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If I have a CB on Friday morning in a major metro city, I imagine I'll be scheduling the flight for Thursday evening. However, if I want to spend the weekend visiting family and friends a couple hours away (in my hometown - a smaller city), would the firm be receptive to the possibility of my return flight being from my hometown airport? The price may be different, should I offer to pay the difference when speaking with the travel agent?

Thanks

I'd 1) ask the firm to let you schedule your return after your visit but 2) NOT request or even mention the change in airports. It can only help you to have family close to the firm. It's only 2 hours, just drive/bus/train it.

IAFG wrote:I'd 1) ask the firm to let you schedule your return after your visit but 2) NOT request or even mention the change in airports. It can only help you to have family close to the firm. It's only 2 hours, just drive/bus/train it.

OP here. This would require two bus/train trips of a few hours (both to my hometown and back) at somewhat high cost to me. Is it really inadvisable to request a return flight from a different airport if I offer to pay the difference?

Anonymous User wrote:

IAFG wrote:I'd 1) ask the firm to let you schedule your return after your visit but 2) NOT request or even mention the change in airports. It can only help you to have family close to the firm. It's only 2 hours, just drive/bus/train it.

OP here. This would require two bus/train trips of a few hours (both to my hometown and back) at somewhat high cost to me. Is it really inadvisable to request a return flight from a different airport if I offer to pay the difference?

Wait, I thought it was 2 hours, now it's a few, and an expensive trip to boot? That makes it an even worse idea. I wouldn't want to highlight how far the firm city is from your family. I like the idea of you mentioning that you're visiting family that's fairly close because it emphasizes your ties to the region. If your family is actually an inconvenient distance away requiring flight contortions, it appears that your ties aren't very strong after all.

Since I'm a 3L with nothing but time, lemme paint this picture for you.

Scenario One:

AU: Sorry to bother you with this, but would it be a terrible inconvenience if I flew out on Sunday night instead of Friday evening? I have family in the area, and I would really love to spend some time with them while I am in town.
Recruiter: Oh, sure! We look forward to seeing you! (notes in file that you have family nearby)

Scenario Two:

AU: Sorry to bother you with this, but can I get two one-way flights, one from School City to Firm City, and one from Unrelated City to School City? I'd like to spend some time with family in Unrelated City.
Recruiter: (silence)
AU: Hello?
Recruiter: You want me to do what?

IAFG wrote:Since I'm a 3L with nothing but time, lemme paint this picture for you.

Scenario One:

AU: Sorry to bother you with this, but would it be a terrible inconvenience if I flew out on Sunday night instead of Friday evening? I have family in the area, and I would really love to spend some time with them while I am in town.
Recruiter: Oh, sure! We look forward to seeing you! (notes in file that you have family nearby)

Scenario Two:

AU: Sorry to bother you with this, but can I get two one-way flights, one from School City to Firm City, and one from Unrelated City to School City? I'd like to spend some time with family in Unrelated City.
Recruiter: (silence)
AU: Hello?
Recruiter: You want me to do what?

hahahaha.. oh and +1 OP listen to IAFG here. Sure a 2+ hour trip on a bus isn't that pleasant (it's also not ridic. expensive) but again, you're going on a job interview NOT a free vacation.

side-note to IAFG: ur post was funny enough to pull me out of current TLS apathy and get me to post again

Off topic but I don't think it deserves its own thread - say in this situation, you check out of your hotel and head off to your interview Friday noonish... what do you do with your bag of regular clothes/etc. you brought with you? Bring it to the firm? Leave it in an alley and hope noone steals it?

IAFG wrote:Since I'm a 3L with nothing but time, lemme paint this picture for you.

