Is this an ethical question or non-issue?
 

Last year I was returning home MAN-ORD when my flight was diverted to SNN. We had to stay overnight and I arrived home the next day. It was a business trip so I submitted expense reports for reimbursement of the airfare.

A few weeks later I applied for and received EU261 compensation (~$700). Would it be right to keep this or should I give this (or a portion) back to my employer? I'm not sure if this is a question of ethics or a non-issue altogether. I don't redeem miles for business travel, but is this different since I received cash?

Is this an ethical question or non-issue?
 

I would look at that as compensation for your time.

+1

Is this an ethical question or non-issue?
 

many employers have a specific policy on this.

I should add, it depends if it was really your time or not. For my employer, if you get money for a flight delay and the delay is hours on the clock, you can either keep the cash or take a day vacation. The idea is if your employer is paying you during the delay, you shouldn't get a windfall.

Is this an ethical question or non-issue?
 

United express flight connection in Denver was cancelled on the way back from a work conference. After spending all day in dia I was not in the mood to deal with UA customer service and argue for a good hotel that night so I expensed off a night at the airport marriott (it was 9pm by the time I made it to hotel and had left Vegas at 10:30am)

United offered to either pay for hotel and a $250 voucher of give me a $600 voucher. Due to logistics of paying back my company or even expensing partial charges (I turned a personal trip into work and was told to expense the whole airfare instead of just the change fee and fare adjustment) I took the voucher and never looked back. If it's a smaller more dynamic company maybe id give some money back for the room but otherwise like others hVe said its compensation for your time and most corporations are aware of this when sending people on the road.

This is not an ethics issue, but an employer policy and potentially a tax issue depending on where your income is taxed.

We're a small business (~65 employees) and corporate travel policies are sparse. I am salary and not hourly and I guess this did push my business travel into the weekend.

Is this compensation taxable?

If it was on your time, keep the compensation.

Tax laws vary by jurisdiction.

Be a Hero....small company, everyone including the No 1 will hear about your honesty and ethics. YOU CAN't buy that ,

The boss will be happy.

Colleagues may want to wring your neck for establishing the precedent.

I'm betting most bosses would tell you to keep it for having to deal with the delay.

Agreed.

I would say the hotel room (and any extra meals) should also be paid back. While things aren't always set up to catch double dipping it's wrong.

Exactly. Paying back things the employer doesn't know you should pay back clearly shows honesty about expenses.

Disagree that these things are mutually exclusive. If your employer doesn't have a specific policy, that does not resolve the ethical quandary. Ethical issues are involved with tax reporting all the time. Some folks say it's ethical to underreport income, others don't. The tax issue is the same.

I assume the airline paid for your hotel...?

Yes, AA paid for hotel and meals.

Then the delay cost your company nothing, but cost you 12 or more hours of your time and part of your weekend.

Is this an ethical question or non-issue?
 

(Missed answer)

I agree.

The company didn't lose out either financially or time wise.

You lost part of your weekend.

I'd keep the compensation.

The regulation is written to award compensation to the passenger, not the employer or purchaser of the ticket or anyone else.

It is to compensate for inconvenience caused to you, so is yours to keep.

Yes it's an ethical issue. Your employer paid you to travel and work.

You were delayed and either the airline or your employer paid any extra expenses. You weren't out of pocket. Therefore any compensation belongs to your employer.

It might be different elsewhere in the world but if you worked for the Australian government you could (and probably would) be investigated for fraud if you failed to pass on this compensation.

The definition of fraud according to the Australian Financial Management and Accountability Act 1997 is as follows:

For the purpose of the Fraud Control Guidelines, fraud against the Commonwealth is defined as ‘dishonestly obtaining a benefit by deception or other means’. A benefit is not restricted to monetary or material benefits, and may be tangible or intangible.

If the airline paid for the hotel and the meals caused by the disruption it would be wrong to also expense those costs to the employer.

However, the EU261 cash payment is regarded as a compensation for the inconvenience to the passenger caused by the disruption and therefore belongs to the passenger not to the person who bought the ticket.

What compensation is intended for has nothing to do with what you may have agreed to with your employer. That is why it all comes back to your employer's policy and your willingness to work within it.

People justify all kinds of stuff to themselves all the time, but that doesn't change an employer's policy.

And, it also doesn't change whether the fair market value of the compensation -- easy if it's cash -- is taxable income.

Certainly one must remain within corporate policy but how many employers have a policy regarding passenger compensation during business travel? I've worked for a variety of companies and clients and have never encountered one.

In the absence of a policy I believe the compensation should go to the passenger as it was he/she who was inconvenienced not the company.

Taxation is a separate issue and varies depending on jurisdiction and circumstance. Ultimately that is a matter between the taxpayer and relevant government.

"Advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer, but wish we didn't." E. Jong

Let's look from a different perspective.... let's say you are returning from a weeklong work trip, and you Friday return becomes a mid-day Saturday return due to xxxxxxxx (many cases, but let's assume all of them caused by the airline/weather)

...does it make ok to expect overtime pay, or to bill the client? or is it just business as usual?

Seems to me that if the person who paid for the ticket were entitled to the compensation, they'd also be entitled to my frequent flyer miles.

Mike

Say the OP told their company and actually gave the money back. What if the company was charging this employees time/travel to a customer (think service man travelling to fix a machine). Would the company credit back to the customer the travel expenses since there were really none? Just something to think about...

In business travel, there are so many variables that usually occur to the detriment of the road warrior (Wx being a huge one), that when one actually accrues to our benefit, I would be inclined to keep it.

I work for a large global consultancy that has a written policy and official form for literally everything. That no form exists for the purposes of returning after-the-fact airline compensation is, in itself, enough reason for me to not pursue it further.

I volunteer in oversell situations near 100% of the time, as long as doing so would not impact my client's schedule. Surely VDB compensation should accrue to the business traveler, no?

+1

No malicious or premeditated intent. Not hard to judge this one.

Deleted due to my own stupidity.

This is exactly what would happen in my company. The delay cost OP personal time but didn't cost the company anything. Unless there's a policy to the contrary, OP shouldn't feel obliged to return the money.

What does responsibility and manners have to do with anything? :confused:

If I use a personal credit card for corporate purchases, should I hand over my points or cash back, depending on the card? What about my airline or hotel loyalty miles? Would that be the well-mannered thing to do?? :rolleyes:

OP's not stealing anything from his company nor taking advantage of it.

It doesn't really matter, but the OP is in a valid position to keep the compensation. I would probably not keep the compensation, but that's just me.

So long as it neither impacts your client's schedule nor takes away work time if course the money is yours.

The issue here is double dipping, a different thing.

What exactly does OP's situation have to do with double dipping? What am I missing??

My thoughts exactly, and stated succinctly.

Clearly too much to ask of the self-righteous brigade to read the statute or apply any sort of common sense.

I don't see any evidence of double dipping which would seem dodgy.

If this was me and my employer was not responsible for any extra expense, ie, the airline paid for additional meals/hotel accommodation as required plus the delay ate into my own time, I'd keep the money.

After all it's meant for compensation for the delay which in this case affected the traveller not the company.