Rewards miles from work.... wwyd?

[rockundergirl]

So I work for small company, but i do a fair amount of travel. I have been here two years.
Today my boss( the company owner) walks into my office and tells me I have to transfer all of my flight miles to his account from my continental one rewards account. I thought he was joking.. and well no .. no he wasn't. This travel was company paid... but because i travel for work anyway, I have a chase debit continental card that I have used to earn many miles, and I have taken 4 personal flights that I have used continental flights so that I can get status/miles on continental one-pass.

I have many friends that travel for work, I have never heard of having to give your boss your miles before...
As of right now I have told him that I will give him the miles earned from work flights but that's it.
This is all so awkward to me... what would you do ? Have you ever heard of anything like this before?

 

[Cindyrellablue]

I honestly thought that these points couldn't be transferred to anyone else.

Unfortunately, if they are, it would put you in a bad light if you didn't do the transfer. I always figured the points were a bonus for the time spent away from home.

 

[winesis]

Continental charges 1.5 cents per mile to transfer them. I would contact the airlines and get all the details, then present your boss the opportunity to pay for the transfer if he is insisting.

Here is info directly from the OnePass site

"You can have only one OnePass account, which is established under your full first and last name (no initials, please). Only you may accrue mileage in your account. You may not combine mileage between your account and other OnePass accounts, including those of relatives. Transfers are allowed though a OnePass program called MilePass.

Corporations and/or other entities may not enroll as OnePass members.

So that we can continue to maintain the integrity of the OnePass program, Continental Airlines will investigate all accounts that are believed to violate the OnePass program rules."

 

[worm761]

I would suggest you tell him that he needs to pay for the flights on his credit card from now on if he wants the miles. Or is this a company card?

 

[rockundergirl]

Continental charges 1.5 cents per mile to transfer them. I would contact the airlines and get all the details, then present your boss the opportunity to pay for the transfer if he is insisting.

He already told me he would give me what ever the cost was to transfer it. sigh...

 

[uk_wildcat]

Have you only purchased travel on this credit card, or other personal things as well? I don't see how you could determine how many miles to transfer. Also, I didn't think you could transfer them either without paying a fee. I wanted to use some of my dh's Airtran miles and decided not to because it would cost more to transfer the points than to just pay for the ticket.

I know when my dh was military, they would not allow members to accumulate points for travel when it was paid for by the government, but that is the military for you.

 

[rockundergirl]

Have you only purchased travel on this credit card, or other personal things as well? I don't see how you could determine how many miles to transfer. Also, I didn't think you could transfer them either without paying a fee. I wanted to use some of my dh's Airtran miles and decided not to because it would cost more to transfer the points than to just pay for the ticket.

I know when my dh was military, they would not allow members to accumulate points for travel when it was paid for by the government, but that is the military for you.

You can see what miles came from what flight. So i can tell how much was from work travel and how much was from my personal stuff. The one pass debit card i used to pay for everything.

 

[msmayor]

Its pretty simple...whether you initially paid for the flights or not, if the company paid for the plane tickets then the company 'owns' the miles. Some companies don't ask for them, but others want them as a way to cut travel costs since reward tickets can be used for business trips.

Bear in mind that in some roundabout technical way, these miles could be considered a 'taxable benefit' to you since you gained them through work activities...would you want to pay all payroll and income tax on them?

 

[rockundergirl]

Its pretty simple...whether you initially paid for the flights or not, if the company paid for the plane tickets then the company 'owns' the miles. Some companies don't ask for them, but others want them as a way to cut travel costs since reward tickets can be used for business trips.

Bear in mind that in some roundabout technical way, these miles could be considered a 'taxable benefit' to you since you gained them through work activities...would you want to pay all payroll and income tax on them?

This may be true , and like I said I'm giving him the rewards earned through work travel, but this should have been told to me when I started... What if i never even signed up for the program? What if I had already used them on something else? I would have liked to know this so that i could have used another rewards program for my personal purchases.

 

[drnriordan]

If some of your miles are for personal travel or rewards that you've accured for personal expenses, then be clear with him that you intend to hold onto that (obviously explaining why), and I wouldn't think he would have a problem with that. Make arrangements to transfer the rest (at his cost). Does it feel a bit slimey on his part? Yep, sure does from where I stand. Is it something you want to rock the boat on (potentially impacting your job, future raises/bonus, etc.)? Nope, not IMHO.

By the way, I work for a large corporation and any miles I accrue for travel, which I do frequently, I get to keep. It's a nice perk, but I consider it that, a perk.

 

[hoosiergirl7]

I know when my dh was military, they would not allow members to accumulate points for travel when it was paid for by the government, but that is the military for you.

