What do you mean about "incurring the wrath of my employers, who didn't get a rakeoff from rail travel" ?
Short answer - the "corporate Travel Service (!)" refused to book AMTRAK. Period. Said they "didn't know how". Refused to allow me to make a rez and they pick it up. By their lights, I was gonna By God fly on their choice of itinerary. One employee told me they didn't get as big a commission from AMTRAK. Even if the AMTRAK fare was less than air fare, no soap. I know know the CFO got a huge check at the end of the year. We had over 300 employees who flew weekly at least.
Fortunately, old age and treachery always beats out youth and exuberance...
The "global" travel agency agency found the cheapest fare, no matter the airport on either end, time of day, number of hops, seat availability, aircraft type.
I live 4 miles from DFW, my wife could drop me and pick me up. It's almost $100 cab to get to Love Field. And that is Southwest only. No assigned seating. A cattle car.
Cranky old fart that I am, I WON'T sit in a center seat, get up at 0300 on a travel only day so I can sit in a hotel until the next day, take two three hops when a nonstop is available, or drive an hour to an airport when I live <four miles from DFW.
Also won't fly Airbuses, but that's another inflammatory thread. My years long boycott of Eastern and Continental was legendary.
Our union represented guys flew on the most direct flights, as they were paid hourly. Us management salaried types got scrod. They wanted us to leave at 0600, get to the hotel some time in the morning, and sit in the hotel the rest of the day on our own time.
It was routine for them to put us management types on a two or three hop cropduster intinerary leaving at 0600.
My solution? I helped my brother start a legit travel agency. He would take the ticket, cash it in, write me a proper ticket (sometimes on AMTRAK if I could make it work), and I paid the difference. Sometimes I flew on miles. And made up the difference on my expense report. Over the course of a year it would balance out. A number of my co workers used his services as well.
Oddly enough, the Global Travel Experts never seemed to be aware that they were losing their commission when their issued tickets were canceled. I am sure in this day of computerized everything it would be detected.
Some years after leaving that company I met the CFO and told him. He denied he ever got a penny, of course, that it was for The Company's benefit. I do remember he always flew First on United, and had a new luxury car every year. Oh well everyon'e got his game.
They would have none of it. Later, as airline security and the ensuing delays started to take their toll, they began to allow VIA Rail for trips of 4-5 hours, which included most corridor runs. It was proved time and again that business class on VIA could be cheaper and faster once getting to and from the respective airports, security delays and the approx. 1-hour flights were added together. Still most preferred to fly - it was seen as more "professional".
