Advice on Business Travel Expenses

jtidmore

New Member
Occasionally I attend meetings or conferences several hundred miles away from my office. In many of these cases, it would make sense for me to rent an airplane and fly instead of driving. My main question is -- How can I be reimbursed by my employer for this?

I have found some very vague answers to this out there, but I cannot find anything that definitively states how this should work.

I do have my commercial certificate, but I do not think this would fall under commercial activity. Also, my non-owned aircraft insurance does is for non-commercial use only, so I would like to do this without the requirement for the commercial certificate.

I am not seeking to be paid by my employer for this, just to be reimbursed for the aircraft rental or reimbursed some amount per mile just like I am when I drive my car.

In addition to this, I want the owner of my company to be comfortable from a liability standpoint. I can add the company as additional insured on my policy, but I am not sure if there are other things I can do.

So, does anyone have any experience with traveling for business reasons like this?
 
It's a matter of liability, mainly. If you ask your company, they may not want to be liable for any incidents while you are on "company time" and they will decline to have anything to do with your flying. There's been a few articles in Aviation Consumer on this topic. Most companies are reluctant. Makes you want to go into business yourself!
 
pilotjww,

Thanks for the response. I am sure liability will be an issue for them, but I think I may be able to convince them if I add them to my renter's policy. I am just wondering about getting reimbursed for the trips I make without it being considered a commercial operation.

I understand that to keep it as non-commercial flight the flight must be incidental to the need to fly. Which in all my cases it would be. I could drive instead of fly. The only reason to fly is to save time. However, one thing that concerns me is an article I read on AOPA . Specifically this paragraph:

[ QUOTE ]

The FAA interprets the term compensation in its broadest sense. Compensation is not only the payment of money, but it is the receipt of anything of value, and even the mere expectation of some benefit. To show you how broad the FAA interpretation is, the agency, on several occasions, has said that just building up flight time is compensation to the pilot where the pilot does not pay the cost of operating the aircraft. The most extreme position that I have seen the FAA take is that the expectation of a tax deduction to a pilot of a charitable flight is compensation. The FAA backed off that one.


[/ QUOTE ]
 
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