Rewards miles from work.... wwyd?

[merekc]

If I understand the OP correctly, her credit card is used to accrue miles in addition to what she receives for her business travel. It is not clearly stated how her business travel is paid for and people are assuming she is using her own card. I read it that her credit card was used for additional purchases for miles and my assumption was that her business travel was paid for by the company. I'm not sure if clarification on this issue would change anyone's opinion.

I would get the information and give it to your boss. Depending on your relationship, you could jokingly say something along the lines of, "It's lucky I hadn't already used them. I didn't realize we are not able to keep our travel miles". You can also state in a nice way that you have a rewards card that earns you miles to the same account so the information you are giving him is only for the miles from your business travel. This will in a nice way point out that you are working to accrue these miles yourself. Again, depends on your relationship with him and you need to be careful with how you present it.

Everyone I know has always been able to keep their miles as a perk, however, times are different and businesses are looking for ways to stretch every dollar. Many "perks" are going away so that businesses (especially small ones) can keep their doors open. I would get the information and pass it on and let him make the decision. Look at it this way, much better than him coming in and asking everyone to take a pay cut or telling you to clean out your desk.

 

[pearlieq]

Oh heck no. No way. Not a chance.

Rewards accrued on your account for company travel are yours. The company is absolutely not entitled to them. If they want the rewards, they can book and pay for the travel on their own funds.

The company benefits from the convenience of you basically extending them credit when you book work travel on a personal card and seek reimbursement. You are personally liable for those charges if they don't pay you. How you choose to pay for it and what you do with any awards you earn are absolutely your business only.

That being said, what's your job situation like? Is they company owner a reasonable human being? Are you an excellent employee? Are your skills in demand in your area to the point where you could find a comparable job in a timely fashion?

If that is the case, politely refuse the transfer. I would agree with others that you should ask for a written policy on the matter for future trips.

If the situation is bad enough that you feel that you need to comply or risk losing your job, I would still only offer to transfer the base miles awarded for the business flights only. Any miles resulting from personal purchases or any bonus miles awarded because you used a particular credit card are yours. The company cannot claim those.

 

[melancholywings]

Are the other employees also expected to do this? It's a bit odd to come out 2 years after the fact and ask for those miles. I can see asking for all future miles, but to suddenly want them is odd. Also based on the rules posted by another person I'd confirm with the airline that it's in their rules and that doing this wouldn't cost you your account and doesn't violate their terms of service. If they say no then I'd talk to your boss and tell him what they've said. If they say it's ok then I'd just do to make your boss happy. But keep all paperwork - incase there's any other weirdness.

 

[rockundergirl]

I'm sorry I was unclear, Im not fronting money for the flights, I'm talking about the miles earned from taking them. Only the person whose name is on the ticket can get the miles

 

[mom2OandE]

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.

I would point this is exact thing out to him. In no way is it going to benefit him or your company to pay out this much to transfer miles. Present it in black and white and hopefully he will change his tune.

Personally I think it's awful. It would definatly put a sour taste in my mouth.

 

[MomToOne]

First, I am assuming your boss is also the owner of the company. If this isn't the case, then something REALLY fishy is going on and you should go higher up on the chain and report this.

Some companies do have a policy that all miles earned while traveling belong to the company, although they only expect them to be used to cover another ticket for your company travel should you earn enough - they do not expect you to transfer them to anyone else. Most companies think of miles as a perk an employee earns in exchange for the hastle company travel puts on them, and allow the person to do what they want with them.

And of course a policy is a policy only if it is in writing and distributed to everyone - which it sounds like that wasn't done in this case.

Have you worked for this company for a long time, and the owner is just now demanding the miles? I think it's unreasonable for him to expect you to transfer past miles and if he wants to have this as the policy, it should be going forward only. So before I'd transfer the miles, I'd ask him how he expects to compensate you for the extra hastle travel puts into your life now!

 

[Disneybuckeye]

My father travelled a ton for work (weeks at a time in Europe, Africa, and Asia) and he did not get to keep his miles. It does happen. In this case I think it is certainly not worth loosing your job over. I would contact Continental and find out exactly what you need to do to transfer and how the cost needs to be paid. I would present the cost and the process to the boss and find out how he wishes to pay for this. Do not pay for the transfer out of your own funds. I think once he sees the cost involved he will probably let it drop. Is your company struggling financially? Sounds like a way to save some cash.

 

[rockundergirl]

My father travelled a ton for work (weeks at a time in Europe, Africa, and Asia) and he did not get to keep his miles. It does happen. In this case I think it is certainly not worth loosing your job over. I would contact Continental and find out exactly what you need to do to transfer and how the cost needs to be paid. I would present the cost and the process to the boss and find out how he wishes to pay for this. Do not pay for the transfer out of your own funds. I think once he sees the cost involved he will probably let it drop. Is your company struggling financially? Sounds like a way to save some cash.

The company is doing very very well. We just hired people. I started 2 years ago it was 5 of us,, now we are looking to hire the 15th...
I guess its silly thing to worry about.. some air miles.. i just hate the "I'm getting taken advantage of" feeling im getting from this.

