NotHamSarnie

But it's not your compensation. It's a tool of your job, a comfortable seat on your way to do your employer's bidding.

You might think of it as a high-power laptop with quality software packages your employer gives you so that you can execute company functions reliably and produce good presentations. If you choose to give this laptop to your spouse for her benefit and you use her old Windows 7 crock instead, then you are defrauding your employer in the same way. Yes, you can probably still do your job but you are forgoing the good tools for bad so that your spouse enjoys the quality that your employer provided you for a specific purpose.

MSPeconomist

Some sports figures were prosecuted for taking the expensive tickets that were provided for business travel and refunding them for cash, buying a cheap ticket on a LCC, and pocketing the difference in cost. If OP changes tickets with wife, it's the same principle, but in this case he gives the expensive ticket or seat to spouse rather than keeping the money or using the money to buy a D1 ticket for the spouse.

jdrtravel

No, this is not the same "principle" at all. In the first case, the "sports figures" were scheming to pocket cash for themselves. This is clearly theft. In OP's case, OP wants to do a good and kind thing by switching seats with op's wife. I literally cannot imagine any employer seeing these two examples as at all equivalent or comparable.
You are acting as though policies and rules and laws are totally black and white and that there is zero room for good judgement or discernment. However, anyone with a brain can see that one of these examples is an act done in very good faith and out of kindness, and the other out of bad faith and for personal gain. Here in reality, there is some flexibility and room when it comes to how things actually work.

thesaints

No, the fancy laptop is the company's property while the accommodation on DL is not.
Look at it this way:
Major deadline, the company has people working around the clock and provides them food.
Can they force an employee to eat 900 calories when he wants to consume only 300 ?
What if that employee consumes 300 and brings home the other 600 ?
I'm sure plenty of FT-ers will consider that unethical, but the IRS and GAAP do not.
The company is providing a reasonable amount of food for a meal, so that the employee is not distracted and can dedicate himself to work.
The employee accepts that reasonable amount of food and makes what he considers the best use of it.
From the IRS point of view the company provided a reasonable quantity of food which can be written as business expense and does not constitute income for the worker.

If you are still in doubt, let's say that the employee collects his meal, eats part of it and then tosses the rest.
In a Southern plantation it would have been harshly punished, but those days are over.

apodo77

Way bonkers and it has been a most enjoyable read.

apodo77

I'm just going to plitely disagree with you and let you know I chuckled a bit reading your post.

omaralt

Lol this thread is hilarious. I'm honestly not sure if some people are being serious or are seriously that crazy..

Very simple. Are you going straight to work when you land? If so, stay up front and arrive rested and buy your wife a nice spa day to relax from being left in the back. If you have the day off after arriving I would give my wife the seat up front and reap the rewards later that night; if your back allows it

On a separate note, how do meals work if you switch seats? If you have a D1 meal and then switch, would they then offer the wife a meal as well?

puddinhead

Meal goes with seat - whoever is sitting there gets the meal. If they trade halfway, then one gets the D1 dinner and the other gets the D1 be
breakfast.

yohanson

If the OP is flying NYC-LHR, his ability to get rest on that short of a flight has nothing to do with Y or J. If it were me, I'd have to have way too many Woodfords in either cabin to sleep and then I'd be a worthless pile of sh*t upon landing. I'd stick to water and coffee and watch movies for that short of a flight.

knit-in

Glad to know I am not alone!

lamont2718

I have given my J seat to my mother on multiple international DL flights and have taken her Y seat instead. I let the crew know, and the purser said it was absolutely not a problem. And before anyone questions whether it was an improper use of a business expense, I paid for the seat.

mra123

I switched seats on an international trip with my mother a few weeks back. Gave her the upgrade, took her main cabin seat (well, C+, I couldn't bring myself to put her in coach). Not only were the FA's okay with it, they even brought me back food that my mom asked them to send my way from her meal. I believe they aren't technically allowed to do that, but it was nice.

Also, yes I was going straight to work, but never once did it cross my mind to NOT give her my seat. I'm not going to invite her as my guest on the trip and take an upgrade while she sits in coach. I fly all the time and get to experience the upgrades often - they're something fun and exciting for a lot of people, especially for people that don't travel that much. The very least I should do is share that experience with her when given the chance.

MSPeconomist

An upgrade is different unless your employer has paid for the upgrade or paid extra for an upgradeable fare.

Carl Johnson

I don't think anybody is questioning how you dispose of any seat your bought yourself, or got as an upgrade. I know I'm not, and I would feel fine doing that sort of thing. People are questioning other people's acceptance of handing over a premium seat bought for an employee by an employer. All the business expense issue and tax issue questions are important, but what I see is most important is that the employer bought the seat for the employee because they wanted the employee to sit in that seat. If the employee doesn't want to sit in that seat, the employer can buy an economy seat and save the money. Putting your wife in a biz class seat when she accompanies you on a business trip is what the salary is for.

Allan38103

Unless the company who bought the ticket is aware of the switch and approves (or at least doesn't object).