Charging employer for using miles?
 

here's the deal:
flew to LAX two weeks ago and was supposed to leave for AMS today on KL. however, my employer forced me to stay another couple of days. since I was on a cheap non-changeable ticket, the only option would be to buy a new one way ticket back to AMS. my employer started at looking at options, and the cheapest was $1000 with two stop overs.
I quickly checked any award availability on KL/BA/AF, and was able to get an AF flight for 45.000 miles.

I end up spending miles, while my employer doesn't have to shell out the $$ to get me back home.

what do you think a fair compensation would be for my employer to reimburse me for the miles?

I believe this will be best answered by those who frequent the KL/AF Forums
Obscure2k
TravelBuzz Moderator

It depends. How did you get your miles? All flown private? Ask your employer for a full refund.

Flown for your company? Don't even ask. Because in lack of any other company regulation, your boss is the owner of your miles, NOT YOU. If he paid the money for your tickets, he might ask you using the miles without any compensation.

Here in Germany there had been members of the house of Parliament lost their mandate, because they used miles for private purposes ( miles collected not private ).

This may not be so black-and-white in the Netherlands. I'm not a lawyer, but I would expect the miles to be yours unless there is a rule in your employment contract stating that they are owned by the company.

I'd say, don't bother. It's too complicated to account for. Just let them spend the $1,000.

SmilingBoy.

You use your miles to save your employer $1000, without asking the reimbursement question first?

I wouldn't even have started with this -- because now you have demonstrated your employer how valuable the miles are that you collect on all the business trips your employer pays for.

Fair compensation? About 1 cent per mile -- if you employer doesn't decide that he owns the miles anyway, which is a funny motion especially considering that he probably didn't instruct you to collect the miles to begin with, but exactly what happened in Germany.

HTB.

thanks for the feedback

pretty much all of my miles are from my previous job, so it gets more complicated.

main reason for me to use miles was to get a somewhat direct connection (LAX-CDG-AMS) instead of doing LAX-ORD-FRA-AMS.

I guess it will depend on your company, cash reimbursements are always very difficult. If the miles are from your previous job your new employer doesn't own them. If you will accumulate a lot of miles with your new job as well, I would forget about it since you might just point your employer towards requesting you to use them for company travel (and yes, they can do this).

Well, does KLM not have BlueBiz for the employer & Flying Blue for the employee?

As this thread is not specific to AF/KL, I am moving it to Travelbuzz. Please follow the discussion there.

If your boss insists on you taking a flight with TWO stopovers, simply to save a few bucks, then you should be quitting your job.

a) Your company was going to pay for you to fly home, and you chose to go a different route. No, you shouldn't be reimbursed.

b) I was going to ask, "why didn't you let them pay?" but you answered that.

c) I agree with Raffles on principle.

Slightly confused
 

Pattas-
You said you were supposed to fly back today. Have you told your employer that you're willing to book an awards ticket? Did he ask you to use your miles?

Or are you looking for info so that you can go to your employer and say, "I'm willing to use 45,000 miles to save you $1000 and get me home more quickly. But in return, I'd like XXXX" ?

If you haven't yet offered the awards ticket option, then I think the compensation has to be less than $1000. If you're employer has asked you to use your miles, then i'd ask for two roundtrip tickets somewhere.

That said, if you already agreed to use miles without having the compensation conversation, then I think you're out of luck.

I don't know the company you work for (or indeed the legal side of things where you are) but in terms of expense accounting, this sort of thing is a nightmare, in my own experience. Assuming I was signing it off, I would have to determine and prove that the value I was reimbursing you was correct (otherwise the sum becomes taxable as a benefit in kind), and I also have to demonstrate that the air miles you earn (which then could come under scrutiny as they are being used as a 'currency') are not a benefit in kind, which could open a whole can of worms.

By the time I'd figured all that out and put it to the accounting department... I'd have been as well to pay your flight.

Can't you ask for your boss to tell the TA to look for throwaway returns?

I would expect a company that pays for international travel should be willing to pay $1000 to get an employee home 3 days early. I would not expect them to pay $1000 to save 1 extra stop on the trip home.