Originally Posted by Flailey

Um, it's not quite as clear cut as all of that. When go to a meeting in the city and I walk out, do I take the subway or a cab? Depends, mostly on what I think will be fastest. Though I have the "right" to take a cab every single time, I probably do maybe 25% or less, because my office is at a major junction and it's usually no big deal. That costs them nothing. Do I overnight a package to a prospective person I'm working with on behalf of the client? Do I bill back drinks with a contact I'm pitching on behalf of a client? Etc. Half of my life is spend making spending decisions on behalf of someone else about things that will make my life/job somewhat easier, and trying to figure out what the appropriate cost/benefit ratio is. They're often marginal decisions. I take a cab crosstown. I'll endure a long subway ride to save a $40 cab fare sometimes, especially if it's a client with a tight budget. If I'm pitching something to a contact on behalf of a client and it's clear that's the purpose of the meeting then I'll bill back the meal. If that contact becomes a friend sometimes it's hard to figure out. They're a friend, I enjoy their company -- but that friendship is instrumental to why my client hired me. Do I bill that meal back? Often not. Sometimes if it's a contact that I clearly need to be meeting with and will benefit all my clients to know, but there's no obvious client with a *specific* interest before them, I pay out of pocket, since I can't *specifically* say it was on their behalf. What do you do if your business trip leaves you in Boston on Friday night, and the flight home to NYC is a cheap shuttle, but you have a wedding elsewhere that you have to get to directly. Do you pay the difference? Does it make a difference if your business trip is on something like Labor day? Does the client have an obligation to get you home, or to the vacation house you planned to go to?

This is bread and butter stuff, and like I said, I can't imagine that I'm the only one that has to make calls at the margins.

This is another one of them. You and I both know that things like this get seem by lots of people, out of context, etc. If as has happened MANY, MANY times I get sent an itinerary by my client's corporate travel office and see the price and routing and it blows, and I find a cheaper and better set of flights costing $500 less on my own and recommend them, would it be ethical to buy upgrades and stick 'em in the pile of reciepts uncommented? Yes. Is it ethical to forge something? No way, at all. If they asked me what they were for I would tell them, and if they said we can't pay that I'd say look, you need me in LA over a weekend (which this is) and the upgrades were cheap, seems fair to me. If they still said no then whatever, make a decision about what to do. No lying, no deceipt, but it's just easier some ways than others. If you fly AA on a route that SWA flies, would you send a note saying that the SWA fare was $200, and you paid $221 more to "upgrade" the airline to AA, because it's more comfortable for you?

But why not break it down to the point of the entire forum, which is dedicated to getting stuff for "free." Here's the nut question -- is it ethical to have your business or client pay MORE for airline tickets so YOU can earn more frequent flier miles?

Hmm... now there's an ethics thing to think about. Because if that did not occur there would be no such thing as frequent flier miles. If you get a free first class ticket to Tahiti comped to you and the wife burning lots of expensive jet fuel on a billion dollar plane, then stay in a hotel earned on points, and you're not self employed who exactly do you think is paying for your vacation? It's been said on this board repeatedly that miles have a (roughly) definable cash value. OK, who's cash is it when you earned them flying for business? For those that are not self-employed do you save up the miles so that every 5th time your company needs you in London you can use them to get you there and save the company the fare?

Um... somehow I doubt it.

AA is a for-profit company, overall they think that giving YOU that very expensive free trip is worth something to them. Why do you suppose they think that? The lunch, on that flight to Tahiti -- is that what they call a "free lunch"?

The entire concept of FF miles can be understood with fairly basic undergrad level econ skills -- it's almost the definition of a moral hazard / agent against interest conflict, where the person making decisions about spending is acting as an agent for the one paying, and may have divergent interests.

So, um, please don't do business with me, sir, but preach on, and enjoy that free lunch. Last I checked those were quite rare.