Who schedules the flights for your school?

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kjbar
Posts: 24
Joined: Sat Oct 24, 2015 5:42 pm

Who schedules the flights for your school?

Post by kjbar »

I'm just curious: who is in charge of scheduling the flights for teachers at your school? Is it an employee of the school? A travel agent hired by the school? Do you set your flights up yourself? For those who have had experiences at several different schools, which method seems to be the most common? Which way do you prefer?
shadowjack
Posts: 2138
Joined: Sat Oct 06, 2012 9:49 am

Re: Who schedules the flights for your school?

Post by shadowjack »

We schedule our own.
wntriscoming
Posts: 114
Joined: Mon Oct 01, 2012 3:44 am

Re: Who schedules the flights for your school?

Post by wntriscoming »

Initial flight arranged by all schools we've worked at. HR worked with us to make sure flights would work for us.

Flights in the summers have always been arranged by us. Allowance given, travel agents suggested, but not required. I prefer this, as we can look for flights that depart/arrive at times convenient for us and with layovers that aren't too long.

Flight at end of contracts arranged by schools, with schools working with us for what's convenient for our schedules.
mamava
Posts: 320
Joined: Sat May 11, 2013 7:56 am

Re: Who schedules the flights for your school?

Post by mamava »

We've usually scheduled all of our flights ourselves, except the initial flight into the country. In our current school, the HR dept. uses a travel agency to bid out the costs for the flights and then gives us 3 options to choose from. It was the first year they did that and it was tricky because some of the options weren't very convenient and by shopping around and being flexible on my travel dates I could actually do better. There are tax reasons for the school in doing it that way, so hopefully it be smoother the next time we book the flights. Our HR people were really good about working with us to configure things so that everyone's need were met.
buffalofan
Posts: 350
Joined: Wed Jan 06, 2010 11:08 pm

Re: Who schedules the flights for your school?

Post by buffalofan »

In my experience the only flight the school arranges is the initial one way flight for new hires coming into the country. Schools will usually use a local travel agent for this, and you may or may not be able to choose your preferred airline or routing. After that, you'll probably get your flight allowances added into your paycheck in March or April. Easier for both the school and the employee to do it this way.

If you are in a country where you have to pay local taxes, the flight allowance money will usually be taxable unless the school is willing and able to do some creative accounting.
Lastname_Z
Posts: 120
Joined: Mon May 20, 2013 12:17 pm

Re: Who schedules the flights for your school?

Post by Lastname_Z »

First school gave options of either booking ourselves or they can book it for us. However, the money they gave for that is nowhere near enough to do anything creative with booking (fun stopovers in places I haven't been to before).

Second school let us book ourselves and I'm given enough money that I could pay for my own flight to and from the country and a vacation in between.
PsyGuy
Posts: 10789
Joined: Wed Oct 12, 2011 9:51 am
Location: Northern Europe

Response

Post by PsyGuy »

::looking around for Sid:: Depends, how long is a piece of string???

I dont disagree with the prior contributors. The most recent change in this area of IE recruiting is that more and more ISs are relying on their ISs office staff to search for flights online using common web sites and then booking travel. This means you arent really getting an expert (someone who knows getting from the domestic terminal at LAX to the international terminal requires leaving the terminal and going through security again, something you cant comfortably due with a 40 minute connection time between flights). Often times the result is little more than whatever the cheapest flight is on an aggregator such as Kayak or eLong.

You do alleviate some of the risk with an IS by having them book and pay for your flights, as without it, they dont have much invested in you if you are paying everything and then applying for reimbursement, and at a number of third tier ISs, you may not even get full reimbursement or may have excessively long delays in getting reimbursement. You could find out that no reimbursements are made until after your probationary period which could be the entire academic year.

If you make your own travel arrangements you have many more choices and options. You can choose international carriers that often offer better levels of service (Singapore, Virgin Atlantic) than the American branded airlines (United, etc.). This can give you anything from more advantageous luggage allowances, to lounge access, etc. You have the options of getting more for your flight allowance and even upgrading to better class of cabin (business, first) for points/miles or minimal differences in cost. You can pad your connecting flights with ease and even enjoy a day trip on a stop over (If your going to Asia, you could plan a stop over of a day or so in London for example). If you have a very small flight allowance you can get creative with regional airlines and student airfares (you could fly for example on Spirit from DFW to LAX for $80, then fly on a student fair from LAX to HKG for $410, and then from HKG too CAN [Guangzhou] for $128 for a total of $618 [or take the bus, and enjoy HK for a day or so], which is better than the $882 you would find on Kayak). You can also plan for minor accommodations such as having your entire family sit together or reserving east in advance without fees with airlines that are more accommodating to such requests without paying additional fees. Lastly, you get to keep the miles/points for the flights.

If your IS does use a travel agent you may or may not get a contact number for them if you have problems, I would ask for a contact number for any such issues, usually a travel agent can make things happen or cut through the customer service line in case of unexpected events. If your flight gets canceled everyone is going to be waiting inline for the gate agent or calling the airline service number, you can contact the travel agent without being put on hold, and very likely will be accommodated before even the first class passengers have been rerouted. ISs with travel agents can also serve as a resource for your holiday and other travel needs.
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