Why I Stopped Booking Through Corporate Travel

As a VP of Engineering, I travel from San Francisco to Delhi quarterly for team offsites. It's a brutal trip, and corporate policy dictates I have to use our internal travel portal.

This time around, the portal spat out an $8,400 quote for Business Class. I nearly choked on my coffee. There was no way I could justify blowing that much of my department's Q2 budget on a single flight.

On a whim, I contacted CEOFLIGHTS and spoke with Lisa. She didn't miss a beat. She asked me a few quick questions about my schedule flexibility and then told me she'd call me right back.

She got me the exact same dates on Air India's new A350 for $4,600. I actually had to forward the receipt to our CFO with a note explaining that no, I hadn't accidentally booked economy.

I was a bit nervous about Air India, having heard mixed reviews in the past. But Lisa assured me the new A350 product was a game changer, and she was entirely correct. The cabin felt modern, clean, and incredibly spacious.

The food was phenomenal. Proper South Indian dishes that actually tasted like they were cooked with care, rather than microwaved into oblivion.

My one real complaint is the in-flight entertainment. The movie selection was pretty limited, and I ended up just working on my laptop for most of the flight because there wasn't anything I wanted to watch.

Despite that, I arrived in Delhi completely refreshed. I've officially told my team to bypass the corporate portal for international flights and just email Lisa directly.