Originally Posted by Efrem

My attitude, when I was in assorted top management positions such as division GM and CEO, was that business travelers (including myself, I never signed off on a policy that didn't apply to me too) aren't using their own money. When you travel on your dime, fly with any airline you want and stay anywhere you want. When someone else is paying your expenses, they have a right to insist that those expenses be no higher than they need to be.

That doesn't mean you have to stay at Motel 5 (one step down from Motel 6) or six miles away from the client when there's a more expensive place next door, nor does it mean flying LAX-SFO via Atlanta. It means that if we get 40 percent off at Marriott you stay there, not at the Hilton across the street even if one more Hilton might may get you a different-color HHonors card.

If you think your desire for miles/points entitles you to spend more of your employer's money than would otherwise be necessary, you're not the kind of employee we'd want to keep around. I'd be concerned that this "me first and screw the company" attitude, this sense of entitlement, would carry over into other areas of the business as well.

We worked in teams. A person with that attitude would cost us, down the road, far more than he or she could possibly be worth - no matter how hard it may seem to be to replace him/her today. I might be grateful for getting this early warning that this person must go, instead of having to see the effects of this selfishness (that's not too strong a term) on the team's work product.

The only way to do it that might not come across this way would be to have a frank talk with your boss along the lines of "I really can use these points, we have a family vacation coming up, I'll pay the difference." If you're not willing to pay the difference yourself, why should you expect anyone else to?

Bottom line to the OP, who I hope is following this thread even though he hasn't posted since: do not do it. Period. The potential downside is far greater than any number of miles, points, stay credits and so on can ever be worth.