My company is paying for my relocation, 30 days in a hotel plus meals plus car rental plus flight. How can I maximize this in terms of airlines or hotel points ? For example, I have a United credit card and Amex credit card and with my Amex card I get 1% cashback.
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A lot of companies require that flights, and sometimes hotels, are booked through their travel departments. Is that going to be the case here?– DJClayworthSep 6, 2017 at 19:15
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1Is this a question about travel or greed? Your company is paying, isn't that enough?– Weather VaneSep 6, 2017 at 19:31
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4@WeatherVane What are you talking about? If you have the opportunity to earn points, use it. Some things would be unethical, such as purposely choosing an unnecessarily costly flight or hotel to earn more points, but as long as the company's money is used wisely first and foremost, there's nothing wrong with maximizing your points.– Zach LiptonSep 6, 2017 at 19:43
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@DJClayworth I can book through whatever I want, however I want. Of course maximum restrictions apply but they are pretty high.– bissiSep 6, 2017 at 19:56
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@bissi yes, some people need to make money in any way they can grab it, but as my grandmother used to say, it still won't be enough.– Weather VaneSep 6, 2017 at 21:46
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1 Answer
At the very least you need to have a Frequent Flyer account with the airline you would be flying with. That allows you go get points regardless of who pays.
Now, if you have the choice between company paying directly and you paying and getting reimbursed than take the latter. This lets you get points for the purchase, so you would have double points.
Cashback are not point. Depending on you flying habits this may be more valuable but for high-value rewards, you can get better than 1% value. That only works if you pay and they reimburse you. You will not get a cashback either.
For the hotel, you can follow the same advice, getting an account with the hotel chain (or parent one) will allow you to collect points for your stay. Some airlines though have an agreement with certain chains of hotels and you can get airline points for your hotel chain.
Having both the flight and hotel add points to the same account will allow you to reach rewards faster. It will also avoid you having to watch more accounts for expiry, unless of course one of those is with an airline or hotel chain whose points do not expire.
Repeat above advice for cars. It is very common for car rental companies to be able to credit points into a frequent flyer account. Choose the car rental company according to which one has can credit points into the frequent flyer program of your choice.
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Yes I will book through my own, too be reimbursed later. I did not understand your paragraph about cashback. And do you suggest booking through Hotels.com or Orbitz (I have Platinum with both) or directly with a hotel chain (I have zero points on any hotel chain)? I never understand how Hilton or IHG or all these hotel points are valuable. I will fly with the airline I have a Status on.– bissiSep 6, 2017 at 20:00
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1@bissi - OK. Paying your own will maximize and allow you to double-dip, meaning you will get the points for the flight plus for the purchase of the said flight, assuming you have a credit-card with the same airline program. The value of point differs depending what you redeem on. See this answer of mine for discussion on the subject. That is why we cannot say if choosing cashback over points is better. No points on hotel is OK but you can find a hotel chain that is partner with your airline, to get them to credit points in your status program– ItaiSep 6, 2017 at 20:22
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@bissi (cont'd) - Same goes for the car rental. If you can, it is better than opening new accounts. It does not matter if you book from the aggregator or not but using the airline site often gives you more options on that particular airline. Sometimes there are different prices or schedules that accrue more points.– ItaiSep 6, 2017 at 20:24