If you have a subscription to the New York Times you can read this article published October 1982 when the programs were approaching their first anniversaries:
http://www.nytimes.com/1982/10/17/tr...ent-flier.html
Much of the article explains to the reader how the programs work, including this:
Earlier this month, Continental Airlines added a new option to the game. Their ''Travelbank'' plan allows members to take the free trip first and sign a pledge to fly the required miles within a year or pay back the air fare.
There is also a discussion of the decision to make awards redeemable only by individuals rather than corporations:
Corporate travel departments much preferred the airline incentive programs of 1979, for example, when some carriers provided passengers with coupons every time they took a flight. The company could appropriate the coupons from employees and use them toward future business flights. Bristol-Myers saved about $120,000 with those coupons, Celanese saved nearly $100,000 and Lipton approximately $32,000.
''It worked out fine with those coupons,'' said C. Patrick Doran of the corporate travel department at Lipton, ''but with these you just have to depend on the honesty of the employee. I think it's misdirected. There should have been some benefit to the corporation.'' Mr. Doran sent out a memo to all Lipton employees on July 9 advising that ''any free tickets or any awards of this nature obtained through company business are considered to be company property. These trip awards, which are applicable for future business travel, should be made available to the corporate travel department.'' So far, he said, he's heard from two of the company's 400 employees who travel.