Z-man

Sorry I have been busy all day and had no time to reply. First of all, I am not *wood bashing. I love *wood hotels, have stayed in them for the last ten years and will continue to stay in them till I retire (and then hopefully when I retire I will stay there too). I just feel that these loyalty programs are benefits for us being the ones that stay there.
They are actually taxable benefits when you use them for free stays (at least in Canada). Whether you declare these benefits or not is a personal issue.
As for the car thing, we all hope our bosses drive nice cars as we aspire to be in those roles one day, but for now some of us are not. I was more trying to prove a point and sorry for going off topic there.
I also stay at Hilton properties and because of my status (yes some of this was earned on personal stays), I get offered free internet, 1000 HH Points or something else sometimes. I can't remember which is which because HH is not as consistent as *wood or maybe I have trouble remembering the different hotel options. But is it wrong for me to take the 1000 HH points as opposed to internet?

Flying Lawyer

That's interesting and we are getting a bit into philosophy.

Let's say, Starwood and IHG have a property next to each other. Frankfurt could be a good example. The Frankfurt LM is cheaper, however does currently not take part in the recent Starwood promo called "spend you employer's money and get four extra starpoints for private use". The Interconti next door is by far more expensive but offers "stay twice on company's dime, get a night free". Employee has the instruction to be price sensitive but choses (not a big surprise) the IC for the sake of getting free nights. What is this?

Dendrite

We have our own interest first before our employer. Do you believe your boss looks after shareholders interest first?

If your employer is smart (not necessarily wise), he would hire a $1000 a month finance clerk who will decide which hotel you get to stay.

Spent_All_My_Miles

1) I think the OP's take on things kept more people from mentioning they have aircards

2) Some aircards in the US aren't all that great (speed, dropped connections, etc.) I sometimes use free SPG internet instead of an aircard.

CNWO4LIFE

The only thing you deserve is termination papers. Who cares what the CEO drives in comparision to your little Honda. Buy your own company and run it how you see fit, until then feel lucky that you have employers willing spend the funds to put you up in an spg property instead of some crappy Super 8.

TrojanHorse

Let me ask this question

if airlines, hotels, car companies all eliminated all FF programs today and did not replace them and you were not given a salary increase other than your standard merit increase, how many of you

I know we all couldn't quit today but lets say down the road when the time came that a new position of equal salary could be found

would continue to work in job that required all the travel that you currently do?

would ask to do less travel?

Me

I'd ask for a LOT less travel and if that was not possible

I would look for a similar job that had no travel

I'll be honest, 75+% of why I enjoy my travel is to rack up the miles, points, elite status and that sort of stuff and to "pay" (maybe not the correct word) for trips. subsidize may be a more accurate term. I can't say that I really enjoy saying good bye to my kids on Sunday nights, missing their games, school functions etc.. If I wasn't compensated extra in the form of perqs for all the travel, I could get a job of at least equal pay and never travel easily. Even with all the perqs, sometimes I sit there and think maybe I should just cut out the travel all together for the next few years. Therefore I'm definitely not upset when I get "stuck" with the local jobs.

The company knows this otherwise we wouldn't have a policy that we are entitled to keep of FF miles, points and that kind of stuff.

Keyser

truer words were never spoken....^^

Keyser

at my firm we don't really have a travel expense that gets questioned by anyone....the partners are lucky that we get to fly business class & stay in good hotels & the client ends up footing the bill....the reason for this perhaps is because there are very high stakes involved so the client won't argue over travel expenses....

even with this policy in place, no one at my firm stays in overpriced hotels or flies first class unless prior approval has been taken from the client....no one books a suite at the hotel unless prior approval has been taken from the client....just because no one will question us does not give us the right to rob the client....

i travel a fair amount (been on the road 120+ days so far this year) & have highest status with all the airlines & hotel programs i frequently use....there are a lot of perks that come with having this status....i get lots of things for free like upgrades, breakfast, internet, etc....when i get these perks it doesn't even cross my mind that i should refuse & pay for them so that i could get more points....

