I am new to the forum and "travel hacking" so please forgive if this has already been covered. I am the CEO of a small non-profit corporation, and fly about 6-10 times a year. Mostly domestic (US) but some international.
Should our membership in airline alliances and FF programs be in the name of the corporation or my personal name? Same question in regards to applying for cc offers for mileage points. I am the only person in the corporation that would be using the miles.
Also, would someone please confirm that if I join an airline FF program that is in the starwood alliance, then I am automatically a member of the starwood alliance? Or do I join that separately? And do I join every airline program I would be flying or just a few?
Thanks for your help!

There is no such thing as "travel hacking" - only creative travel arrangements.
Anyone that says different gets a free vacation to Kabul on a nasty, flea infested camel.

There is also no such thing as a "Starwood Alliance," there is the Star Alliance of airlines and the Starwood Hotel chain whose credit card can transfer points into certain airlines. Which "Starwood Alliance" fits your meaning?

With a nonprofit I would hope you are cost conscious, so you might use more than one airline to assure a competitive rate?

And watch the name calling, all us travel artistes get offended easily.

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Welcome to FT, fowler35!

At the outset, please use more descriptive thread titles, so other FTers can know exactly what your thread is about. As you might imagine, we get a lot of "newbie questions" here on FlyerTalk.

In most, if not all cases, membership in a frequent-flyer program can only be in an individual's name. Some airlines may also have a different program for rewarding a business for travel by the business' employees, but that is typically separate from that airline's FFP.

"Starwood" is a hotel chain that includes Sheraton, Westin, etc. It offers a frequent-guest program, Starwood Preferred Guest, and SPG points can be redeemed for free hotel stays, or transferred to a number of airline FFPs. Membership in SPG is separate and apart from membership in the FFP of any of its partner airlines.

If, on the other hand, you meant "Star Alliance" and not "Starwood," only airlines -- not individuals -- can join Star Alliance. If you belong to the FFP of an airline that is a Star Alliance member, you can redeem your frequent-flyer miles in that FFP for travel on any Star Alliance carrier. And if you fly on a paid ticket on another Star Alliance carrier, you can -- depending on the fare and airline -- credit miles for that flight to your FFP by providing your FFP number to the Star Alliance carrier on which you are actually flying.

Depending on how many miles you expect to fly in a year, what fares you are paying, and what benefits you are hoping to derive, it will sometimes make more sense to credit your flights not to the FFP of the airline you primarily fly, but rather to a different FFP that can provide greater benefits for your particular travel patterns.

Credit-card issuers issue both personal and business credit cards to individuals. An individual can apply for either type of card in his or her own name, and miles earned from either type of card will be credited to the cardholder's FFP. There may be exceptions, but as far as I know, a credit card opened in a business' name does not earn frequent-flyer miles for anyone, although cardholders of American Express corporate cards might have the option of earning points in the Amex Membership Rewards program upon payment of a separate annual fee.

If you have a pattern where you tend to fly a particular airline most frequently, its program might be a good place to start. If you sign up for a frequent flyer program, say, with United, Continental, or Us Air, you'll generally be able to redeem your miles on other star alliance member airlines. Some are more generous than others with allowing awards on partner airlines, e.g. there was a time when United was blocking most Lufthansa awards. To get the best bang for your buck, you'll want to research the stickies and key threads in the particular airline's forum.

If you don't already hold credit cards that earn miles in a program, that's an excellent way to rack up lots of miles quickly. Research the "special credit cards offers thread" and do exactly what the first and last posts recommend. E.g. there was a time when you could get 75Kx3 AAdvantage miles if you applied in just the right sequence. These offers do change frequently.

I haven't heard of airlines allowing businesses to sign up for frequent flyer programs. In any event most will allow you to book award travel for individuals other than whose name is on the account but the earned miles generally accummulate into individual accounts and usually cannot be combined without paying high transfer costs. British airways might be unique in that it has "household" accounts where miles can essentially be pooled. Works great for AA flights but is very costly on other partners due to fuel/whatever charges.

While businesses can't sign up directly, most of the US-based programs have a second, parallel program for businesses, separate from the individual FF accounts.

For example, right now at United it's PerksPlus. It's a revenue based program with a multiplier for class of service. So, for example, if your company spends a total of $40k on heavily discounted coach tickets, the company earns a free round trip domestic ticket, in addition to whatever the individual flyers earn in their accounts.

do other employees fly for work?....if so, establish one or more of the business ff programs & use awards to do future work trips....

What is your home aiport and where do you fly to?

Two critical prieces of information.

Welcome to FT!

You can find a list of and links to most all of these programs on my website below in the Other Programs I Like > Programs for Businesses section.

You raise basically an ethical issue. There are employers who require that employees use their miles earned on business travel be used for business travel. Others see the miles as a benefit given in return for the employee traveling.

I worked for a nationally known non-profit that was notoriously tight-fisted with employees and I kept all the miles I earned from air travel.

I suggest you talk with your board. If there are members who are relatively sophisticated and travel for their own employment, then you shouldn't have a problem. I can see an issue if someone who is not a business person learns that you are using miles earned on business travel to go somewhere fancy and you have not cleared this with your board.

On my last job, a member of the organization was incensed when I used conference funds that were part of my contract to travel to a foreign country for a conference. The chairperson of the board was fortunately standing beside her and quickly said, "it's part of her contract to use the funds that way." I may be overly cautious, but better safe than sorry.

The cc points are a bit more questionable. If the card is a personal one in your name and you are responsible for payment, then of course, you get the points. If it's a business card (even if it has your name on it) and the organization pays the bill, then it seems to me that the points belong to the business. (You could of course pay expenses on your personal credit card and ask for reimbursement.) I'm a lot less familiar with corporate credit cards than flying.