ticket (which would
require preapproval).

If a Delta ticket is $300 and I buy an American ticket for $400
instead, I don't ask for preapproval either.  Of course, this
situation is different because the AA ticket is in policy whereas the
business class ticket isn't (but again, I don't ask Conservancy to pay
the business class ticket... I just ask for the $400).

Speaking of penalizing people, you basically allow people to make a
choice to book their preferred airline.  But if we start talking about
fairness, why do some people get to earn a lot of miles?  (especially
those with status who probably get more miles due to their status
level). [ Or things like status upgrades, which mere mortals like me
don't get. ]  I don't expect an answer here but I just want to show
the kind of can of worms this sort of question opens.

> I guess this point I'm just confused about what the current policy
> actually is, since this seems like a really crazy amount of angst over
> $100?

I think based on comments on IRC, Bradley is concerned that it can be
up to $600 more.  But really, the $600 more is because the cheapest
flight is significantly longer -- it has nothing to do with whatever
class of service you book.

Anyway, I'm not sure I see the problem.  But having said this, I am
concerned in general that the travel policy can be "gamed" in a number
of ways -- but I'm not sure if reimbursing people for an economy
flight when buying a higher class introduces more opportunities to
game the system.

If there are other arguments, I'd like to hear them but my initial
impression is like Bdale's -- I'm not sure I see the problem.
-- 
Martin Michlmayr
https://www.cyrius.com/