Wish me luck!

We have an upcoming annual work event in Miami.

Not only is it mandatory to room share :0 and fly coach :0 It's now not possible to fly direct Apparently the direct flights are all over budget

I think it might be time to change where you work !!

I think it might be time to change where you work !!

I wish you more than luck if you are flying to Miami. Whichever class you travel does not compensate for the joys of MIA airport !
As to room share ...

It's not good is it! Room sharing is a new thing, coach class for the event was imposed last year however I got round that with a PE MPM ticket at cost less than the company booking me in Econ. I did ask if I could book my own accom and expense up to 50% of the shared room rate but no.

All in all I'm really looking forward to it not!

Those 24hour stomach bugs are truly dreadful....

Well that's what my boss would be hearing if they ever tried to pull that one...

I feel for you MoJoJo.
My company has the same rules on booking, it has to via (the pirates) that are our Corp travel agents.
Even tho on our company intranet there are so many examples of booking travel directly is significantly cheaper, you then have the booking fees they charge, they insist and forcibly make you book that way.
It does make me smile a lot of the time tho. When I call up to book I end up telling the agent on the other end of the phone that if they for an X bucket fare it will be less cost than their "Great deal" they have on that route. This is not only flights but car hire, hotels etc,etc.
I guess the accounting part, reporting etc must make for they lose in the cost of fares.

The room sharing is a move that has seriosuly pissed off everyone particularly as it was made obvious a certain level of manager and above would not be submitted to this. A few guys have booked rooms elsewhere at their own cost which may be my option if I'm forced to share with some hairy arsed stranger.

Flights are as you say LovingGold always booked through the pirates who charge our company a £29 booking fee.

I'm working on the flights, keep your fingers crossed it works at a cost and loss of miles for me but I really don't fancy non-direct and a four hour stop somewhere on route. Or woe betide anyone sharing a room with me as I won't be a happy bunny!

Plan achieved so far anyway. so, any seat recommendations for UC on the outbound to Miami? Its an A330 3 class. I've gone for 8A based on the seat maps and ratings here but happy for other ideas.

[honey lamb]

Reminds me of the time I got reprimanded at work for booking a flight directly and not going the corporate travel route. I paid €1.98 for the ticket; if I had gone the corporate travel route it would have cost the service I worked for €135 for the exact same flight!! :0

Mojojo, that room sharing policy is just nuts! OK, it may be the difference between them paying for one room rather than two, but at what price if productivity is down because you didn't get a wink of sleep because of your room-mate's snoring!

It really does suck and to not allow us to book our own accom and expense 50% of the shared room rate is just down right wrong. Anyway, room sharing is next to tackle as flights are sorted. If it come to it at check in at the hotel if I find I'm sharing I will high tail it to the Holiday Inn next door and pay for a room myself.

I would love to be able to anonymously post my company name and the idiocy of our travel reservation system. It is constantly more expensive, and recently offers no direct flights on the route I normally take. Fortunately my manager thinks the same and is happy to sign off my expenses.

But room sharing, well they can stick that where the sun doesn't shine. I wouldn't go. Or if I did I would just pay for my own room if it was a place where I did want to go. But I decide if I share not some corporate diktat.

Plan achieved so far anyway. so, any seat recommendations for UC on the outbound to Miami? Its an A330 3 class. I've gone for 8A based on the seat maps and ratings here but happy for other ideas.

IMHO there are no great seats in UC on the 330
As long as you are not too near the UC bar and the toilets you will be good. After all, you are at the pointy end of the aircraft

In my 3 flights in UC on an A330 I hadn't seen anyone at the bar yet (apart from me that is!)admittedly I haven't been awake the whole time but it seems to me that its just not as inviting as the old UC bar which I have yet to sample but will do next month,sorry to go off topic slightly but the point I'm making is I wouldn't see seats near the bar as an issue to be honest,
On a recent flight from Boston there was a lady who had virgin stickers all over the back of her passport ( saw this queuing up after landing at immigration ) who was obviously a very frequent flyer who actually sat in 9a right next to the bar ,there was only 12 UC seats taken so she could have chosen to sit pretty much anywhere but stayed where she was .
Just read this back and it sounds a bit rambling but I think you will get my point
Blacky