If you give someone a $100 to buy something and they somehow find it for cheaper, say $85. Is it Ok with you if that person pockets the $15 without your knowledge or permission? And say this happens once a week for six months, you will be Ok to find out someone took nearly $400 of yours without your consent?

No, but if they got it with a survey about their purchasing experience, and the filling out of that survey gave them $10 off their next purchase, or a free cookie, then it's ok.

This is a debate about morals and ethics. There will never be a consensus. Everyone has their loophole to bypass certain morals and ethics.

Therefore I vote for this thread to be Locked.

You were the one bringing in the morals. Just relax and let people respond to the OP. Geez. Arent the prices on traveloicty the same as anywhere else? Arent the change condititons the same as if you bought directly through united? if so, what is the issue?

Seriously? Not to be mean or anything, but from where I sit, you sort of threw the thread off kilter, someone disagreed with you and then you wanted it locked. I think we were doing just fine on an interesting topic, but of course defer to the sensibility of the moderators.

+1

If you book through a third party site and need to make changes, you may have trouble when contacting the airline directly to fix things. Not an issue a week out, but when you need sameday changes, it can be problematic.

I guess I should have worded it differently.

I didn't write lock the thread because someone disagreed with me. I was just trying to say that certain people will be for this type of stuff to earn miles, others won't be. So at the end it kind of turns into don't do it or do it but do it this way or it's ok as long as this is being done, etc. Why even ask such questions? Just go to your boss for permission instead of trying to get a favorable verdict online. Such a simple solution.

My apologises to the person I quoted above. It wasn't directed at you, it was a general thought.

Yawn.

The disagreement is the power of this forum.

People have different opinions, but i always find it very useful to listen to other people's opinions, especially the views of ones who disagree with me.. Chances are that they will give me a new perspective or at least make me think..

The purpose of this community is not to agree, but rather to communicate! ;)

Fair enough. I think it's a pretty adult place by and large and hopefully we can discuss stuff like this, even if it touches on ethics, without it getting weird.

I don't see what the big deal is? I booked like $30,000 in hotels for my employer last year, so I used hotels.com and got 5% cash back from the ShopDiscover portal AND 10% back from the Hotels.com Welcome Rewards program...why is it wrong to do that? They don't give me an Amex or company card..I have to expense everything...

Mind you, my boss is fully aware of this...but either way I don't see the ethical or moral issue here.

This is different, you're not stealing from the person, and keeping the money and PRETENDING it cost $100. What do you want the person to do...convert the points earned to $ and pay the boss back?

Wow are some people here uptight or what...

The spirit of the corporate travel policies I have seen is that when you book travel you can benefit from loyalty programs as long as it doesn't cost more or otherwise adversly affect the company. I don't think any HR person sits the whole day on FlyerTalk trying to figure out optimal points accrual strategies and how much money it can save the company. As long as you book the lowest available fare they are happy.

Thanks guys for all the opinions. I did go through UR and got the 2x points through Travelocity. It's a business trip so I know the times won't change and there were few options that worked for her anyway for this particular conference, so I'm not worried about the perceived lack of flexibility.

Since it's a business expense I wouldn't consider asking to put it on my CC, but I figure to go through a portal isn't such a big deal. I do that when I buy office supplies too - order stuff on Staples using her CC but go through whatever portal du jour that gives me the most points/miles. She knows I do it and she doesn't care - she couldn't care less about miles or points. I've tried three times to get her to sign up for UR cards, but she hasn't conceded yet.

Also - she owns her own business, so there is really no "corporate" to worry about other than her!

Heck it the OP risk and how would anyone even know the OP went thru a portal? As a boss as long as I get my ticket at a good price and receipt with it. Im not too worried. Heck I am sure thei business trip/personal trip will be written off anyways for tax purposes and expensed. (Free UA miles for them.)