I have a relative who works for a large, well known corporation. He told me that any flight over 6 hours long (basically outside USA) the company will pay for business class. May be for management(?) of the company. If the employee uses their FF program (ie systemwides or miles) to upgrade, the company will give the employee about $2000 for doing that. The company saves alot of money and passes some of the savings to the employee. I believe that the employee pays taxes on the $2000.