I thought, surly they wouldn’t waste money like this! Oh how naive I was at the time.
Unrelated to the OP, but probably relatable to most with a military background:
As a resident I went to Rochester, MN for a microvascular course (Mayo). So, at the time, the Army was covering a TON of training courses, which was great.
We had to go through Carlson, of course, to book travel.
Two people, flights to Minneapolis, then layover, then a flight to Rochester, no rental car, then the same route back a week later. Total cost: $1400/person for the travel alone.
Obviously we wanted a rental car. We were willing to pay for it if need be. We were also unhappy that the layover in Minneapolis was 5 hours. So we did a little look-see, and we could fly out to Minneapolis, rent a car, drive 90 minutes to Rochester, get there 3 1/2 hours earlier, and it would have cost something like $600/person including the rental car.
Of course they wouldn’t do it. Carlson has to fly you to the closest location, even if it costs a billion extra dollars. Doesn’t matter.
So we just ditched the second flight and rented a car out of pocket.
Or, one time I had to backfill in Fairbanks, AK in Dec. I cancelled something like 90 clinic patients and 16 surgeries, flew up there, saw literally 12 patients, and did two minor surgeries, never got a single on-call phone call. Made it to the airport on my return day and was told the flight was cancelled. Carlson said they would be able to get my out of Fairbanks by 4 Jan. This was the 23rd of Dec. so I got online and found four flights leaving within 12 hours, all with available seats. Had a layover in Seattle, missed the connection due to delays, and again they told me there were no available flights - this time for two weeks. So I got online and found another flight the same day with open seats the same day.
And these weren’t off-brand airlines it was like Alaska and American. Ultimately booking these new flights last minute ended up being cheaper than what Carlson had done originally, even though it was the same route. And that’s not counting what they would have spent on rooms and per diem keeping me in Fairbanks for an extra week.
I kind of feel like that is a microcosm of my entire military experience. Having to do everything myself because the assigned person is either too incompetent, too lazy, or too hamstringed by bureaucracy to do thinks effectively, and all at twice the cost.
