[Slartie]

The fact that you were apparently able to do what you did is a perfect indicator for the problem behind that "sales boost": it is a straw fire. And a very expensive one.

How fast will you be gone once the nice rewards give way to price increases necessary to reach a sustainable business covering expenses, let alone profitability?

[lozaning]

I wont switch. 80% of my ubers get expensed. Keep me fat and happy with rewards, and I'll keep expensing it regardless of the cost, which doesnt really effect me, only our controller.

[i_am_nomad]

So now Uber's competitors just have to market to your controller, which is in fact easier than marketing to everyone at your company.

[GCA10]

Harder than it seems. AmericanExpress had outsized market share in the corporate travel market for about 30 years, even though it never struck me as a superior product to Visa-based cards.

Not sure who they hypnotized to establish that edge, but it became strangely durable.

[gamblor956]

For the longest time, American Express offered companies the best control over how corporate cards were used, and the best integration to financial software like Oracle/SAP/Concur.

[Pyxl101]

It always seemed very strange to me that it's legal for company-expensed credit card purchases to generate individual, personal rewards for the card holders. (And these awards aren't even taxed?) Something feels underhanded about it, though I can't put my finger on it.

[dragonwriter]

The theory of why normal credit card rewards aren't taxable is that they are a discount. OTOH, if it's a corporate expensed card or purchase, but the discount goes to the employee, it seems that either:

(1) the “reimbursement” for the full cost isn't all bona-fide reimbursement, since you are getting reimbursement for more than you paid after the discount, and therefore should be taxed like any other compensation from your employer, or

(2) The rewards you get in that case simply aren't discounts, and should be taxed as normal, but not employment compensation, income.

(These differ, because #1 has payroll tax implications that #2 does not, as well as the income tax implications.)

The fact that neither of these send to happen is either a legal loophole with no strong theory or just an administrative failure.

[ghaff]

It’s mostly (with some exemptions) formal policy from the IRS. I suspect the real justification is that a lot of these things are hard to value, the numbers are small in the scheme of things, and compliance would be very low. It actually makes a lot of sense not to put a rule in the books everyone would ignore.

[ghaff]

See also airline and hotel reward programs, etc. Basically it stays below the level where it starts to look like a kickback and it’s not totally unreasonable for heavy business travelers to get some perks in exchange for lots of time away from home.

[jacques_chester]

Originally this was a trusteeship problem: the card-holders were the named beneficiaries of points schemes, but the cards belonged to the company.

So there's a pile of points growing, which must be accounted for in the balance sheet, but which are essentially worthless to the company. And being a trustee is a legal hassle nobody wants to deal with if they can avoid it.

So the companies just hand those points and rewards over to the employee contractually, which dissolves the trust (since the employee now beneficially owns and legally owns the points). Much easier. And you can spin it as benevolent generosity to boot.

(Of course, I am not a lawyer.)

[lozaning]

I can see the add now "Save 4% on negligible travel costs for the low low price of pissing off your traveling employees who are generating million in revenue"

It's not worth our controllers time to worry about something so insignificant.

[ecshafer]

Would anyone really care that much. If my company told me to use Lyft over uber or reversed it wouldn't cause any duress. I just need to get from the airport and back or whatever, its hard to have a preference here.

[lozaning]

Without status everything is fungible. That changes drastically as your status on any given provider goes up.

Making me take anything but United means no business class upgrade, making me take anything but Uber means im waiting way longer to be picked up from anywhere, making me not stay at SPG means no room upgrade or check-in/checkout perks.

[mlthoughts2018]

You don’t seem to understand that ride hailing service with Lyft is better quality than Uber. Nicer drivers, shorter wait times, better prices, cleaner cars, more premium experience and you get to associate with a company that’s not tacitly defending rapists or sanctioning disturbing violations of consumer privacy.

[ghaff]

I mostly use Lyft and don’t really see a big difference with Uber. But I agree with your basic point. Status tends to be more valuable to me than any points. The flip side of that is it’s not worth unnatural acts to stay at a particular hotel chain if it’s net more comfortable and convenient to book elsewhere.

[ghaff]

And at most companies the employees will just keep finding reasons to use their preferred service so long as any price disparity isn’t too great.