Points from hotels for work trips
 

I was at a Holiday Inn last week, and I requested a copy of the bill from my previous stay so that I could send it to Qantas to claim points. The duty manager sent me a message that said Unfortunately you must pay your own accomodation in order to claim reward points, and at present your accomodation has been routed to <company that I work for>. I discussed this with the duty manager, and he was saying that it would be fraudulant for me to attempt to claim these points. This is news to me - I've claimed points for my six previous stays without any problems, and I can't see anything about it in the QFF terms and conditions.

I'm sure other people must claim work-related hotel points with Qantas. Has anyone experienced problems doing this?

Steve

Not sure what the problem is there.. its none of the hotels business what you do with the bill.

Whats the difference between a company paying for hotel expenses, and paying for air tickets and recieving FF/SC points.

Maybe the company has a contract with the hotel chain and part of the contract says "I'll give you a good deal, but the catch is no points paid back". Didn't the NSW Government recently do this with "in contract" flying for Public Servants?

In this instance won't you have authorise the invoice when it comes in to your company for payment? Just get your accounts people to send you a copy up before you approve the invoice.

I just asked a different staff member the following day and got a copy. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif I don't think the duty manager knew what he was talking about. I was a bit concerned at the time though... Holiday Inn accounts for about a third of my points!

In my experience, QF doesn't seem to care who paid for the room, just who stayed in it. I stayed recently in SYD (at Crowne Plaza - a 6C hotel like the HI) with a colleague and paid for both rooms. QF would only give me credit for my room - so I asked them to credit the other room to my colleague's QFF account.

Just fax the statement to QF, and all will be fine.

You may find that someone from your travel or accounts department is claiming all the points for stays paid directly by the company. If this is the case, then QF will not award you points as well as the corporate points collector for the same stay.

That seems fair. I've just talked to our travel secretary, and she tells me that there's no reason that I can't claim the points. I will definitely continue to claim them.

Steve

Hi, Long time reader, First time Poster http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

I thought I might shed some light on this thread. I myself am a Duty Manager at a 5 star hotel in Adelaide, and we issue QF FF points.

The finer details of the QF FF points has a lot to do with the individual hotel, and their policies, and the contract between their hotel and QF. These contracts vary from hotel to hotel which stipulate what type of rates qualify, and from which market sector, black-out dates, minimum rates, what type of revenue points can be generated from, etc. These technicalities aren't in the QF FF terms & conditions, but appear in the contracts with the hotels. It is ultimately up to the hotel as to what they allow points to be claimed on, and how, per their contract with QF. if thier is confusion, gte their Direct of Sales to check it out for you.

When you submit an old account to QF for processing, all QF do is fax it back to the hotel and ask for the points to be approved / rejected, thus being just one big circle. Personally, there has been many times where points have tried to be claimed on old stays, on a non-qualifying discount rate. They may be given points initially, but may be deducted at a latter stage once the hotel denies / confirms it.

My tip: find out who does the point processing at the hotel (usually the night manager) and keep in touch with them as they will usually know everything inside and out. This will get you you points faster, rather than having to go back thru QF.

NM: Spot on, re: 'double-dipping' on personal and corporate memberships.

The QF FF membership surname must match the hotel account, or else QF FF will reject it. Thus if you're paying for 2 rooms, to save any chance of not getting the xtra points, have the charges from both rooms transfered onto your account.

Another tip: always ensure that your FF number is entered in the reservation at time of CHECK-IN, not check-out, or else it may take unnecessarily longer to issue points, or you may have to retro-claim.

Another tip: Try talking to the hotel directly for an old claim versus QF. This may speed up the process. But if the hotel is slow, just goto QF - it will happen eventually.

PS: 1 QF point = AUD $0.0165

I hope this helps in getting your points with ease, and faster.

Cheers, Greg.

Welcome to FT...always great to have someone on board from within the industry http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

This is the frustrating bit for the general public...trying to work out which rate qualifies and which doesn't. I often find conference rates excluded which is very annoying as the majority of my hotel stays are associated with conferences. I now try and book my own hotels rather than through the conference organiser.

Last year I had a hotel conference rate which was denied QF points by the hotel....I faxed it in to QF and lo behold was given the points http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Just confirms what most people have thought....1QF point = $0.02. I guess when you deal with thousands....millions of QF points, the decimal places are important!




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kpc