New trend in cost-cutting? Company paid travel = company miles?
 

Somewhat increasing chatter these days are that since now companies are people too, many companies are considering to revoke the accumilated frequent flyer miles and hotel points credited to the individual on company expenses and instead, have the company earn the miles and points instead for their own use.

I kinda understand the underlying cause: company pays for it, company should keep the miles; then company uses the miles = cost savings in business travel every now-and-then.

Others say that this should be the case as it's unfair to employees that don't travel that much; salesmen are given mile perks for their own personal use while other departments that don't have much business travel are stuck in the office. Instead, the company should keep the miles and say, reward employees with company accumilated miles with a potluck at the end of the year.

And on the other, there's also talk that it's only fair that the person doing all the travel to collect the miles as they are the ones always on the road, away from their families, and have to deal with the hassles of air travel today.

Anyone have insight/discussion to this matter?


I don't know which side to take here; half of me as a cost-cutting analyst by work says that's true, it's one way I can make the company I work for to save tens, if not hundred of thousands in travel related costs per year. OTOH, there's also the other half of me that says OH HELLL NO, if they take away my miles I'd be pissed :mad:

There would be a massive revolt. I consider it a portion of my compensation.

The savings are probably not a great as you think, especially after you factor in the additional compensation you will have to give to key employees.

It's been tried in the past. That's part of the reason that airlines have restrictions on transferring miles and upgrades.

Just to give a further insight, I did once talk to a person on a flight who worked for Caterpillar (industrial equipment/machinery manufacturer) who says the company is able to save $2 million in year in travel expenses by using frequent flyer miles.

Don't know how they do it though; do they create individual accounts for their employees and hire someone to keep track of all the miles and points accumilated on corporate travel? :confused:

Polish parliament did so: http://www.fakt.pl/Schetyna-chce-zab...y,80455,1.html (in polish).

They could negotiate rock-bottom rates with their suppliers with tickets that don't earn miles. Or book all the tickets through consolidators or opaque booking sites.

I have a friend who worked for NCR. They once tried this exact same thing. It lasted all of about a week, I think, as there was a big-time revolt.

Federal gov't employees used to be prevented from accumulating miles or other loyalty rewards. Well, we could accrue them but according to the regs they were considered gov't property and had to be turned over to the travel office for some mysterious "gov't use". Once they realized that (a) there was no practical, economical means of tracking and later using the miles - and (b) allowing employees to keep the miles would be more in line with most private companies, the policy was changed.

Oh yes...I remember something like this from forty or so years ago. My father worked for an American company that required of him a great deal of international travel. Airlines issued vouchers back then to FFs? A corporate cost-cutting measure began, requiring that those vouchers revert back to the company. I recall my father complaining that the division accountant refused to accept any expense reports that did not have the airline voucher stapled to the front.

Nothing new under the sun!

Can't you just use AA Business ExtrAA and earn both personal and business miles/points? This would be win/win.

Business ExtrAA points are calculated differently than award miles, but the awards are different levels as well.

Interesting. Do AA Business Extra allow points to be earned on AA's partners too or just AA flights?

If I'm the one "suffering" through 6 hours of coach at 6'4", you can bet that I will want those miles and would fight hard to keep 'em.

HTSC

Seems to be bigger companies
 

I know that Target Corporation has this policy. Sucks for them.

This I don't get. It seems pretty clear.

These travel-related perks cost money, so the payer keeps the perks.

If the company finds it necessary to let employees use the perks in order to attract talent, great, but they're under no obligation to do so otherwise.

Government employees should not get any of those perks. THAT'S MY MONEY! I paid for those perks, and non-wage inducements are already significant for government workers.

Sure, I know constant business travel is a difficult way to earn a living, but all jobs suck one way or another.

One reason why I brought this issue up is that since corporations have same rights as people now, they can now influence the way frequent flyer miles and points are collected on the corporate level.

True, this idea was tried in the past, but those were the times when companies did not have the same rights as people. Companies, who hold lots of money, can start to influence airline companies to revise their IT systems to handle company names over the individual worker.

Right now, most travel IT systems credit miles and points based on the name of the individual flying or staying at the hotel. If "people" (aka "corporations") make enough demands, airlines can capitulate to update their systems as peon worker A; flying/staying on behalf of ACME Corp with credit going to the ACME Corp. :eek: And why wouldn't corporations and the travel industry not want to go to this? Corporations are the biggest money movers in this country, airlines and hotels need their business, I'm sure if many companies begin to call for this, airlines and hotels will update their systems to allow companies to earn miles and use them.

Besides, the companies can easily say "we don't owe you anything, you don't like it, tough luck go find another job in this economy." And just like how almost every major company in America shipped off jobs overseas, if enough companies get on band with this idea this can be the norm everywhere you try to go, leaving us with no options. :mad:

I guess one can say the same thing if you run your own company and have to send your employee to a trade show or hire a contractor flown out to you. It's coming out of your (business') money, why should the person flying get the perks; if it's your (business') money, you (the business) should get the perks so that you (the business) can use them later for its later use; i.e. a way to save money on a last-minute business trip that your company needs, etc.

I believe there's a whole lot of discussion that can be argued upon here; from the perspective of the individual and from the perspective of the company.