now coming to the car issue....i drive a really nice car....i have worked hard for it & am very proud of it....but the senior counsels i work with have much bigger & better cars....no problem with that....i know i'll get there someday....these people were in my position at some point in their lives too....

like i said before, i travel a lot so am away from home quite a bit....but there are a lot of advantages from all this travel....my wife & i get to take some really nice holidays for practically nothing thanks to all the points i earn....i have not paid for a single ticket for my wife over the last 4 years....i always end up using my miles....i don't remember the last time i paid for a hotel room when on vacation....i feel these benefits are worth a lot more than getting a few extra points per stay by getting the client to pay more....

Flying Lawyer

I believe the first of your two sentences might bring you - if your conduct follows this principle - into deep problems

Flying Lawyer

If the employer is wise, he will hire a 1000 USD a day advisor to restrucure company travel, to renegotiate contracts with providers and airline and quite a bit more. We did so in our 10.000 employee worldwide firm and this saves a ton of money.

TrojanHorse

For all of you who spend working hours on here (FT), i'm sure those hourly rates that you are paid are way in excess of any internet charges a hotel will charge someone.. those in itself should be fireable offenses way before the internet issue

for you trigger happy bosses on the internet issue, maybe you want to look at other things that are going to bring you much better productivity and/or cost savings than some $12.95 per night internet charge that an employee may or may not have waived

rajuabju

I think the idea of firing someone (who I will assume is an otherwise good/valuable employee) is a little overboard.

It's the company's decision whether or not to reimburse an employee for internet usage and other costs.

For example, in my company, I reimburse employees for internet. I do not reimburse for in-room movies. Someone might argue that movies are not work related, fine, but I'm sure there are many companies who DO reimburse for movies as part of travel expenses.

Anyhow, as someone else posted earlier, a good boss would talk with the employee and explain why, if something can be obtained for free, the employee should not be attempting to charge it to the company to gain personal benefit.

At the end of the day, internet should be free for elite members, and not an option to get extra points... thats equivalent to someone asking for points instead of a free breakfast or whatever else might be included for an elite. It gets too complicated, too time consuming and just a bad idea.

yeunganson

How about your idea is just lousy and just morally wrong? It's just wrong to on purposly raising cost to employer while accepting kickbacks from the hotel.

Raise the price of hotel rooms and expect the company pay for it so YOU can get some extra points, it's just crazy talk. If anyone under me pull something like this with tax-payers money using my budget, it goes straight to reprimanding.

You're not the first guy that came out with this idea though.

Japan's Toyoko Inn (a big business hotel chain) start having a Support the Businessman campaign called "Business Package" where you can book a hotel room that is 2000-3000yen/night more under the "business package" rate which the company pays and the hotel will offer the guest 2000-3000 yen/night of VISA Gift Certificates - good as cash! Do I consider that a bribe? Yes! Do I think it is wrong to accept such arragement? Yes. Did that hotel get away with it? Apparently so in Japan as the campaign is still ongoing.

Maybe next time your business trip to Japan, you can stay in Toyoko Inn and get those VISA gift cards.

TrojanHorse

What about Hilton Honors

I'm not a big Hh guy so I may not have this exactly right but with my way settings, can't you select from your options???

I realize now (post 9/1) that internet is free for G/D members but prior to that it was a choice that you had to make... I forget the other choices but do you guys think that travelers are obliged to go in and pre-select free internet for the company? again what if the company didn't give enough stays for the elite benefit and you had to do the balance on personal OOP stays??? then are you obligated? At that point how would the company know you were elite if they didn't give you enough stays? are you obligated to notify the company?

Z-man

That makes a lot of sense. Let's put our employees up in Super 8's. Where do you think the talent will go? I'm not saying that I'm the sh*t but there are lots of employers that would like to have me. I am not going to stay at these Super 8 properties and if someone wants to retaim me, they will pay for it.