Scenario One:

AU: Sorry to bother you with this, but would it be a terrible inconvenience if I flew out on Sunday night instead of Friday evening? I have family in the area, and I would really love to spend some time with them while I am in town.
Recruiter: Oh, sure! We look forward to seeing you! (notes in file that you have family nearby)

Scenario Two:

AU: Sorry to bother you with this, but can I get two one-way flights, one from School City to Firm City, and one from Unrelated City to School City? I'd like to spend some time with family in Unrelated City.
Recruiter: (silence)
AU: Hello?
Recruiter: You want me to do what?

OP here. Fair enough, thanks for the candid advice.
Oh, and f7u12, if you read carefully, you would see that I would offer to pay the difference, so the firm wouldn't be financing any type of free vacation.

Anonymous User wrote:Off topic but I don't think it deserves its own thread - say in this situation, you check out of your hotel and head off to your interview Friday noonish... what do you do with your bag of regular clothes/etc. you brought with you? Bring it to the firm? Leave it in an alley and hope noone steals it?

Hotels have bag checks.

dixon02 wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:Off topic but I don't think it deserves its own thread - say in this situation, you check out of your hotel and head off to your interview Friday noonish... what do you do with your bag of regular clothes/etc. you brought with you? Bring it to the firm? Leave it in an alley and hope noone steals it?

Hotels have bag checks.

Even after you check out?

Anonymous User wrote:

dixon02 wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:Off topic but I don't think it deserves its own thread - say in this situation, you check out of your hotel and head off to your interview Friday noonish... what do you do with your bag of regular clothes/etc. you brought with you? Bring it to the firm? Leave it in an alley and hope noone steals it?

Hotels have bag checks.

Even after you check out?

Yup.

dixon02 wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:Off topic but I don't think it deserves its own thread - say in this situation, you check out of your hotel and head off to your interview Friday noonish... what do you do with your bag of regular clothes/etc. you brought with you? Bring it to the firm? Leave it in an alley and hope noone steals it?

Hotels have bag checks.

If you don't have time to return to your hotel after the interview (or you prefer not to make the extra trip), you can also bring your stuff with you to the office. The receptionist will direct you to a closet where you can store your belongings. You will almost certainly be able to store your things before you ever meet with someone from recruiting or an attorney, so don't worry about it. (note: I have only had one small suitcase.)

jrf12886 wrote:

dixon02 wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:Off topic but I don't think it deserves its own thread - say in this situation, you check out of your hotel and head off to your interview Friday noonish... what do you do with your bag of regular clothes/etc. you brought with you? Bring it to the firm? Leave it in an alley and hope noone steals it?

Hotels have bag checks.

If you don't have time to return to your hotel after the interview (or you prefer not to make the extra trip), you can also bring your stuff with you to the office. The receptionist will direct you to a closet where you can store your belongings. You will almost certainly be able to store your things before you ever meet with someone from recruiting or an attorney, so don't worry about it. (note: I have only had one small suitcase.)

Both the biglaw firm I worked for in NYC and in Boston would do this for SA CBs.

Do reasonable accommodations for NYC include cab fare from the city to and from the airport or do firms prefer if you take less expensive means (e.g., airtran to subway)?

salvage wrote:Do reasonable accommodations for NYC include cab fare from the city to and from the airport or do firms prefer if you take less expensive means (e.g., airtran to subway)?

NALP form implies cab fair is covered.

All this moronic condescension to OP assumes that recruiter handles the flights. Every firm
I dealt with on callbacks had an external travel agent who would ask me for dates. The only time it would come to firm's attention in that scenario is if you were asking for additional hotel nights or meals to be reimbursed. Agent will not care what airport you leave from. And will definitely not tell recruiter, "interviewee has family nearby! Note it in his file!"

Anonymous User wrote:All this moronic condescension to OP assumes that recruiter handles the flights. Every firm
I dealt with on callbacks had an external travel agent who would ask me for dates. The only time it would come to firm's attention in that scenario is if you were asking for additional hotel nights or meals to be reimbursed. Agent will not care what airport you leave from. And will definitely not tell recruiter, "interviewee has family nearby! Note it in his file!"

