Reimbursed Vacation
Posted on October 25, 2007 by Him and tagged credit, employment, fun, vacation
photo: Davide Schiano
Since Her and I graduated from college, we've never taken a "real" vacation together...something about paying off debt got in the way. We could never justify spending a lot of money to take a nice real vacation together.
I've mentioned a few times that I get to travel for my job, and that I usually get put up at nice hotels. This past summer, I was offered the chance to go to a pretty nice location for work to attend a conference. I was going to be there for a few days and would have a lot of downtime. I thought it would be perfect opportunity to have Her come along and have a fun vacation on the cheap. Here's how we did it.
When I signed up for the Citibank AAdvantage card, I was entitled to received a free companion ticket. I made the reservation for both of our tickets with American Airlines; my ticket would get reimbursed, and Her's was free with the exception of taxes (which amounted to about $20).
Our company generally reserves hotel rooms only a few weeks in advance of travel. Because of this, many of the hotels near the convention center were already booked. We ended up booking a room at a hotel that was a little farther than walking distance, but happened to be the nicest hotel I have ever stayed in. It might as well be the nicest hotel I will EVER stay in. We arranged a 4 night stay, but since I was doing work on only 3 of the days, we had to pay 1 night out of our own pocket. Since I was there for a conference we got a reduced rate on the room for all of our stay. We could have probably stayed somewhere cheaper for that 1 night, but all we could find were hotels that were far away from the convention center and hotel we were arranged to stay at. We decided the hassle wasn't worth the $50 we'd save.
Since we were more than walking distance to the convention center, we needed the use of a car. We rented a car for the full 4 days we stayed there, but paid for 1 day out of our pocket. We got a phenomenal deal on the rental through the travel agency that my work goes through, so we ended up paying $15 plus gas for the rental car.
Whenever I travel, all of my meals are reimbursed as well. On the non-business day we were there, we ate pretty frugally - living in Chicago has given us an astute sense of where the cheap, but good eats are. Some of the days we ordered room service for 1 - the portions were so large that it easily fed both of us. Other meals weren't extravagant, but weren't all at at Subway, either. We saved a ton on food - so much that I didn't mind the incredible pain in the ass it was to file the expense reports, separating our meals.
A lot of the stuff we did for fun was free or cheap. We're not really into touristy stuff, and much rather prefer to go on self-guided tours and get a feel for the culture of the place we're visiting. We did do 1 touristy activity and got tickets from the hotel since they offered discounts. I guess that is one of the perks of staying at a super-nice hotel.
After I was reimbursed for everything, our total out of pocket costs for the vacation was approximately $400. Not bad for 2 roundtrip flights, 4 nights hotel, 4 days of rental car, 4 days of meals, and entertainment. Oh yeah, and we got rewards for ALL of the vacation. The only downside is that I actually had to work on two of those days; although if it weren't for my job, we wouldn't have been able to have our first "real" vacation together.
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MVP | Oct 25, 2007
Lemme, tell you, you are SO lucky your company pays for all these things. My company has all but eliminated paying for all those travel expenses due to budget cuts. Take advantage!
However, I will say there's nothing like taking a vacation where you can leave your work cell phone at home and don't have to think about work, see co-workers and eat with them.
we did this two weeks ago! I was due for a conference in Sydney, and my husband was due some time from work. It's just far enough that my work will let me drive or fly - so i chose to drive, and they reimbursed me for petrol. we had a nice hotel, and most meals. it was lovely : )
Michelle | Oct 25, 2007
Reimbursed vacations are the best! I went out to Vegas for a week for a conference earlier this year. My husband (a pilot) got a ride out there for free. The sales guys bribed the techies to help out in our booth (free gambling money), and our company took everyone (including spouses) out to dinner every night. Total cost for a week-long vacation for two (in The Hotel at Mandalay Bay even!) in Las Vegas: $50
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