Ethical question

[prairie_girl]

I wonder if the ones saying to go for it would feel the same with the scenario switched up a bit…


Say you have a friend who lives in a different city than you. You decide as a treat to buy them a ticket to come visit you. They find a cheaper flight so they change it, and pocket the price difference.

Still cool?

 

[sam_gordon]

@EACarlson, answer this... assuming there's a price drop, and SW allows you to get it... would you be willing to tell your employers you got the price drop, or would you be more willing to NOT tell them and hope they don't find out? Let's be honest, the odds of them finding out about a price drop/credit issuance are pretty low (same with the IRS).

If you would rather they don't find out about it, that says it's crossing a line for you. If you're ok with them finding out, then either ask them ahead of time... "Hey, I know SW gives flight credits if they cut the rates, do you mind if I keep an eye on pricing and get the credit?" Or ask them when you see a price drop... "Hey, the ticket has dropped in price $25. I know SW policy is the credit goes to the traveler, they don't do refunds, do you mind if I take advantage?" If they say "fine", you're good. If they say "no", then leave well enough alone.

If you don't feel comfortable even asking the question, then don't look for price drops.

 

[kymom99]

I wonder if the ones saying to go for it would feel the same with the scenario switched up a bit…


Say you have a friend who lives in a different city than you. You decide as a treat to buy them a ticket to come visit you. They find a cheaper flight so they change it, and pocket the price difference.

Still cool?

Why not?

 

[CrystalClear82]

Side question- Did you book the flight(s) or did they?
If they booked the flights then technically only they can make the modifications. Pending SW policies.

I recently had this happen with Delta. If i wanted to pay more they were more than happy to alter the flight, at the gate but otherwise only the agent who booked could make changes. It was an uphill battle at 3am on a Saturday morning.

 

[bcla]

Side question- Did you book the flight(s) or did they?
If they booked the flights then technically only they can make the modifications. Pending SW policies.

I recently had this happen with Delta. If i wanted to pay more they were more than happy to alter the flight, at the gate but otherwise only the agent who booked could make changes. It was an uphill battle at 3am on a Saturday morning.

Not on Southwest. I've had Southwest tickets booked through a corporate travel agency, but if I wanted to make changes I could do it myself once I had the locator number. I'm not sure if I could have gotten a refund, although I suspect I could have if I had gone to an airport or request it as a check. I definitely added my Rapid Rewards number to my ticket and got the points by calling in to customer service.

 

[Starport Seven-Five]

I wonder if the ones saying to go for it would feel the same with the scenario switched up a bit…


Say you have a friend who lives in a different city than you. You decide as a treat to buy them a ticket to come visit you. They find a cheaper flight so they change it, and pocket the price difference.

Still cool?

Am I bringing in billions of dollars of revenue in this hypothetical?

 

[design_mom]

I think it's kind of a grey area, but I think it could at least APPEAR to be unethical to someone at your client company, and that could impact your relationship and end up being a bigger cost to you than the savings is. And, as others have stated, could create tax implications.

The more ethical thing to do would be either:
1) travel on the original itinerary
2) accept the discount, but credit your client for the difference
3) Talk to your client before you do it, and if they have no problem with it, then go for it.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

IMO just depends on company policy and how they handle the process. Some may depend on personal vs corporate CC too or how audits are done.

Ethical is going to be IMO industry specific and employment contract specific and also IRL how things are done. Not everything is as black and white as some would think. At least that's what I've learned with my husband doing so much business travel. Some depends on your project manager some depends on the owner of the project, some depends on what the amount is, etc.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I wonder if the ones saying to go for it would feel the same with the scenario switched up a bit…


Say you have a friend who lives in a different city than you. You decide as a treat to buy them a ticket to come visit you. They find a cheaper flight so they change it, and pocket the price difference.

Still cool?

This is really the difference between business and leisure travel.

When you're talking about a project that is over a billion dollars planned out 6 years in advance with a budget allocated for travel (like the twin power plants my husband worked on in CA) your scenario is frankly just silly. I'm not calling you silly at all just saying trying to compare the two wouldn't be even in the same realm of thinking because they aren't at all the same.

Even in my husband's present company where he does airline fueling systems he told me last month they still had so much leftover funds in the travel budget for the Baltimore airport. This isn't money that is gained nor lost for the companies because it was already paid for in the contract it's a "use it or lose it" in that respects meaning if they don't use it well it was still already paid for, you can't roll it over to another project so for the OP a lot will depend on how things are structured with their company.

 

[TheOneWithTheTriplets]

Wow, I'm really interested by the varying opinions on here.

Assuming we're talking about a non-refundable, WGA fare, my immediate thought was, "Of course, that's fine."

