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Comment by triangleman | Hacker News Reader

So, Scott originally accumulated all those miles working for ThinkProgress? How does that work? You buy the flights and expense them back to the company, pocketing the miles?

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Frequent flyer miles (and hotel points) are a massive perk for traveling employees. Most consultants I know finance annual vacations completely on points. Every once in a while, a big company will try to pocket the points for themselves, usually to great outcry--because it's akin to cutting benefits.

The corporate thinking is: "Points are a reward for buying travel. And I'm the one footing the bill." The employee thinking is: "Points are a reward for traveling. And I'm the one on the damn plane."

Personal perks on a corporate card are similar, and again, do the math of how many points you get by channeling $60-100k/yr worth of corporate travel expenses through a credit card.

don't most frequent flyer programs require the name on the ticket to match the rewards account? E.g. I can't buy my sister a flight, she flies it, and I get points for it.

That hasn't been my experience. I buy my wife Southwest flights with my points all the time. It's been a while since I flew United, but I don't recall it being an issue there, either.

I don't think that what OP is saying. He's saying you can't pay cash for your wife's flight and have those mileage points sent to your account.

In Sweden, if you accumulate points while travelling on business but use them for personal flights, the tax department wants you to pay tax on the value of the benefit (likely: how much you would have paid without points). How they can know about it is another matter.

I think at least the larger employers will ask that you keep separate work and private frequent flyer accounts for that purpose, and use your work points only for work flights.

Oh how I miss the Swedish tax system...

Yes, it's completely 100% standard practice as other replies already mentioned. What's funny is that the tone of your question suggests he's doing something fraudulent. If you were the company auditor or a government prosecutor, and you didn't know about the standard practice or simply wanted to be a jerk, you could absolutely make a case for fraud. If you were fired or prosecuted for keeping the miles, what would be your counterargument? Everyone else was doing it? That doesn't work for speeding tickets. This is an example of how arbitrary laws can be.

Yes, that is how it works at most companies AFAIK.

And the IRS is totally OK with it, since 2002: https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-drop/a-02-18.pdf

Most companies I have worked for/heard about have the option of 1) using a company card with the company keeping the perks, 2) using your own card and getting reimbursed or, less often, 3) using a company card that is in our name, paid by the company, with all perks going to you. I've seen 3 most often with Diner's Club cards that cover only meals and 2 most often with travel, if you opt for it. I have seen a surprising number of people who do not want to deal with another bill though, and opt for 1, leaving all the perks with the company. I never understood that, but I enjoy any perks I can get.

Yes. This happens in pretty much every company, even if the company has a corporate card. Employees rather buy the tickets themselves and expense the costs.

Well, if you have a corporate American Express card, you can pay $75/yr and you accumulate all the points on your corporate card for yourself.

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