Ask Randy

Randy Petersen answers reader questions about how to maximize travel-related loyalty programs.

Dear Randy,
I am finding more and more that these loyalty programs aren’t worth a flip. Especially at the hotels. I work for a major U.S. air express transportation corporation. While our company has contracts with sometimes deeper discounted hotel rooms all over, the hotels won’t generally give us any hotel points or airline miles. Their common theme answer is, “Your company is paying for your room, sir.” I ask you in great frustration: Why should it matter or make any sense exactly who pays for my room?

Sorry to hear about your troubles. I think I see what the problem might be. When you say that the program won’t give you points or miles very often, my guess is that it is based on the way your travel was booked. When you note that the front desk replies, “Your company is paying for your room, sir,” that indicates you might be on Master Billing or Direct Billing. In these two situations, it is very common for individual travelers not to receive points or miles based on their stay. And while I can’t speak for the hotel programs themselves, I think this might be the reasoning: The company is making the travel decision, and companies can’t be members of hotel loyalty programs.

There is one other possibility, which is that hotel programs often exclude “industry rates” from qualifying for points or miles. It just might be that since you work for a major air express corporation, your company has a contract with the hotel group for an “industry rate,” and thus your stays are exempt from the program.

You might be asking: If these programs are based on revenue spent anyway, what’s the deal? Low rates just mean you’ve got to be more of a frequent guest to get the same rewards as other, higher-paying members.

I can understand that, but if the hotel is already giving a steep discount to some corporations so that those corporations can save money, it makes little sense to then add back in the cost of rewards, something corporate accounts don’t share in.

Ask Randy.

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RANDY PETERSEN is publisher of Inside Flyer magazine and is president of Frequent Flyer Services. Email Randy at editor@executivetravelmag.com.