Splitting Business and Private Legs on Receipts

If the business portion of your trip is the arrival — landing for meetings, staying through the working week — and the personal portion is a return flight or an onward trip days later, book those as two separate transfers rather than one, even if you're using the same airport both times. Each booking carries its own receipt, so keeping them as distinct bookings is what actually keeps the costs distinct.

For the business leg, choose the company receipt option and enter your employer's name — the receipt is made out to the company with the price and 6% VAT line, ready for your expense claim. For the personal leg — the extended stay, the departure after your own days off — book as a private traveller instead, so that receipt is made out to you and never touches your company's expense system at all.

It's worth double-checking which option you selected on each booking before you pay, since it's the one detail that actually separates the two — the booking form otherwise looks the same either way.

If there's only one departure transfer covering a trip that was partly business and partly personal, some companies ask you to expense it in full and note the personal portion, others prefer it booked and paid privately with no claim at all. That's a company policy question rather than a booking one — check what your employer expects before you book, since it decides which receipt option you choose.

Whether your company needs to know about a personal extension at all is a policy question, not a booking one — some ask for advance notice if you're extending travel dates, others don't care as long as nothing personal appears on the expense claim. Either way, booking the personal leg privately keeps it entirely off any receipt your company sees, regardless of what you do or don't tell them separately.