Originally Posted by Jon Maiman

Is this a voucher from a personal/leisure flight? If so, it shouldn't be applied to a flight for business travel. If it is from business travel, than you should definitely use the voucher and save your company from needless extra expense. As to the additional payment required with the voucher, I'd probably use my corporate credit card (or personal card if permitted) for it. General rule of business expenses, don't make any transaction unnecessarily complex. Complex transactions tend to raise a flag with accounting and even if you haven't done anything outside of policy (e.g. wrong), it tends to put you under extra scrutiny regardless. The extra scrutiny may last going forward. E.g. you don't want to be on the radar with you accounting department as a potential abuser of expenses.

Finally, the fact that you're asking ongoing questions on FlyerTalk implies you're not fully comfortable with the actions you are considering. Your best bet is to have an honest and open conversation with your manager about it. If you're not comfortable doing that either, than that is a good indicator in its own right to just play it safe and abide by the letter of the law of your company expense policy. Any deviations from it should be done with the approval of your manager.

Throughout my career there have been times where unwritten deviation from the formal expense policy within limits was acceptable (using personal credit cards, etc.). There have been other times (like now) where no deviation is acceptable. You and your manager need to have a good understanding of what is acceptable. The only way to do that is to discuss it together. Otherwise, the default as noted above, is just strictly comply with all aspects of the formal expense policy for your company.


--Jon

Originally Posted by Jon Maiman

Throwing in my two cents... Two key factors in determining if it is okay:

1) Does your company permit the use of personal credit cards/cash for business expenses? If not and you are required to use a corporate credit card, this will be an immediate red flag.

2) Assuming personal cards are permitted, as long as the expense incurred and the service selected (hotel, restaurant, etc.) is the same as you would have otherwise chosen if you weren't using the gift card, you should be fine. E.g. common sense if it is a reasonable and normal expense.

For me, currently I am required to use my corporate credit card. Big bummer but that is the current expense policy. When I was allowed to use my personal credit card for expenses in the past, I didn't go out of my way to do so, but a few times I wound up using a gift card to pay for an expense. It was never an issue.

--Jon

Originally Posted by FelipeORD

I'm not sure why the source of the funds should matter -- after all, if it was a routine cash transaction, we wouldn't care where the person got the cash. Are you concerned about the slippery slope toward kickbacks? For example, I can imagine a scenario in which a hotel offers a normal $150/night rate, but I offer to pay them $200/night as long as they give me a $25 gift card.