Originally Posted by
RichMSN
I guess I see ethics differently from you. It's not always the most ethical scenario to take the cheapest option, IMO. The company is asking me to leave my family and home for a few days, I see nothing wrong with getting some benefit from it.
All airline and hotel points? I *always* get more than 500 points.
Here's a scenario. Let's say I'm flying MSN-MSP-LAX-SYD and back for my company. I'm offered a ticket for $1700 or a ticket for $1695 that earns no points or miles. Are there people here that would actually buy the $1695 ticket? Are there managers here that would expect their employees to forego the miles to save the company $5? How about $100 on such an itinerary?
I *always*, *always* fly my preferred airline. I don't even shop around unless the price seems over the top. MY boss has frequently said, "Fly your airline -- I don't care if it costs a little more." Same with hotels.
With the change in scenario.. $5 for $1,700 ticket, vs $5 for hotel room.. the way I see it should be a cost benefit analysis to whether it may be worth it or not. If your corporate policy, your company is ok with you paying more for some points, then you'll need to get parameters to how far you should go with it.
On a personal basis, and within my own company, I always get the discount ahead of the miles.. unless the economics show that its worth getting the miles ahead of the discount. However, if you company's policy is to get the best price regardless, then you should ethically follow company policy.
I'm going through the decision whether to keep an AMEX gold card, as well as a Platinum AMEX card within the family. Fees paid for has benefits, but the gold AMEX has same benefits pretty much as my Visa Infinite Gold. I will have to tally the bonus points extra earned on the AMEX gold card if I'm going to keep it past the 1 year trial period, because the first year is free and of course that's a no brainer.
The point is, doesn't make sense to go for the points at all cost.. Its' got to make sense. I'm sure if you save your company money, your cost savings habits will reward you in your personal life, or through your company down the line.