Well it's official, federal employees may now use frequent flyer miles they've earned on gov't trips for personal trips. Also, this is retroactive, so any already accrued can also be kept. See Washington Post article on the subject. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...-2002Jan7.html

since the federal employees travelling on business pay gov't rates for their airfare (nothing close to what a true business traveller pays) why do they even earn miles to begin with? and why shouldn't we, as taxpayers, expect those earned miles to be redeemed only for government travel?

HEY, let's not be a bunch of hypocrites here...

I think the vast majority (but certainly not all) of us here on FT have our travel paid for by our employers or our clients.

I see FF miles being small, very small, compensation to the person who actually has to get his/her body through the airports and on the planes.

I say let 'em keep 'em.

RAD

Not so fast, my friend. They often pay the full coach fares so that they have maximum flexibility. Then a discount is applied to those fares. In this way, it's no different than what happens with a lot of private sector businesses.

In addition, if I get to keep my miles, which are paid for by my employer, why shouldn't they? They already sacrifice a lot of money to work for the feds and have to put up with a lot of ridiculous rules -- did you know, for example, that you can't buy a fed a lunch that costs more than $25 -- so why make them give up this as well?

As a shareholder of your business, shouldn't I expect you to use miles earned from business travel to be redeemed only for other business travel?

(It's more or less the same situation, I think)

Re Duxfan's question/comment that the taxpayers should get the benefits of the miles, that was Congress' thought in 1994 when it passed a law stating that any miles/points accrued on gov't travel could only be used for a gov't purpose (like a future gov't trip or an upgrade on a gov't trip); however, what's happened in practice since that time is that the administrative burden of actually trying to implement that has been higher than the savings, and what's happening as a result is that the miles are almost never used for any purpose (and hence the various federal agencies aren't saving $ because of the 1994 law); since no savings were being realized, Congress realized this was essentially a benefit it could give to federal employees that wouldn't cost the taxpayers anything; tls

Dan - interesting point (that we will never resolve!). My thought is that as a shareholder, all I care about is if the company makes me money (e.g, stock value increases at an acceptable level over time). How the company does it, as long as it is legal, moral and ethical, really does not matter. At least, that's my narrow view of the world...

The reason those miles should be used for government travel only is because it is MY MONEY paying for those miles!


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Hell hath no fury like that of an elite frequent flyer in coach.

I am not real smart, but I can lift heavy things.

Big deal. Now I'm one of the biggest loud-mouths when it comes to any type of excessive Government spending, however I don't care if they keep the miles. There are very few companies that require their employees to redeem their miles for business related travel. We all know that flying 100,000+ miles per year can get difficult at times, think about how it would feel of there were no miles to earn.

Plus, the policing of this would be a nightmare anyway - let them keep the miles!

My company does not allow me to use the miles I've earned on business travel for personal travel. And I work for a Fortune "Platinum" 50 company, go figure.

I have separate business and personal frequent flyer accounts with all the airlines and as a result am often shorted when it comes to Elite status. In my opinion the management of the program seems crazy and not worth the savings.

So what's the upside and why am I not too vexed by that? Most likely because I fly paid first-class all the time, everywhere. This includes domestic over 1 hour and all international. A decent trade-off if you ask me.

I sure would like to know what the mgmt of your company is thinking. They keep you miles, but let you fly first class. Stupid. If I was a shareholder, I would be raising h*ll.

I would guess the tfjim's company's management is interested in making sure tfjim's comfortable and able to work while flying, or at lesat get to work in as good shape as possible. And that might be worth the extra cost to their books in the end.

And for all we know, maybe they have special discount deal with the airlines that let its employees fly first class at much less than full fare.

i guess i just have a problem with it because being self-employed i do 2 things many americans DON'T do:

1. pay for my own business travel out of my own pocket.

2. write my own check for the FULL AMOUNT of my tax burden

but the post about the admin costs outweighing the benefits raises a very good point. and if that slows daschle and the rest of the dems down on their quest to have a small minority of american pay the majority of taxes, i'm all for it.



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I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the rights of the people by the gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.

James Madison, 4th US president (1751-1836)

as i said danM, i'm self-employed. anytime you want to inject some capital, let me know. we can work something out about my miles.... :-)

On the contrary, your clients and/or customers pay for the travel -- one way or another.