Does a fare credit belong to you or your company? I overheard a conversation that concerned a non-refundable ticket being booked for a $2,000 fare, which the flyer had their rewards number attached to. It was nearly a year since the fare was booked and the credit was expiring soon and would not be used. So, all that money would be going directly into the pockets of x airline as essentially a donation.

There seemed to be two thought processes with this, one of which I agreed with more, being that the ticket was purchased by company funds and so if the credit was not used within the specified time, so be it. Although it is technically a credit with your name on it, the funds are the property of the company regardless.

The other argument that I overheard seemed to be quite common. People would book a personal fare using that credit because it was going to expire anyway. It was better to use that for the airline to actually provide a service than to give them money for nothing. No one apparently would ever know.

Don't get me wrong, I don't want any company to waste any money on a non-refundable fare, but does the credit belong to you or the company? Isn't it stealing from the company regardless or is this in the same category as all of those frequent traveler miles that you get regardless of if your money paid for the trip or not?