Good companies know that while saving money is a good idea, it isn’t always the cheapest option that is really the best deal.

What would you do if a manager demanded that you book all flights for the cheapest possible rates, even though the times were very inconvenient?

That is what happened to the secretary in this story, so she complied, which ended up costing the company way more money thanks to missed meetings, the need for hotel rooms, and much more.

Check it out.

Lowest possible fare, lowest possible rate.

Back before cell phones and TSA check points, I was working as an admin assistant.

Ray was my department head and had a great sense of humor.

When I was hired on, Ray made sure I understood that I worked for him, even though I would do some office-wide work, he was my boss.

Clint was in charge of another department in our office.

It sounds like Clint is going to be trouble.

Flying from our office to a satellite office for a day or two was common for people in both departments and I was in charge of making standard pre-approved travel arrangements.

If someone needed to change unexpectedly they were supposed to handle those themselves.

Clint seemed unable to understand that.

At some point Clint decided that he wanted to cut travel costs.

“Lowest possible fare, lowest possible rate” for his department.

Lowest possible fares were always the 5 am outbound and 11 pm return flights.

Clint didn’t care.

Just give him what he asked for.

A couple weeks into this policy Clint is to headed to the satellite office for some in person meetings.

Game on, “lowest possible fare, lowest possible rate.”

Clint left on the five am flight.

The lowest rate car rental company didn’t keep their cars available at the airport.

Clint had to take the shuttle to their offsite location to pick up his car.

Sadly for Clint, the shuttle didn’t start running until eight, when his first meeting was scheduled to start. (Oops)

Why did this guy need security?

The client refused to reschedule that day, but agreed to the next morning.

At some point it dawned on Clint that he either had to fly home and back or get a room for the night.

He chose to get a room, and of course call me.

One “lowest possible rate” room coming up.

Unsurprisingly, that room didn’t have security on site like he was used to. It did have little multi-legged friends, if his complaints were true.

The next morning Clint headed out (in the previous day’s suit) only to discover that his car had been broken into overnight.

The police took their time arriving, and by the time they were done, Clint had missed his meeting again.

You would think Clint would have learn that cheapest isn’t best by now.

Somehow Clint got the client to reschedule again, and he decided to take the flight home and back the next day.

Of course I was kind enough to remember the “lowest possible fare” rule so Clint was booked on the eleven pm flights home and five am return, even though his meeting was midday.

This time the lowest rate car was at the airport so Clint got to skip the shuttle. Sigh, you can’t win them all.

At that point Clint’s “lowest possible” policy had already cost the company at least double what a normal trip would have.

Not to mention all the time I had spent calling hotels, motels and car rental companies.

At least he is taking care of the return flight himself.

The next day he’s on the five am flight, and makes it to his meeting.

I don’t know when he realized that he didn’t want the “lowest possible fare” at eleven pm.

I do know he decided to take the more expensive, earlier flight home, both days.

Somehow he discovered that he could change that himself.

The next time I saw Clint, he tried to fire me.

Too bad, I worked for Ray, who knew (and laughed) about the whole thing. Clint was furious, but there wasn’t anything he could do.

The company would back Ray, and Ray was backing me.

No surprise here. Clint is trying to game the system.

Clint changed the room rate policy, because of his experience, but refused to rescind the lowest fare and lowest rental rate policy.

That was, until accounting let slip that not only had Clint figured out how to take the higher priced earlier flight, he figured out an upgraded seat as well.

Clint found himself with an entire department intentionally missing their five am flights, and rebooking for the more expensive eight AM, which somehow only had upgraded seats available every time.

Rental car reservations were missed and more expensive cars were rented.

Meetings that were previously in the office were somehow only available after hours, so clients were taken to dinner.

Dinner included alcohol so rooms were booked at hotels closest to the restaurants, and returning flights scheduled for the next day.

This was an expensive lesson for the company to learn.

Less than a month later all lowest price policies were rescinded. I was allowed to book normally again, and the missed flights, upgraded seats and fancy hotels disappeared.

Dinner meetings remained, but decreased dramatically.

When I left Clint’s reputation still hadn’t recovered.

So many managers think they know the best way to do everything, but it often backfires right in their face.

Let’s see what the people in the comments have to say about it.

Clint isn’t a smart one, that’s for sure.

This corporate travel agent loves the story.

I would like to know this as well.

I guess the executive couldn’t follow his own policy.

This person went through something similar.

Stepping over a dollar to save a dime.

Why do so many managers make this type of mistake?

If you liked that story, check out this post about an oblivious CEO who tells a web developer to “act his wage”… and it results in 30% of the workforce being laid off.