I wasn't trolling and I agree nobody will probably go after the clerk. However, it is clearly illegal, regardless if u think there are no state lines in Canada.
States/provinces/auto nomous regions whatever.
The main thing is that a greedy clerk does this long enough and an IRs or Cra agent is his customer and they may rat on him.
+1 to this:
Originally Posted by
Often1
If this were in the USA, not Canada, which it isn't and this were the first year of law school, not the real world, those who suggest that this practice is unlawful are technically correct. It may be unlawful under Canadian law, but I don't know.
However, useless the program may be, miles/points always have some cost to somebody. If the goal is get consumers to spend in certain ways, the clerk is taking the benefit for his own and whoever pays for the points thinks he is building customer loyalty.
That is a classic wire fraud under US law.
Now, the practical. Will anybody get caught and would anybody prosecute? Not very likely. But, doesn't make it right.
MR's on the other hand are neither unlawful nor typically violative of program rules. After all, a pax buys a ticket, flies a segment and gets credit for flying the segment. Whether you fly because you have been directed to for business, for vacation or because you want to earn miles, is not material.
Mint / churning and the like may be, depending on how a given individual goes about it and his/her provable motivations actually be wire frauds and/or money laundering. But, each fact pattern is different.