To keep the story short: I have been recently required to travel to Singapore on a business class. For whatever reasons, for the same trip I can EASILY find WAY WAY WAY cheaper flights ticket than Amex - my company corporate Travel booking agent. We are required by policy to use them ONLY.
The Qantas business class was $2100+ but when trying to booked via Amex - it becomes $5500+ for the same flight.
While my company claims that they get kick backs etc, I"m not sure if that's worthwhile if that's the kind of margin they're making. Eventually I have to settle for another airline which their markup wasn't super unreasonable - still there were.
Anyone's company run the same kind of policy where you must go through a certain agency and literally gets slaughtered just to pay their markup?
Not my company, but I do have a velocity platinum card, which has 2-for-1 business class offers (from the way I read it).
They want $12,700 incl taxes for 2 people return to LA. You can book these flights directly from their website for $12900ish. If you purchase virgin vouchers from entertainment, then you get 5% back, which makes it cheaper.
Regardless, $12,700 is no where near 2-for-1, when you can book return business class on their site for $6450k ish p/p
So putting this in relation to your story, if it is truly 2-for-1 on their end, then a flight that you can readily book on the virgin website for $6450, suddenly increases to $12,700 when you book via AMEX.