If that happened here, I would get out. If you are on govt contracts, the company is probably keeping the difference in per diem.

ouch....

Ha ha, well, if you go on certain major highways in the NY metro area, you'll see, especially late at night, tractor trailers parked on the shoulder, hazard lights blinking, engine idling. In the Midwest and South you'll see a row of tractor trailers at the edges of Motel 6 parking lots. I asked the truckers about it. They, and the Motel 6 counter clerks overhearing us, said that Motel 6 in rural areas caters to truckers with affordable rates. There are no Motel 6s in most of the NY metro area. Paying for a more expensive hotel would cut into their profits, so instead the truckers find a relatively safe place to pull over and sleep in the back of their vehicle.

Come to think of it, theoretically companies could ask their traveling employees to do something like that, too. :td:

My company experimented with trying to make employees turn over ff miles to the company back around 25 years ago. They backed off quickly when they figured out that the money saved was minimal compared to the cost of keeping track of the miles. It also probably helps that some of our senior leaders travel quite frequently.

We do have a policy requiring the cheapest non-stop non-red-eye flights. Some people have tried to point out that things like exemption from baggage fees can make a slightly pricier flight on a preferred airline cheaper, but that hasn't played well. We also have corporate rates for some of our most common routes and negotiated rates at hotels which are frequent destinations.

It may not be so bad to fly "on behalf of".

While it would s*ck to lose the miles flown on company money, it would open up a whole new market: people flying and earning miles for others. I could finally get someone else to fly my MRs. I could probably offer the Kettles, who will never accrue enough miles for a free domestic trip and don't value miles at all, an incentive (say, $20 off at Denny's) to fly on behalf of Captain Miles on their trip to Florida. Think of the opportunities!

While I don't know of any US carriers doing this, but some foreign carriers do have a family-pool system which is quite similar to what you mentioned.

Here's an example of ANA's Family Account Service: http://www.ana.co.jp/wws/sg/e/wws_co...fa/member.html

1. Up to eight members of a family within 2nd degree can be pooled together
2. Annual registration "fee" is only 1000 mi per year
3. So if dad pays for his parents-in-laws' flight to visit their grandkids, dad will be the one earning the miles, not his in-laws; ensuring him that his family will be a bit closer to a nice vacation for putting up with his in-laws' visits that he's paying for ;)

"Hi mom and dad <silent sigh>; listen I got the tickets for you, but there's a catch; the cheapest one that I could find has this weird DEN-SLC-SFO-LAX route; you wouldn't mind taking that, would you?" :D

My company has this policy and no one has ever complained.

Employees fly Southwest, use Avis car rental, stay @ Holiday Inns. This is a policy made clear to all employees at time of hiring (or prior to starting regular travel).

All points and rewards accrued go towards redemption for future flights/hotel stays. It has saved the company thousands of dollars annually on travel costs.

Also:

1) Employees still gets the benefit of being A-List and also companion pass, which benefits them personally.

2) Employees still get benefit of Avis car upgrades for personal rentals (and also are allowed to use corporate rate for personal rental).

3) Employees still get benefits of Platinum tier for personal stays at any IC hotel.

Granted, its a small company and we only have about 6 people who travel, but its worked out well for both sides, IMO.

Is that policy made clear to job applicants, or only after the offer was accepted? :D

I can't imagine this catching on. Obviously, each particular case (company and employee) is different, but in overwhelming majority of cases the miles are worth much more to the traveler than to the company (and they are tax free). This is the way airlines set it up, and that's the way they want it.

These days managers are under pressure to come up with cost-cutting schemes, so the dumber ones sometimes will go after perks that are clearly positive sum. I doubt it could become a trend.

if this were made clear to me at the time of hiring then i guess i would have no reason to complain afterwards....but i would definitely not be happy with this policy if they told me after i was hired & before i started my regular travel....

and they are tax free

I heard some revenue-hungry governments are looking into changing that. I think Australia wants to tax award tickets as personal income.

It's definitely told (in writing) before start of any travel for company purposes. Whether or not its at time of hiring, I cant recall exactly, but I'm pretty sure its at least verbally mentioned.

I would agree that if a person has racked up "X" miles/points and suddenly the company tries to claim them as company property, that would be a major issue.

In my company's particular example, the employees understand that the savings incurred by using the travel rewards for company redemption is a major contributing factor to the company's continuing success in this economy (if we could not get the thousands of $ in savings, our travel budget would be severely slashed, and employees probably would be laid off).

Different for each company, but at least in my example, its worked out to the mutual benefit of both sides.

even if it was told to me verbally i would accept it & move on....but like i said, i would definitely be pi$$ed if they told me after i was hired & just before i started my travel....

The rule I live by is the golden rule...I don't expense anything that would end up costing my employer or the client anything additional. I will fly the awkward times for a first class upgrade, stay at out-of-the-way hotels and change hotels constantly for stay benefits, even using RoomSaver.com coupons, but it is just costing me personally, mainly my time. I do this to keep the benefits and not compromise my comfort level. I will not stay in a luxury hotel, but neither will I stay in a Motel 6. My expense statement may sometimes look odd, but everything is justifiable in keeping costs to the minimum but not sacrificing my quality of road life. If my employer changes rules to control the excesses and abuses that occur in travel expenses, I will go along until it I lose choices. I can currently pick my airline, rental car and hotel. If I lose this control, I'll probably look elsewhere for a job.

I am supposed to use AVIS when possible. I generally do, but I don't use my company's AWD all the time. It has a very low daily rate, but gets zero ff miles and we are capped at 125 miles per day before mileage charges kick in. I occasionally use a different AWD with unlimited miles that will get me 3000 bonus miles if I know I will exceed that mileage cap during my travel. I rent a small car when I do this. This is a win-win in keeping the cost as low as possible but still getting some benefit at doing so.

As a cost cutting measure, my current employer dropped per diem last month and we are now to expense all meals. I will no longer stuff my face at the hotel manager's receptions, but now eat decent meals at moderately priced restaurants. Previously, it was cheap eats. So the benefit is healthier food, but now I am going to spend up to the previous per diem amount (e.g. 4 new rewardsnetwork restaurants last week for >2500 AA bonus miles) I am now getting used to tablecloths.

As we all start seeing travel cutbacks and choice limitations in our travel, we all need to determine if we can cope, otherwise the other option is to leave. I am showing with the examples above how I am coping with the changes.

-outoftown

I work in IT Consulting and you better believe there would be a massive revolt if they ever tried to pull this BS on us...