Originally Posted by
reeg2
I wouldn't so quickly say that it doesn't work that way.
My wife is an event planner for a bio-pharma company and most hotel/air groups award special status and other benefits to the planner who brought an event to the property/airline. I won't divulge the specifics, but I can tell you that she often was given status and points in great quantities as "thank you's" for the business she brought in...
That's not to say that the OP is an event planner and privy to the same deals - but they do exist.
Not the same thing as OP's issue. You are talking about kickbacks and OP is talking about reaping the perks of others. The former is a distasteful part of a distasteful industry (and is now prohibited by many corporate policies as the result of heightened anti-bribery efforts). The latter is simply a question of who gets a specific perk.
As others note, it is far smarter to turn this over to a TA. Even in a group of your 30 best friends, people will call you to kvetch about all manner of details. Better for a professional handle it.