Is it reasonable for a school to ask an new hire to pay for their incoming flight to start work (assuming it will be refunded later) or do schools usually provide an e-ticket?
In my experience an e-ticket has almost always been provided once contracts were signed and visas secured. On the one occasion I was asked to buy my own incoming ticket it took months to get reimbursed and the school tried everything to haggle the cost down despite initial promises I would be repaid on arrival.
Flights
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secondplace
- Posts: 192
- Joined: Thu Apr 14, 2016 12:40 pm
Re: Flights
Depends. My last two schools I asked to be able to pay the incoming flight so that I could make sure it was the airline and airmiles that I wanted. They told me the budget, I paid it and then got reimbursed. Their budgets were high enough for me to get business class flights.
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Thames Pirate
- Posts: 1188
- Joined: Fri Jul 05, 2013 8:06 am
Re: Flights
Ours have always been reimbursements, and we have had no problems getting the money as soon as we submitted receipts (one school wanted a screenshot of the search results).
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shadowjack
- Posts: 2140
- Joined: Sat Oct 06, 2012 9:49 am
Re: Flights
My last school was you pay and get reimbursed. Based on interactions with teachers and admin I had no problem doing this and was reimbursed within a week. I was provided a maximum they would reimburse, which covered my ticket and Mrs. Shadowjack's ticket.
Response
Its becoming more common for everything in terms of relocation to be on a reimbursement bases. Upper tier ISs will more commonly give the IT the option of a ticket or reimbursement. Its a means for the IS of reducing exposure, if they have nothing invested in you other than paper they are out nothing if they rescind the contract or you withdraw acceptance. Yes, lower tier ISs have reduced flight benefits or implemented challenges to getting reimbursements. I like @secondplace prefer the options of booking my own flights as i am usually able to get better class of seating and carrier options on better airlines with higher classes of service if I go the reimbursement route. When an IS has provided a ticket in the past it was always the cheapest and thus most inconvenient routeing on the really bad American carriers.