My company recently had a national sales meeting in Orlando. Our in-house "meeting planning" department put the whole thing together. The event took place at a Marriott-branded property.

The rooms were all billed to a master bill (about $180M). I put my Marriott number in thinking that I might get my room's points (and incidentals) but not really expecting to. Please note that I never tried to get the whole wad of points.

When my points didn't post, I called our meeting planner to bust her chops a little bit. I expected to be told that she had negotiated a better rate by foregoing points or something.

Long story short, I learned that she took all the points for the entire group!!! She said that it was a "perk of her position." These points will not be used to benefit my company. All this on top of her $40M "commission" for the rooms and other fees that she charged.

I call bullsh!t on that. Can any meeting planners, travel agents, or general citizens tell me that this is in fact an appropriate thing to do? Or am I correct to be outraged? I don't care about the points for my own account, but if they are going to someone they need to go to benefit the company (at least the budget center who paid the bill in the first place).

Mike

(edited because plato90s found this post confusing)

[This message has been edited by Mikey likes it (edited 03-06-2002).]