Cost-sharing question: Fairest way?

I’m currently booking business trips to FL and TX the same week. I will be flying from OR to FL, then to TX, then back to OR.

My clients in each state are going to reimburse my travel expenses. The question is, what’s the fairest way to divide the costs?

Here’s the breakdown:

COMBINED ITINERARY
OR - FL - TX - OR
$1445.68

SEPARATE ITINERARIES
OR - FL - OR
$1395.45

OR - TX -OR
$501.20
My initial thought was to subtract the TX round-trip airfare from the combined multi-city trip fare, so that the payments would look like this:

FL: $944.48
TX: $501.20

… but is it fair that my client in FL gains all the benefit from the cheaper combined fare? Both clients are peripherally aware that I will be in the other location that same week (there was schedule juggling to make both visits work), and they’re both going to need to see (a) the actual itinerary I book and pay for and (b) the alternative ones that determine any savings.

If I just split the cost down the middle, then I’m looking at

FL: $722.84
TX: $722.84

… and that seems completely unfair to TX, that a cheaper flight costs them MORE.

So two scenarios I have now:

FL saves $450.97
TX saves $0

FL saves $672.71
TX loses $221.64

Any suggestions on the most ethical way to divide the costs (or rather, the savings)?
ETA:

On Preview, I may have another solution.

The combined cost of both RT direct trips is $1896.65.

The savings from booking a combined multi-city trip is $1896.65 - $1445.68 = $450.97.

If I split this savings evenly between the two parties, then our new totals would look like:

FL: (direct) $1395.45 - $225.485 = $1169.965
TX: (direct) $501.20 - 225.485 = $275.715
(and $1169.965 + $275.715 = $1445.68, the amt. of the combined itinerary)

Reactions? Does that seem fair? Does that seem too complicated to explain to the parties in question? More importantly, if YOU were the client, and someone spelled this out to you, would you feel it was fair? Or would you feel swindled?

I’d give them both the same percentage discount. You’re total is going from about $1896 to $1445, so bill them $1395.45 * 1445/1896 and $501.20 * 1445/1896. So about $1063 and $382

Too complicated. Make each client pay the cost of travel to their city from wherever you are, and then the cost to move on to the next one whatever that may be. I’ve been there, just make it simple. You want each number to appear clearly on a receipt to avoid problems.

Ugh. That’s what I’m worried about. Naturally, I have to go through one carrier for OR - FL -TX and another for TX - OR. I guess I’ll have to see what the OR - FL and the FL - TX - OR trips will cost on their own…

It is tougher now. I used to use a travel agent. They’d provide receipts showing what was necessary for my clients. I don’t know if any online service provides that. But it’s a good reason to use a travel agent if you can.

I’ve done a fair bit of consulting billing, and I’d never do this. Imagine if you were based in LA and had trips to Detroit and San Francisco. If you went to Detroit first and then SF, you cold be hitting them with a much bigger bill. Also if you took trip and even went the most efficient order, who you billed what would depend on if you flew clockwise or counterclockwise.

Personally, I’d bill them in direct proportion to the individual costs except under rare circumstances.

I billed for expenses based on where I was and where I was going. There’s nothing wrong with that. They were free to reschedule and pay the costs of travel from my home and back, but nobody wanted that, they wanted me to arrive and do something by a specific date and that required covering my travel costs from where ever I was to where ever they wanted me to go.

The total of the two separate trips id $1896.65. The Texas trip is 24%, the FL trip is 76%. So charge them each that prtion of the cheaper combined trip: Tx pays 24% = $346.96, FL pays 76% = $1,098.69. And be sure to point out to each of them that by doing the joint trip you have saved them a quarter of the cost.

P.S. When I worked for a big consulting company, their policy was to send me on the combined trip, but bill the clients for the cost of the individual flights to each city!

I would charge them full price of the individual flights and then bill them for all the hours I wasted trying to figure out what to charge them.

:smiley:

I wound up booking each one-way leg separately (which was only about $10 more than booking a multi-city trip), billing them for the full amount of the leg between their city and OR, and then splitting the cost of the leg between their two cities evenly. Both wind up saving (FL, 31%; TX, 11%) over the cost of RT. We’ll see how they react on Monday.

Thanks, all.