LemonThrower

I would tell him no and then ask him for a raise. If you figure the number of hours you work for the company including travel, they are getting you for a bargain. They are coming out way ahead on an hourly basis. Assuming you are salaried, they are saving a ton on not paying you overtime. The reason they don't owe you overtime is becaue you are a professional, and that is the same reason why it is demeaning for them to not allow you to keep this minor perk from travelling. If youre not salaried, they may owe you back wages.

JetBunny

Hey all... I believe it is airline rules or federal law that miles belong to the person who flew in the seat, not the person/company who paid for the ticket, regardless of whether it was purchased by a person, a company, or the nature of or reason for the flight.

So basically, the boss has no right to ask you to use miles for the ticket... Unless he ALSO has the right to ask you to pay for the ticket with your own money, which is basically the same thing since miles have value.

I'm looking up the references now, and will post as soon as I find them.

BoSoxFan45

If you think you are at all replaceable, and you value your job (and times are tough for lots of folks), I'd unhappily play ball.

Lose miles, or lose your job? In this economy?

Of course, this wouldn't be a problem for you if you happened to book lots of tickets right now for your friends, family, and fellow FTers, many of whom I'm sure would be happy to repay the favor in the future.

Suddenly, Gee Boss, I'd love to, but I have given my miles away as I earn free tickets. I just don't have any more. You should have told me sooner.

[This message has been edited by BoSoxFan45 (edited 10-03-2003).]

auh2o

fyi...this is our policy...I know it does not apply to you....

"Frequent Flyer Tickets: Mileage Compensation - Using your Miles for Business Trips

To offset T&E costs for Bozo, while providing a benefit to employees, frequent flyer miles may be used to purchase a domestic or international ticket for business purposes. Bozo will compensate 60% of the lowest applicable fare quoted by Bozo Travel (including non-refundables). This compensation will be taxed at bonus withholding rates and added to the employee's W-2."

UALOneKPlus

Gee boss. I hate to waste company money flying all of those EXPENSIVE trips. I think I'll save you lots of $$$ by staying home. After all, the money you save by the airfare is worth more than any revenue opportunity by me flying, right?

UALOneKPlus

I tell you what. I'm so fed up with travel that it would be a blessing to lose a job over travel.

If a company doesn't recognize the sacrafice that an employee goes through to travel for the company, then they probably don't value other aspects of work-life balance issues either.

In other words, don't treat your employees like dirt when it comes to travel. If you can't afford to treat them fairly when they're travelling on the company's behalf, don't even try to half-a$s it at all. Find budget from other areas, like the useless company holiday parties or something.

AAaLot

The miles that were earned during company travel belong to the company.

In today's competitive market most companies allow the employee to keep these miles. As the market for airfares, unemployment, etc.changes, I could see that changing.

Time on airplane, away from home, etc. are apparently part of the job you accepted.

Nevertheless, the company can demand for you to use the miles that were earned with the company's money (for both airfare and your salary). You can chose not to do it, (just, as an example, you can chose to take unapproved vacation). I do not know what your company will do [if anything] to reprimand you.

I do not like it, but I repeat: technically the you received the miles from airfare and salary the company paid you.

UALOneKPlus

Unless it is explicitly in the employment contract that statement is false.

wideman

That's like saying that your pacemaker belongs to the company because they paid for your health insurance.

AAaLot

Let me rephrase. As a boss I just added this to our policies:
Every mile earned via trips paid by the company and while you were being paid a salary belong to the company.

My point is that that the person with the purse strings has the ultimate say of this.

At the end the eomplyee can either accept this or lose their job.

UALOneKPlus

Agreed. it's clearly defined in your policy, so it's binding.

I do not expect that it will engender any type of loyalty however. Recognize what little money you will save may cost you in terms of a brain drain when the economy improves.

JetBunny

Here's the thing, according to the airlines, only an INDIVIDUAL can earn miles... the person who flew in the seat. And only the individual has access to their FF account. So how does the company know how many miles are accumulated or used, since flown miles do not always equate to FF miles? And what about bonus miles? Are employess required to submit their FF account statements? Yikes! No way I would agree to it as an either an employee or consultant. EVER. And for a company CEO or HR manager, it's not good employee morale management. Besides, a company THAT cheap probably books on non-miles accumulating flights anyway. Like WN.

And when the employee leaves, do they have to turn their miles over to someone else? Like who for instance? And what about miles earned on CCs used for company expenses that are then reimbursed - do those belong to the company, too? The company would have to hire someone JUST to monitor people's FF accounts...

Still looking for those references, amidst all my other work today...

jprim

I would have to take option number 2 - that type of policy would prevent me taking a job if I was travelling a lot...unless the compensation (compared with a similar job where I could keep the miles) outweighed the 'lost value' of the miles (which would kind of screw the saving money idea wouldn't it?).

Just my 2.5 cents...

UALOneKPlus

Good point. I wonder if the most profitable companies nickel and dime their employees to death.

B747-437B

Its a two way street though. I am also willing to spend more $$ for my employees to fly on the same carrier/alliance every time because that way they can get their FF benefits. They appreciate that because it makes their travel life a lot more comfortable. I could just as easily stick 'em on an itinerary that combines Aeroflot and Southwest to save money, but I don't.

I know where they travel on work and how many miles accrue for each trip. When I know they have the relevant number of miles earned from business travel, I ask them to redeem those for a business trip. If they got 10k bonus miles as a service recovery, or got 2k bonus miles for online checkin or have a credit card feeding the same account is not my concern. This system works just fine for us.

Again though, I trust my employees and they trust me. That is the fundamental tent of our relationship, which alas seems to be missing in Jon Toner's initial post.