Conference 7.286::digital

    What a ridiculous idea. I presume next they'll be saying that all
    salesreps should give up their DECATHLON awards so that they will
    be shared by all. And how about every employee in the company being
    paid equally...
    
    I think people that travel a lot deserve their frequent flight bonuses,
    it's just one of the perks of the job. Anyway to most people who
    have to travel it is a chore not a privilege.
    
    Dave

    Only if you are silly enough to give Travel Services your frequent
    flyer numbers....
    
    there's also some discussion, although dated, on this issue in
    DELNI::ON_THE_ROAD, the business travel conference.

    re: .2 (Ithink)
    
    What do yo mean it is already happening with travel services?  Do
    yo mean if you get your tickets thru travel services that somehow
    they claim your mileage bonus?

    	Sort of a side note here. If you look at the new w2 form it
    has a section "non cash prizes & awards". This means that if you
    get a trip, plaque, or dinner and it gets reported properly you
    will have to pay tax on the value of this as if it were income.
    	I don't think I'd turn down a nice trip to some exoctic spot
    but I doubt it I will be keeping any award that I don't want to
    pay taxes on.

    re: .5
    
    The story is:(I called corporate to find out) Any award that an
    employee gets for *service* (years with the company) is not taxed.
    Also,DEC gives employees who get those trips to nice places,a tax
    adder which means they pay the taxes...nice,huh?

    DEC can't claim your frequent flyer bonuses - the airlines won't
    let them.  You can only get the bonus by sending in the form that
    is sent directly to you.
    				Steve

    Since AMEX took over flight bookings, I had asked about f.f. numbers.
    
    AMEX said that they will automatically post your f.f. number to
    all bookings for you. There will be no "loss" of f.f. miles at all.
    It is a standard service that they provide and has nothing to do
    with DEC.
    
    Since they told me this, I have called my airlines after receving
    my tickets to make sure that the f.f. numbers were posted to the
    bookings, and they were.

    Let me offer the thought that frequent flyer bonus' should absolutely
    be turned back into the company.  After all, they paid for the ticket.
    Surely no one believes that they are "free".  The same applies to
    the relatively newer "frequent sleeper" bonus' primarily being hyped
    by Marriot and their ilk.  
    
    Secondarily, if the company is not interested in the hassle of
    administrating this, then the benefit should definitely be taxed
    as income.  I'm sorry, but I just saw too much mis-use of this system
    by Digital employees during my brief, painful sojourn with the
    ill-fated Target Sales Force.  I personally know of several people
    wh consistently flew more expensive flights to get the points, and
    also who stayed in expensive hotels for the same reason.  I actual
    saw a guy take a totally unneeded late night flight to Pittsburg
    just to be able to stay in a hotal which offered the points.
    
    Of course, none of this was as bad as the Target Sales Force member
    who also owned a travel bureau and actively solicited people to
    let him make their flight arrangements for obvious conflict of interest
    reasons.

        If the corporation wishes me to surrender my frequent flyer
        bonuses, then all of my travel will be done during business
        hours from now on. I often do international travel for the
        company, and more often than not it is on the weekend, getting
        up at 4 AM to catch a plane and not hitting the hotel till
        10PM at night. There is a certain amount of fair give and take
        amongst those of us that travel a lot.
        
        q
        

    
    If employees of cost center YXX are flying inappropriate routes
    and staying in overly expensive hotels to accumulate frequent
    flier miles, the solution to that problem is to put heat on the
    cost center manager, involved financial people, and the employee
    to stop the abuse. 
    
    Taking frequent flier bonuses away from folks who suffer 
    significant personal inconvenience & strain (along with their
    families) is not an appropriate response to the abuses of the few.
    
       jc
    

    re las couple
    
    Agreed.
    
    If you want frequent flyer bonuses, then star spending 5-6 weeks
    on the road.
    
    /Pat

    I'm another of those who believe that the frequent 'anything' benefits
    belong with the employee.  I've spent many a night/weekend traveling
    on business for this company.  Since I'm a salaried employee, they
    think nothing of asking me to fly on my time to get to a trade show
    at 8:00 AM in Los Angeles on a Monday morning.  If they'd like to
    start paying me extra time (or comp time) for the time spent away,
    then fine.  Current company policy says that the company doesn't
    want the miles, and I think it should stay that way.
    
    
    
    As for people abusing the system.  Our whole group was once sent
    a memo about expenses and abuse of the system.  The memo said that
    some employees were taking advantage of the $20.00 minimum and thus
    not justifying their expenses.  In order to crack down on this,
    the manager said that receipts would be required for anything over
    $10.00 (not company policy).  To this, I responded that if he had
    a problem with "some people" then he should fix that problem and
    not make the others in the group suffer unnecessary hassle in dealing
    with the problem of the others.  Same goes here.  If there are people
    doing unnecessary travel, then fix that problem.  I and many others
    have never rented a more expensive car (we have specific discount
    arrangements with car rental people, who we must use), stayed in
    a more expensive hotel (again, discounts are arranged by the company)
    or flew a more expensive flight (in fact, I've spent some serious
    time in the Denver airport because I was REQUIRED to fly on Continental
    (the absolute pits) to get a cheaper fair)
    
    
    -bill

    re: .14
    
    You can't be required to fly CONTINENTAL.  Just add to your travel
    profile the words "NO CONTINENTAL".
    
    /s/ Jim Williams (whose profile contains those words.)

    Well, maybe not  required, but told that we needed a VP signiture
    to get a direct flight (which was the non-Continental flight that
    got us there in time)
    
    
    -bill

        Did you get the part about needing a VP signature in writing?
        I really doubt that the VP in question made that "policy".
        VPs generally don't want to be bothered with such trivia. 
        As long as you're not "breaking a rule" (going outside of the
        established guidelines, like asking for a business class ticket
        when a cheaper fare is available), you don't need signature
        approval from anyone any higher up than your manager, who has
        to sign the travel approval form for you to pick up the tickets.
        
        Tom