Originally Posted by
crimson12
This is an interesting question. Let's say my flight was canceled, so they offer to bump me to first class on the next, later flight. I would have no qualms with this and may not even TELL my employer (not because I'm being sneaky, but because it just might not occur to me). But what if they offer $1000, which (let's say) was the fare difference between Y and F? In both cases the airline is 'compensating' me for my inconvenience. I still don't think I'd be bothered taking the cash, because it's my inconvenience (the company wasn't camping out at the airport waiting for a flight).
But if I was originally booked in F (through the company) and then got canceled/bumped into Y, in that case I would not "keep" the fare difference. If I have to change flights, my company pays any fare increase, so they should benefit if there is any decrease as well. But I think fare changes are different from compensation, which is essentially offered by the airline as an inducement.
IN a sense this is not much different from the 'who owns miles?' questions that crop up from time to time.
All discussed elsewhere and I think that it's clear that in the case of an employer-paid ticket, the miles, compensation and everything else are the employer's if the employer wants them.
The new twist is that with the new IDB rules, there may be substantial value to compensation and that may be, if retained by the employee on an employer-paid ticket, be taxable income in the USA.