Alison Redford billed taxpayers for $9,200 Palm Springs flight

More questions are being raised about Premier Alison Redford's travel expenses after she charged taxpayers more than $9,000 for a flight back from California last year. 

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Redford was on vacation with her daughter in Palm Springs when she used a government plane to come back for Ralph Klein's memorial on April 5.

The cost was $9,200, which covered flying the plane down to California and bringing back Redford, her daughter and two bodyguards.

But in the wake of a $45,000 trip to South Africa to attend Nelson Mandala's memorial, MRU political science professor Lori Williams says a trend may be forming.

"The questions of judgment about exploring cheaper options, I think that doesn't look terribly good and could be a part of a bigger narrative."

Williams admits this trip is different than the one to South Africa because of unpredictability, cost and options available.

However, she says there is heightened awareness about politician spending right now, especially in the wake of the senate scandal.

"All of these sorts of things are piling up in the public mind and people are saying look, 'We can't afford to do things like this and we are wondering whether our government ought to be doing these sorts of things.'"

Wildrose MLA Rob Anderson said Redford had plenty of time to book a commercial flight instead.

"It appears what she did is she was on vacation, heard about it, made her plans, called the government plane down and didn't even think about flying home commercially and didn't think about the cost of a flight to meet her down and bring her back."

Anderson says it speaks to wasteful spending.

The premier's office says commercial flight options were considered, but there was a backlog of passengers because of bad weather.