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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/tenderbabyribs on 2024-09-21 19:44:22+00:00.

I have quite a flair for finding cheap travel and accomodation. My travels on a strict budget have taken me to three continents so far so I’d say I’ve picked up a few tricks.

Nowadays I get the pleasure of doing short trips with my work when attending conferences and seminars. As I prefer not to waste money I’ve arranged the trips privately and then requested it payed back afterwards. It worked out well for all of us, budget wise. Then we got new directions for handling travel costs…

We all had to go through a new travel agency whenever booking, well, anything. The top brass held a talk about it and everything. We were warned that onwards, any application for money back after a trip booked privately may be outright denied. I had tried to use the travel agency before but found that it only allowed a few overpriced airlines and hotels, and it wouldn’t let you book anything outside of their “approved” connections.

Cue malicious compliance. Where I previously combined train and bus tickets to reduce cost I now just selected the top option. Oh, five times more expensive? Too bad. A nice low range hotel that covered my needs? No longer available, choose suggested option. I guess I will stay at the Hilton then.

I just got back from a trip that costed five times what I could’ve paid if I had been able to do my thing. No flights were available the day I could’ve left so I went a day earlier. No afternoon flight was available after my meeting, so I stayed an extra night. I was basically off work half a week extra because of that travel agency and the trip ended up costing more than my monthly paycheck.

Oh, and the travel agency? They were apparently the lowest bidder on the contract, claiming they’d supply the cheapest travel options.

I enjoyed the complementary champagne.