OP here, I kind of thought this would be the case. I just wasn't sure if agent would tell firm that I was flying out of a different airport than I flew into. And like I said, I'd offer to cover the difference.

Agent handles hundreds of reservations for firm every day. He or she won't care where you're departing and arriving from. They are literally there to take your instructions on dates, arrival, destination. Unless instructions ask for something outside of policy (I.e., business class) he or she will not care.

Anonymous User wrote:All this moronic condescension to OP assumes that recruiter handles the flights. Every firm
I dealt with on callbacks had an external travel agent who would ask me for dates. The only time it would come to firm's attention in that scenario is if you were asking for additional hotel nights or meals to be reimbursed. Agent will not care what airport you leave from. And will definitely not tell recruiter, "interviewee has family nearby! Note it in his file!"

This is only true for the routine expenses, i.e. flight in to city, hotel for the night, flight out of the city. On all of my routine arrangements during my cbs sure it went like this. However I had some special circumstances that deviated from routine arrangements on one cb and at that point the travel agent definitely bumped it up to the recruiter who had to okay the change.

Anonymous User wrote:All this moronic condescension to OP assumes that recruiter handles the flights. Every firm
I dealt with on callbacks had an external travel agent who would ask me for dates. The only time it would come to firm's attention in that scenario is if you were asking for additional hotel nights or meals to be reimbursed. Agent will not care what airport you leave from. And will definitely not tell recruiter, "interviewee has family nearby! Note it in his file!"

TITCR. All the prior posters are fools who probably quiver with fear at every callback.

alirod12 wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:All this moronic condescension to OP assumes that recruiter handles the flights. Every firm
I dealt with on callbacks had an external travel agent who would ask me for dates. The only time it would come to firm's attention in that scenario is if you were asking for additional hotel nights or meals to be reimbursed. Agent will not care what airport you leave from. And will definitely not tell recruiter, "interviewee has family nearby! Note it in his file!"

TITCR. All the prior posters are fools who probably quiver with fear at every callback.

All of my travel to my CBs were handled directly by the firm (and incidentally, I set my dates with staff members I ended up meeting when I got there). I have heard of external travel agents being used, but I am fairly certain they are the minority.

What if you want to stay longer (for sightseeing or whatever) and pick up the difference yourself with the airline?

Today, I (not OP) spoke with travel agent handling air travel for west coast firm. I told them my dates. They set up the ticket, no questions asked. Dates included obvious weekend stay. They didn't even ask twice before booking the ticket. People are making too big a deal about this. If it costs the firm extra money, offer to pay the difference. If it's about the same, don't worry about it (or shoot the recruit an e-mail and let them know the reason for the return date).

Anonymous User wrote:Today, I (not OP) spoke with travel agent handling air travel for west coast firm. I told them my dates. They set up the ticket, no questions asked. Dates included obvious weekend stay. They didn't even ask twice before booking the ticket. People are making too big a deal about this. If it costs the firm extra money, offer to pay the difference. If it's about the same, don't worry about it (or shoot the recruit an e-mail and let them know the reason for the return date).

I think it's silly to think that your travel arrangements are not getting forwarded to the recruiter as an FYI.

That said, I don't think it's a big deal to stay the weekend in a city for a Friday callback if there is no cost difference or if you pick up the cost difference yourself. I just think it's naive to think that because you're booking through a travel agency, the recruiter won't see if you spent $200 more to fly out of a different city. Who do you think approves the travel agent's bookings?

Anonymous User wrote:

dixon02 wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:Off topic but I don't think it deserves its own thread - say in this situation, you check out of your hotel and head off to your interview Friday noonish... what do you do with your bag of regular clothes/etc. you brought with you? Bring it to the firm? Leave it in an alley and hope noone steals it?

Hotels have bag checks.

Even after you check out?

Um, if you hadn't checked out why would you need them to hold them? That's exactly why bag checks exist...