[ale] Re: HP buys two new GVs - now well OT

[Chris Ricker]

On Tue, 16 Sep 2003, Gregory C. Johnson wrote:

> The highest ATL-DFW-ATL fare I could find departing today returning tomorrow
> was ~$650.  Thus, the "Honda Civic" of airplanes is roughy 2.5 times spot
> commercial fares before any corporate discounts.
> 
> Now, private air does save two hours of futile & ineffective security
> screens played out for the sheeples' benefit.  Still, those execs better be
> making $500/hr each.  That's $1M per 2000 hour year.  Even HP probably
> doesn't have 5 planes x 10 seats = 50 people making over a million a year.

I tend to think your analysis is off for several reasons. Speaking as
someone who does 75%+ travel for my job, business travelers are extremely
lucky to get flights as low as $650. My average for the past three months
(just to pick a representative sample) is more like $1500 per flight.

In my experience, your characterization of who uses the corporate flights is
inaccurate. I've worked several times in Silicon Valley with people from
large corporations who arrived via corporate jet, and they certainly weren't
all executive types.

I also think you neglected lots of other places that private flights save
time / money. Corporate flight expenses can save in other areas. I once
worked in Santa Clara for a week with an Intel sysadmin who flew in every
day from his home at the Oregon campus. Intel saved a weeks hotel, car
rental, etc. Similarly, private jets can fly into far more airports, and
thus closer to clients, than commercial flights, again resulting in travel 
and time savings....

At any rate, my point in posting wasn't to get into the minutiae of
estimating corporate jet costs, but just to point out that it's hardly the
"Carly jet-setting to Paris" wasteful perk people were immediately assuming.  
HP's had its own hanger at San Jose since at least the 1970s, and has a
corporate jet service available to any employee on company business. Intel
has daily commuter flights for its employees. Ditto for AMD. Many
corporations own a private fleet because for their travel requirements it is
an effective solution.... I really don't think the "HP's buying a jet, so 
I'm boycotting all HP products from now on" reactions are justified or 
rational.

later,
chris