This question is directed to business travelers whose company pays for your travel. These are hypothetical situations. There is no right or wrong answer. Just curious as to which one you would choose.

Your company has to send you on a last-minute trip between New York and San Francisco, leaving on Tuesday and returning on Thursday. Your company's policy is that they will put you on any carrier you choose, but if you choose to fly a low-fare carrier which saves the company money, they will split the cost savings difference with you.

If you fly AA JFK-SFO, your company pays $2,444.50 and off you go. If you fly jetBlue JFK-OAK, the cost is $488.00. This saves your company $1,956.50, so you'd get a check from your company for $978.25. (Note: AA had a flight JFK-OAK for $515.00, but it was sold out for your date of travel.) Would you choose the AA SFO flight for the miles or would you fly jetBlue and pocket the cash?

Same scenario, different city-pair. DTW-SEA. You can fly Northwest nonstop for $1246.00, or you could fly Southwest with a connection at MDW for $790.00. Choosing Southwest would save your company $456.00 and your cut of that would be $228.00. Which would you choose?

In both cases I would fly the low-fare carrier and pocket the cash. For those of you who are addicted to a particular airline, how much money would have to go into your pocket before you'd consider flying the alternate low-fare carrier?

Mike