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Originally Posted by RCC
I have a friend that works for a publication company. She has just 1 frequent flier account for her personal & work travels. She has to provide copies frequent flier statements after her travels for work related reasons. After enough miles have accrued she is then forced to take a mileage ticket to her next destination, of course for work reasons.
Just plain sucks I think. Companies should let us keep our miles. Ric |
My company has a policy whereby they'll pay you half the value of the lowest-available fare (via a quote from the corporate travel agency) if you use miles to travel instead. Sometimes, this is quite a good deal for both the employee and the employer.
Say, for example, I needed to fly from IND to EWR (my company's HQ is in NJ, so this is a common route). Our standard fare through the travel agent is around $750. If I can book the flight far enough in advance to get an award seat for 25,000 miles, I can pocket $375, which is right at the 1.5 cents/mile value that many FTers put on miles. But chances are, if I were looking to take that trip for personal travel, it would include a Saturday night stay and the fare would usually be under $300. So I figure that under the right circumstances, I can come out ahead. Also, the company can come out ahead by getting the fare for half the usual amount, and employees are not offended by this kind of program. One of my colleagues was saving up miles to take his family of 4 to Hawaii (and we all know it's practically impossible to get award seats to Hawaii). Instead, he used this policy for travel to Europe on 4 separate trips so far. He has pocketed about $3,000 from the program and is going to use the money to pay for the entire Hawaiian vacation! |
Originally Posted by Boofer
My company has a policy whereby they'll pay you half the value of the lowest-available fare (via a quote from the corporate travel agency) if you use miles to travel instead. Sometimes, this is quite a good deal for both the employee and the employer.
Say, for example, I needed to fly from IND to EWR (my company's HQ is in NJ, so this is a common route). Our standard fare through the travel agent is around $750. If I can book the flight far enough in advance to get an award seat for 25,000 miles, I can pocket $375, which is right at the 1.5 cents/mile value that many FTers put on miles. But chances are, if I were looking to take that trip for personal travel, it would include a Saturday night stay and the fare would usually be under $300. So I figure that under the right circumstances, I can come out ahead. Also, the company can come out ahead by getting the fare for half the usual amount, and employees are not offended by this kind of program. One of my colleagues was saving up miles to take his family of 4 to Hawaii (and we all know it's practically impossible to get award seats to Hawaii). Instead, he used this policy for travel to Europe on 4 separate trips so far. He has pocketed about $3,000 from the program and is going to use the money to pay for the entire Hawaiian vacation! |
Originally Posted by RCC
Just plain sucks I think. Companies should let us keep our miles.
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Originally Posted by xyzzy
Absolutely! She should simply not use her account number when she travels for work. If they automatically put the number into the reservation, simply ask at the airport that it be removed. When the company asks for the statement she can show that she asked for and received no credit.
This type of policy is somewhat draconian to my way of thinking...but it is a sure bet to cut down unecessary "business travel" and cut expenses. This could be applied to hotel programs, rentals as well. |
Originally Posted by Athena53
OK, this is scary. I work for a sub of a large co. I'll call Giant Enterprise- also a Six Sigma organization. Hope you're with another company.
Tell those Black Belts to go back and do VOC (Voice of Customer) again! Another thought: the Elite status I get by combining business and personal travel on the same account (couldn't do it with one or the other alone) has many benefits for the conmpany. When upgraded, I have a restful and more productive business trip. My current HHonors status means free breakfasts in Hilton properties. Elite security lines and check-in lines mean I;m more likely to make the plane. If I miss a connection I'm more likely to get re-routed promptly. In general, I just feel better about business travel- because it's less hassle and because I'm building up points I can use for my own travel. Finally- they may over-estimate the value of "valuable points". I redeem mine only with a lot of advance planning. Apparently the airlines do open up Reward travel at the eleventh hour for seats they can't sell- but your employer may find that they can't redeem points for the travel they want you to make unless it's flying from Kansas to Kenosha on a Tuesday. If it's travel to Europe, they can forget it. You may want to do a test of availability of sample trips (many airlines let you do reward travel searches on their Web sites). Status has helped me get to important customer meetings on-time in the face of multiple flight cancellations, has helped me book into hotels I needed to be for networking opportunites to further the interest of "Giant Enterprises" , I have also turned down job offeres from other company's in part because of the travel policy. If I am on the road and away from my family, at least let it be pleasant as possible. I understand that it is the company's dollar I'm traveling on, and I abide by all of the rules and select the lowest cost option in our system. The points are a win-win for "Giant Enterprises" and the employees. maps |
Originally Posted by xyzzy
Absolutely! She should simply not use her account number when she travels for work. If they automatically put the number into the reservation, simply ask at the airport that it be removed. When the company asks for the statement she can show that she asked for and received no credit.
If company honestly believes (it has all the reasons to) that miles belong to them, then sucks or not sucks but that's one of the many conditions of employment. I do not honestly believe that someone could chose employment based on such non-essential thing as entitlement to keep miles. Previous posts suggested that their status sometimes helped them to get to the meetings and/or to hotels. Now, nobody is trying to deprieve somebody from his/her "status" - status is non-separable. But miles - a by-product of corporate money spent on travel could be spent by company on company business. now, if company policy require to travel coach, then this discussion will be very soon obsolete as A/C tend to gradually decrease benefits over time and now coach traveler on restricted economy fare may expect something like 25% of mileage flown or even nothing... so nothing to earn, nothing to take :( |
Originally Posted by uastarflyer
Devil's advocate - the company paid for the ticket.
This type of policy is somewhat draconian to my way of thinking...but it is a sure bet to cut down unecessary "business travel" and cut expenses. This could be applied to hotel programs, rentals as well. No one I know who travels for business is going to take 'unnecessary' trips in order to earn miles. |
I think when you get to the Measure phase and determine the cost to control this process, it will get shot down.
Bob |
Prospective company: "We'll need you to sign this power of attorney statement allowing us to keep your miles."
Spiff: "That concludes this interview. Good luck!" |
Originally Posted by uastarflyer
Devil's advocate - the company paid for the ticket.
This type of policy is somewhat draconian to my way of thinking...but it is a sure bet to cut down unecessary "business travel" and cut expenses. This could be applied to hotel programs, rentals as well. Furthermore, we're not discussing the advantages of being recognised as a frequent teaveler by a hotel/airline. We're talking about corporations requiring you to turn over your miles/points. BTW, I'm with you Spiff! |
Originally Posted by Spiff
Prospective company: "We'll need you to sign this power of attorney statement allowing us to keep your miles."
Spiff: "That concludes this interview. Good luck!" Which brings up this question: why would a company want to hire an employee who will cave in on something like this? Most of the people I know who travel a great deal for business are either salespeople, high-level professionals, or executives. What company would want salespeople, high level professionals, and/or executives who would be so weak in a negotiation? |
Speaking of Wal-Mart ... do they send their employees, even management, on travel a lot? A company I worked for did business with them, and we always had to travel to their HQ in Bentonville rather than having them come to us (and the fares into/out of XNA aren't all that cheap even for coach!)
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Originally Posted by exerda
Speaking of Wal-Mart ... do they send their employees, even management, on travel a lot? A company I worked for did business with them, and we always had to travel to their HQ in Bentonville rather than having them come to us (and the fares into/out of XNA aren't all that cheap even for coach!)
However, with as much global expansion as they have done/continue to do mid- to high-level managers have to do a fair amount of travel. It also, of course, depends on the kind of job one holds. |
Originally Posted by AZ_MISMAN
I think when you get to the Measure phase and determine the cost to control this process, it will get shot down.
Bob |
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