[decimalenough]

I first heard the word "frupidity" from friends at Amazon, where this seems to be quite common. Examples include prohibiting buying business class tickets, even if discounted, so people buy more expensive full fare economy tickets instead and upgrade cheaply off that with points.

Business travel in general seems to be rich hunting grounds for frupidity, because the bean counters aren't the ones traveling. The good old "can't expense anything without a receipt" policy, for example, ensures people will take expensive taxis (with receipts!) instead of tapping on and off public transport.

[tgsovlerkhgsel]

Business travel also has the potential of suffering from the "different budget" problem, where a cheaper flight requires an extra night at a hotel, or the savings from a cheaper hotel are more than eaten up by the additional taxi costs (but only the more expensive constellation is within the approved limits).

Business travel has a lot of potential for abuse too, though, so the restrictions can sometimes be understandable.

Conferences are often held at desirable destinations, allowing attendees to combine a business trip with a mini vacation. OTOH, I suspect that much fewer people would be willing to make some trips (that the company wants to happen) if there wasn't some personal benefit, because (I assume) most people don't particularly enjoy sitting on an air plane and living out of a suitcase.

[pavel_lishin]

At a previous company, when I had to travel, we had a contract with some sort of travel agency. They loved ignoring all of my instructions ("late morning departure, direct flight, out of <preferred airport>") and would book me on a 7:30am flight, out of an airport it would take me three hours to get to, with a connection in a totally different part of the country.

To their credit, when I would email them and let them know that I found a cheaper direct flight, leaving at my preferred time, out of my preferred airport, they would graciously change the flight to that one.

But I'm not sure why I was required to do the legwork at all for a service they were nominally providing.