Cliffs at bottom.

My boss asked me and two other employees to attend a national judicial education seminar in Charleston, SC. I had been considering attending the Oklahoma-Ohio State football game in Columbus, OH that was the day before the conference began. Attending the conference meant that work would cover my travel from Columbus to Charleston, and then from Charleston back home, which was one of a few deciding factors that led to me deciding to go to the game. I booked nonrefundable travel from Columbus --> Charleston --> home as requested by work.

The day I left home for Columbus, the conference was cancelled due to Hurricane Irma. Because of the conference, I did not have any return travel home from Columbus booked. Flights out of Columbus were virtually nonexistent and would have required around $900 in change fees .

I booked a rental car and drove 20 hours home. Work is now saying that they will not reimburse me the rental car/fuel/food costs because they aren't work related. Additionally, I missed Monday at work due to driving back, and am being told I have to use personal time off for that day. My argument is that those are expenses and hours that I would never have incurred but for being scheduled for the Charleston conference. Even if I ended up going to the game without being scheduled to attend the conference, I would have booked my flight back home using SWA points just like I used for my flight to Columbus (SWA had 0 flights out of Columbus when my Charleston travel got cancelled, so I couldn't use points to get home). So without the conference, I'm out $0, and I am in the office Monday. With the conference, I'm out $200+, and spend all day Sunday and Monday driving, and am now having to burn a day of vacation that I need.

Additional factors: The other 2 employees were going to go to Charleston 3 days early for a vacation. They didn't cancel their flights, they just didn't go. They are getting refunds from work for those costs. I cancelled my flights to and from Charleston and got one refund and one airline credit. IMO, paying their refunds for flights when they could have contacted the airline and gotten refunds is more borderline than paying my rental car. Also, work's argument is the Columbus thing was a personal trip, but their flights were 3 days early due to a personal trip, and likely would have been cancelled/refunded by airline if actually on the day the conference started.

The $200ish I am seeking in reimbursement would be paid by our grant which is annually about $1.9M, so it isn't a situation where it would be damaging financially.

Adding to my frustration with the whole process, I stopped in Tunica which was halfway home and of course got massacred at the table. If I had won a decent amount, it would be easier for me to just say the good and bad variance balanced out and walk away. I do obviously understand that this has 0.0% to do with my workplace's thought process.

I do think the money is somewhat debatable, since I would have had to get back from Columbus, and the SWA points I would have used have monetary value. But, to me, the time issue is excruciatingly clear that I wouldn't have encumbered time off on Monday without the conference being cancelled at the last minute, making my time usage on Sunday and Monday work-related.

TL;DR - Work was going to pay for me to travel from a personal vacation to a conference and back home. The conference was cancelled last minute, and work won't pay for the travel for me to get back home (which I didn't have booked because of the conference). They also want me to use personal time off for the day I spent driving 20 hours home due to having no other option.

Did you plan to never go home?

I booked flights from Columbus --> Charleston ---> home.

Once Charleston was cancelled, the flight home from Charleston was useless, and I hadn't booked travel from Columbus --> home because I had to go to Charleston for a work obligation.

Wait, so you didn't book return travel home because you were supposed to go to the conference...the conference was cancelled, and they didn't pay for the return flight?

Sounds pretty nitty of them. I'd want reimbursement, yes.

Well flights weren't available once it was cancelled, due to lots of air reroutings that day due to hurricane and also that I was leaving a city that just hosted 106,000 people for a football game the day before, so I had to rent a car and drive the 20 hours back, but otherwise, yes, this.

Was the conference canceled before or after you left for Columbus?

They announced the cancellation about 90 minutes before my flight to Columbus.

My direct supervisor said "well so you could have just not gone to Columbus". I can understand if some will have that view. It literally didn't occur to me that they wouldn't cover the return travel and our director wasn't in that day so I wouldn't have gotten an answer regardless. My Columbus hotel was past the window of being refundable, I have two tickets to the game worth $250ish each that are useless where I live, and I would be a ****ty brother to bail on my brother the day of the trip.

I'm not making a choice like that if there's no work conference, because I either never book the Columbus trip, or I book the flight from Columbus home 2 months earlier, just like I did the flight to Columbus.

Which day was the conference cancelled and what was the first day of the conference? i.e. conference was cancelled on thursday and was scheduled to start on saturday. I think that really matters.

If conference was cancelled more than 24 hours before it was scheduled to start I think you are sol. You took a risk piggy-backing pleasure with a work trip.

Personally, I'd withdraw the food costs and definitely the time off for Monday (you have no shot at getting this anyway imo), and ask for reimbursement of the car rental.

This is a grey area and showing them you're willing to bend is the first step in getting them to compromise too. Good luck. (They do not have to compromise but they should. They are clearly correct.)

Setting aside the money, there's no way they should force you to burn personal time. No cancelled conference = back in time for work, it's safe to assume.

If it's a much higher $$ figure for airfare, then they might want to make a case. This is 200 bucks. Seems like a pretty fiscally responsible solution for getting from point A to B in a pinch.

You have the right to do as you will on the weekends. You altered your personal plans to accommodate work needs, and when things went south they're being ludicrously petty in return. Sad!

Conference was slated to begin Sunday, cancelled Thursday. I flew to Columbus Thursday. Employees who didn't go on their flights were also scheduled to fly Thursday and they got fully reimbursed for their unused flight.

I would have earned comp time on Sunday travelling from Columbus to Charleston, plus comp time for the Sunday portion of the conference, plus comp time for the excess over 8 hours on Wednesday including travel home which would have been around 6 hours.

So never invited to conference - net 0 hours, because I would have been home midday Sunday.

Conference occurs - I accrue about 12 hours of comp time.
Conference cancelled - I burn 8 hours of comp time.