 

[kim929]

If I understand this, a corporation is not allowed to earn miles... so even though they are paying for the flight, the mile program is under your name, an individual, so according to the rules of the program, he isn't eligible to earn the miles.
Sounds like he is trying to get around it by taking them from your personal account. Or, is it a continential credit card that is under your name, he gives you cash or check to pay for your ticket and you use your personal credit card to purchase the ticket. either way seems to me the miles should be yours even if he is paying

 

[bumbershoot]

My father travelled a ton for work (weeks at a time in Europe, Africa, and Asia) and he did not get to keep his miles. It does happen.

If that were to happen with hubby, he would very likely unenroll from all mileage programs entirely. If he can't get a tiny bonus from all the time on the flights (and putting himself in a bit of extra danger with each flight!), NO ONE is going to get that bonus.

 

[PRmamiDEdos]

I'd have to check the Employee Handbook and see if he's within his right to ask for your miles. You flew, you earned them. I would give him anything from this point forward as long as the trip was charged directly to a company card.

 

[bookgirl]

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?

Nope, but I have heard that if you use rewards earned through work related expenses, you are supposed to declare them as 'income'. However I totally use my rewards card to purchase stuff for work that I am reinbursed for. But it's not airline miles.

I would not put in for any flight rewards on business trips.

 

[pintamino]

i just hate the "I'm getting taken advantage of" feeling im getting from this.

Gut feelings are there for a reason -- you *are* being taken advantage of.

If the company is small and you've been with them for so long, could you talk to the boss about it and explain that this wasn't told to you ahead of time, etc?

You could also email Delta and see what they say, if this would be considered going against their regulations, etc -- be sure not to leave out ANY of the details...

I'm sorry you've been put in this situation.

 

[PrincessDadx2]

Nope, but I have heard that if you use rewards earned through work related expenses, you are supposed to declare them as 'income'. However I totally use my rewards card to purchase stuff for work that I am reinbursed for. But it's not airline miles.

I would not put in for any flight rewards on business trips.

No, it is not "income" it is a discount of the price and has been tried in tax court, just like "cash back" rewards.

As someone who has travelled a lot, what he is doing is being a cheap ba#$ard. If he has sufficient volume then he can negotiate his own discount with the airline. As others have pointed out it is against the program rules for anyone but the traveller to earn the miles. They can be transferred in some programs, but the fee from Continental makes that a wash/loss.

Personally I would not do it and explain why, but I have employment security and am not particularly concerned about any specific job.

 

[robinb]

I just have to chime in and say that this really STINKS. My DH travels on business and his miles (airline & hotel) are my reward for being a single mom 4-5 days a week.

Sadly, I think the boss has you over the barrel. Right or wrong, he asked you to do it. I wouldn't lose my job over this but it would put a serious dent in my happy-worker-bee attitude. I think the best bet is to add up all the work-related miles and show the boss how much it will cost to transfer them to him. You might also want to include a mileage chart so the boss can see how much his "free" ticket will really cost him.

 

[Gigi22]

It is crummy to change the rules after two years. But, if this guy owns the company, he gets to make pretty well whatever dumba** rules he wants. Make sure he pays to convert the miles. Then, 'forget' to tell the airline your collector number when you on fly on business in future.

 

[Donnainnj]

To me this seems like such bad business. From what I remember miles are worth approx. $.02 each so the value he is getting out of each would be .5 cents each after the fee is considered. If this is for the business it seems it would make much more sense if he had you use the "company" miles for any company trips you could get a frequent flyer ticket for. And of course that should only be done if that is company policy, and that was explained to you/or in the handbook. I have the strange feeling your boss may be going on a personal trip with these miles.
Donna

 

[SandrA9810]

Doesn't seem economical to do the transfer.

Tell him to open up a rewards card and purchase the flights. How does he know which credit card you are using for your flights?? I don't think I'd let the boss know that kind of personal information, he's writing a check to you not the CC for reimbursement.

And for future trips, I'd hold off on using a reward card till he writes a policy.

 

[hambirg]

Well, I did some looking around and found this:

http://www.gao.gov/special.pubs/ffm.pdf

To highlight some points. . .

First, the airlines-- which regard frequent flyer miles as belonging to the individual traveler, not the organization that pays for the travel--are generally unwilling to create separate official and personal frequent flyer accounts for individual travelers.

So basically, it needed to be in your handbook. The employer is responsible for tracking the miles they claim as theirs. The airlines consider them yours, and have made policies making it difficult to transfer them. You do not have to tell your employer anything about your personal frequent flier account at this point. If he wants to keep them from now on, he will have to be responsible for the administrative task of tracking them, and the cost of transferring them. (and you don't have to earn them ) He is not entitled to go retroactive for 2yrs. when there was no policy in place.

Seriously, tell him you already spent them. He's being a jacka*ss and should have better business sense than that. He doesn't have any recourse now. If he wants to collect them from now on, fine. Simply don't claim them for business travel.

 

[CherylA]

The company is doing very very well. We just hired people. I started 2 years ago it was 5 of us,, now we are looking to hire the 15th...
I guess its silly thing to worry about.. some air miles.. i just hate the "I'm getting taken advantage of" feeling im getting from this.

I wouldn't feel too good about this either, it's weird. But I have to say that I agree with the previous posters who said to get the exact cost to transfer the miles that would belong to him and present it to him. I also suggest getting a check for that amount from him BEFORE you make the transfer or not only will you be loosing your miles but you're be paying a fee to do it! I honestly don't think he'll ever give you that check since it ends up costing so much.