This has changed. They are now allowed to do it. Dh started doing it at least 6 or 7 years ago. I don't remember how long ago they changed it but I know we were stationed in CA and he was flying to DC, Atlanta & a few other places for TDY's.

To the OP, figure out what miles were earned for work flights and let him pay for the transfer. After that I would tell him if he wants you to travel for work then he needs to use his CC to pay for the trips and earn the miles. You will no longer waste time playing the miles transfer game. I also think he should've been up front about it from the beginning that you were not allowed to earn miles for business travel. Personally, I think he's being a greedy jerk in wanting these miles for himself. He already gets to write off your travel as a business expense. There are so many businesses that allow their employees to earn miles for their work trips.

 

[OrangeCountyCommuter]

I would have lied and told him I used them.....

I have heard of this but it's rare.

I agree that he is ONLY entitled to the miles EARNED on FLIGHTS the company paid for.

 

[pfeifferdcat]

My last company had a travel policy that I believe stated that all miles earned were yours, as long as you purchased the cheapest flight, regardless if you got miles.
Does your company have a travel policy? Are you the only one that travels that he is asking for the miles?
I'm bitter about stuff like that, so I'd probably stop using Continental to travel so that no miles were earned at all.

 

[TaraPA]

Is he doing it because the company is telling him to as procedure, or does he want them for himself? Assuming a flight is 40,000 miles/points - he'd have to pay $600 to transfer the points (1.5 cents per mile is the going rate to transfer miles) - it might be cheaper to just buy a ticket outright. Even if he got as super saver ticket for 25,000 points, it would cost $375 for the point transfer. So if he's doing this for personal reasons, once he sees how much it is to transfer, he may change his tune.

 

[mrsklamc]

Did he say why he's doing this?

 

[pintamino]

I would politely refuse (sounds like it violates continental's terms of use -- no corporate accounts, mainly -- miles are yours based on what you flew butt-in-seat) and say that if he would like you to do this in the future, it needs to be put in writing. If it wasn't spelled out at the beginning, he has no backing to demand you suddenly transfer all your miles.

To the military PP -- the Army, at least, has changed. You can keep your miles (and any hotel points, etc). I worked in a directorate that had a LOT of TDY and it was actual a popular discussion topic among our engineers...

 

[hambirg]

I would politely refuse (sounds like it violates continental's terms of use -- no corporate accounts, mainly -- miles are yours based on what you flew butt-in-seat) and say that if he would like you to do this in the future, it needs to be put in writing. If it wasn't spelled out at the beginning, he has no backing to demand you suddenly transfer all your miles.

To the military PP -- the Army, at least, has changed. You can keep your miles (and any hotel points, etc). I worked in a directorate that had a LOT of TDY and it was actual a popular discussion topic among our engineers...

I agree with this. If the company would like to accrue miles than travel needs to be charged directly on a company card. And it sounds like that isn't even possible with Continental's reward program. For example, sometimes I have to stay over night in a hotel for my job. The company usually arranges for that on the company credit card, but there have been times where that didn't work out because of logistics. So I, or any other employee, charges the room and we get reimbursed from the company when we submit the receipt. Now if I use some kind of rewards card, say my Disney Visa, the company doesn't get my rewards. That doesn't make any sense. You would just be able to stop participating in the rewards program and the company wouldn't be entitled to any, so how can they possibly claim them? I would call Continental and ask. It is their program and it sounds like they set it up a certain way to avoid these kinds of issues (ie. no corp. accts.). And if you were to try and transfer them, whom do you transfer them too?? They can't go to the company that paid for the flight. . .to him individually? Noooo.

Tell him you already donated them to Make-a-Wish.

 

[DisneyMissy318]

I would ask him where he's planning to go?! I would show write to the CS of the airline - and get the response - then give it to your boss - showing him it's not the way things are done.

 

[DisneyAndRedSox]

If there is no company policy in the Employee Handbook (if there is even a handbook) I would say no. If they want to make a policy going forward then fine, but if there is no company policy what is in your account is yours.

My husband travels every week Monday-Thursday and he gets to keep his air/hotel/car points, it is a perk for being away from his family 4 days a week!

 

[rockundergirl]

Is he doing it because the company is telling him to as procedure, or does he want them for himself? Assuming a flight is 40,000 miles/points - he'd have to pay $600 to transfer the points (1.5 cents per mile is the going rate to transfer miles) - it might be cheaper to just buy a ticket outright. Even if he got as super saver ticket for 25,000 points, it would cost $375 for the point transfer. So if he's doing this for personal reasons, once he sees how much it is to transfer, he may change his tune.

He owns the company ,, thr is only 14 people that work at the company