If the other employees were also paid for their RETURN flight, I'd use that as precedence to get your car rental paid.

I just don't see how you get comped for Monday's time though.

Missed VeryJosie's point before and clarification below.
That does make a difference. It's less clear-cut.

Still ludicrously nitty.
If I'm the manager, I restore either time or car rental at the very least

Black,

How much would RT tickets to just Charleston have been? (A)
How much were the Columbus->Charleston->home tickets? (B)

Are you getting reimbursed for B?

Edit: I see you got one refund and one airline credit. How much were each? You should at the very least be able to get reimbursement for the airline credit portion.

I feel exactly the opposite way. Conference was cancelled, so they can expect him to be back at work on Monday morning. Nobody made him travel after the cancellation, that's 100% up to him.

On the refund issue, I think they should refund the same amount of money they refunded his colleagues. Not sure why you have to book/pay your travel anyway? Even if you don't have somebody to manage your travel schedule, at least you should be able to use a company CC to book that part of travel that's not for personal purposes.

If your colleagues had planned to travel 3 days early and still had enough time to cancel their trip, I think it can be expected from you to do the same. 3 days is a long time to change plans.

To me, their flight out is the one that is analogous to my return trip, since their flight out wasn't necessary, but was reimbursed. Either way, they paid for round trip tickets to Charleston, didn't cancel with the airline, and our grant is paying them back every penny they paid. If their flight out was Sunday instead of Thursday, the airline likely would have refunded them (as the airline refunded my ticket from Columbus to Charleston.

We are a grant-funded state agency. We always pay our travel up front, then get reimbursed. At our regular conferences, the grant pays the hotel, but we pay any rental car and for food, then submit reimbursement requests. For this Charleston conference, we booked our own flight and we were going to pay our own hotel, then submit reimbursements for all of it.

Maybe relevant, maybe not: I wasn't ordered to go to the conference, it isn't part of my duties. I was asked to go. I could have said, no, sorry, those times don't work for me, and not faced adverse consequences. I think that plays a bit into the "welp could have just eaten $700 on your Columbus trip and left your brother high and dry literally 30 minutes before Lyft picked you up to go to the airport" being a bit unfair IMO.

Also, if I had booked refundable fares, instead of the cheaper nonrefundable ones as requested by work to save grant funds, I would have been able to switch to another flight that day without the change fees and been home on Sunday.

Sorry, thought I clicked Multi-Quote on this but missed it.

A and B were roughly equivalent with A being maybe $20 more. If B had been greater than A, they only would have reimbursed A. I had to print off RT ticket price comparisons in preparation for submitting my reimbursement.

The refund from the airline was $200ish for Columbus to Charleston. The credit was $113ish for Charleston back home. The credit must be used on SWA within one year (roughly 95% chance I will use it).

Getting reimbursement for the credit is one thing I don't really see how I can get, since it feels like double dipping, since if work pays me $113, I basically got a free $113 SWA credit.

So you knew about it before you left? At that point you are expecting your employer to fund your vacation. You should be grateful they paid for your original flight and paid for part of your vacation. What was your return plan? You got on a flight to Ohio without knowing how you were getting back? That's on you.

Seriously?? Comp time? You charge your employer for comp time while traveling? I've never seen anyone do that or even try it.

Not sure how they handle it for you, but at most large companies that's exactly what would happen. They reimburse you and you keep the airline credit. Not too different from employees getting the airline points (without paying taxes on them) even though the employer paid for the tickets.

That's not that uncommon. If you're travelling for work, you are technically at work, including insurance coverage and all of that. That said, if that time is spent on a plane or other transportation you're not operating yourself, you're obviously supposed to do work during that time.

My employer didn't pay anything for any part of my vacation. I paid (using SWA points) for my flight to Columbus. They were going to pay for my flight from Columbus to Charleston and then from Charleston home. They didn't end up paying for either of those flights.

I'm not asking for them to fund my vacation. I'm asking them to pay for me to get home, which they had agreed to do, and which I needed because I agreed to go to the conference. In my shoes you would have eaten the $700+ for the trip to Ohio and left your brother hanging on the off chance that 1) the airline won't get you on another flight home and 2) your employer with its $2M grant is going to balk at $200 of expenses?

Again, state employee. So yes, work outside of work hours (such as on a Sunday), or for more than 40 hours in a week earns comp time. I'm not saying that I rack up time on the whole trip.

Good point on the airline points example. If that happens, it really sucks that I lost money by being responsible and going through AA and getting my Columbus to Charleston flight cancelled and refunded, instead of just getting a credit AND reimbursement through work like my coworkers.

It sounds like you were using this conference in order to get your employer to pay for half of your vacation travel.

you paid for a flight to columbus but no return!

now I would be peeved that your coworkers who did not cancel their travel are getting full cash refunds from the company while you tried to be proactive and ended up with just credit.

I was leaning towards "It sucks to be you" but with this info I'm now going towards they should make you whole.

In his defense, that's super standard. His colleagues wanted to use the conference for 3 days of vacation without having to pay for any travel.

The employer has to pay for travel anyway when they send their employees somewhere, no reason not to add a couple of days of vacation to the trip if it fits everybodys schedule.

Lots of people even schedule meetings for Friday and Monday at their travel destination, so their employer also pays for their hotel over the weekend.

If there was no football game I would have gone to the conference 100%. So I didn't just go to the conference to get my vacation covered. I would have been within my rights to decline attending the conference due to my personal plans to go to the football game. My employer wanted me to go to the conference for benefits both to me and to my employer.

If there was no conference, I would have gone to the football game 50%. So yeah, the fact that I didn't have to pay return travel (well, that I didn't think I would have to) did impact my choice to go to the game.