A Presidential Trip to Asia With Rocketrip
Rocketrip is all about motivating employees to make smart, cost-conscious decisions when they travel for business. Time and time again, we’ve seen employees go above and beyond to save their companies money when they know they can personally keep 50% of the savings. So imagine our delight when we read this article in the New York Times detailing how it cost the Times $92,111 to cover the travel costs associated with reporting on President Obama’s recent trip to China, Myanmar, and Australia.
In the article, journalist Andrew Siddons details what it would have cost to fly commercial instead of via chartered jet or Air Force One, finding that such a change would reduce travel spend by a whopping $86,824. Of course this seemed like the perfect case for Rocketrip: If the Times reporter was allowed to spend $92,111 but could pocket 50% of whatever he saved, he could make some pretty serious cash simply by flying commercial.
We recreated the trip through Rocketrip, devising two scenarios that would earn significant income for the reporter, one based on coach fares and the other based on a more luxurious first class routing (plus posh accommodations, which weren’t factored into the Times’ exercise).
Presidential Itinerary via the Rocketrip Platform – Coach fares only:
- Washington DC -> Beijing on Saturday – $850
- Hong Kong -> Yangon* on Wednesday – $740
- Beijing to Brisbane on Thursday – $1890
- Brisbane to Washington on Sunday – $1,830
Total Trip Cost: $5,310
Savings Earned via Rocketrip: $86,801
Employee’s share of the rewards: $43,400.50
Presidential Itinerary via the Rocketrip Platform – First Class fares plus 5-star accommodations:
- Washington DC -> Beijing on Saturday – $7,520
- Stay in Beijing from Sunday to Wednesday morning – $500
- Fly Beijing -> Yangon* on Wednesday – $1,180
- Stay in Yangon Wednesday to Friday morning (4 star hotel) – $360
- Fly from Yangon to Brisbane on Friday – $4,510
- Stay in Brisbane Friday to Sunday morning – $370
- Fly from Brisbane to Washington on Sunday – $10,320
Total: $24,760
Savings Earned via Rocketrip: $67,351
Employee’s share of the rewards: $33,675.50
The Rocketrip staff was divided between which itinerary to choose, but we universally agreed that we’d opt for one of the savings scenarios over flying with the President (as cool as that sounds). What would you do?
*Yangon was substituted for Naypyidaw given lack of Naypyidaw availability
Photo Credit: Pete Prodoehl, Creative Commons License