As someone else said upthread, this is a sunk cost. The company chose to book a non-refundable fare at a certain price knowing they can't get their money back. Why would they possibly care whether SW keeps the full fare or if SW keeps most of it and you get a future travel credit? If there were any way that you were taking money from the company or otherwise costing them more to do it, then I'd get into a question of ethics. But there's truly no impact to them.

Now, anything above WGA, even WGA+, they could take advantage of that one time transfer and use the credit, so I would say it's their to claim. Or, if you were talking about switching to a different flight that would cost them more (in miles, in your time, etc) then also not cool.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Side question- Did you book the flight(s) or did they?
If they booked the flights then technically only they can make the modifications. Pending SW policies.

I recently had this happen with Delta. If i wanted to pay more they were more than happy to alter the flight, at the gate but otherwise only the agent who booked could make changes. It was an uphill battle at 3am on a Saturday morning.

It seems to depend on the method of booking even with SWA.

For example my husband would book through a travel portal through work and changes were all on him that he could make. This was with his prior company.

With his present company they also use a travel portal but changes are pretty much required to be made through the company they use for travel arrangements even though he's using his personal CC. This did cause an issue with several of them were at the airport needing to make a same-day change but couldn't get a hold of the travel agency so they paid out of pocket and billed their company for the differences.

Then with my husband in particular with his newer job with airline fueling systems at times the airlines themselves will book the flights for him and thus changes have to be done through them. So far I believe this has been twice both with SWA where they were non-revenue flights (thus my husband wasn't even earning any points) and SWA owned wholly the ticket and were the issuer of the ticket.

 

[Lumpy1106]

That would be tantamount to receiving a financial gift, so I would say no. I've yet to see a company that did not allow you to book the trip on your own and get the airline miles for the trip though. We have to use a company CC that is in our name and on my credit report - that doesn't seem right to me. Why can't I use my airline card and get the miles for that too? Doesn't matter, that's the rules.

 

[GAN]

"Hey, the ticket has dropped in price $25. I know SW policy is the credit goes to the traveler, they don't do refunds, do you mind if I take advantage?" If they say "fine", you're good. If they say "no", then leave well enough alone.

This.....

 

[persnickity]

I don't find it unethical, as you are not taking anything from the company - they paid and they are done with it now. If they were able to do the same and did so, I'd have no problem with that, either.

I don't consider corporate greed ethical, and the airline would be the main winner if no one takes advantage of price drops. (And they benefit by making money from your future travel if you do, which is likely why they leave these changes in the hands of the individual flying.)

 

[prairie_girl]

Am I bringing in billions of dollars of revenue in this hypothetical?

Can you point out where the OP said her side hustle company had billions of dollars in revenue? I don't see it anywhere in this thread.

 

[sam_gordon]

Those who have no qualms about keeping the credit/money outright... here's two scenarios for you...

1) Your boss says he's going to buy your lunch and gives you $50 cash. You decide to go to McDonalds, the bill is $15. Do you give $35 back right away, wait until he asks, or say you spent it all?

2) Your kids are going out for lunch. You give them $50 cash. Do you expect change?

 

[mousefan73]

Do they already pay you for this trip. or do you bill them for all expenses at the end.. if at the end and you show them the orginnal price that is wrong most likely legally and ethinially. if they already paid. I would do it and if you get cash, not credit use that money for expenses pertaining to their account.

 

[kdonnel]

Those who have no qualms about keeping the credit/money outright... here's two scenarios for you...

1) Your boss says he's going to buy your lunch and gives you $50 cash. You decide to go to McDonalds, the bill is $15. Do you give $35 back right away, wait until he asks, or say you spent it all?

2) Your kids are going out for lunch. You give them $50 cash. Do you expect change?

Not sure there would be a direct correlation between those two scenarios answers and whether someone would or would not keep the airline credit.

I would not have tried to get the airline credit.

1. I would keep the money. My expectation in this case is the $50 is a bonus and mine to keep.

2. I would hope my kids would offer me the change, I would then tell them to keep the change, but would not get upset in anyway if they did not offer the change.

 

[TheOneWithTheTriplets]

Those who have no qualms about keeping the credit/money outright... here's two scenarios for you...

1) Your boss says he's going to buy your lunch and gives you $50 cash. You decide to go to McDonalds, the bill is $15. Do you give $35 back right away, wait until he asks, or say you spent it all?

2) Your kids are going out for lunch. You give them $50 cash. Do you expect change?

Neither of these are good corollaries because OP can't give the travel credit back to the company. It's not cash.

If, in either of the above scenarios, the restaurant gave me/my kid a coupon that had that name printed on it, was only valid for them, and required ID to redeem, I would expect the receiver to keep it to use instead of throwing it in the trash.

There is no give-back-to-company here. Either OP gets it or SW does. Why would your employer begrudge you a travel credit that they are not eligible to get??

 

[TLSnell1981]

I would say yes as long as your company is okay with it. It would be a credit in your name. The company would receive no refund for the price difference.