Travel makes an incredible gift — especially for your employees. And if you cover it with points and miles you earn from your business, it can be affordable even for small businesses.
And while there are plenty of aspirational places you can send your employees on vacation, your rewards can also help them in times of need — like sending someone on a last-minute trip to visit an ailing loved one (as I’ve done before).
Plus, there are even some ways to give the gift of travel that will earn you extra miles. Let’s dig in.
Redeeming rewards for employee travel
For the most part, it’s easy to redeem your points and miles to book travel for someone else. Airline miles are the easiest to work with, since virtually all airlines will allow you to book an award flight in someone else’s name. The major U.S. airlines also make it pretty easy to change or cancel award tickets without a fee. If a flight needs to be canceled, your miles are typically deposited back into your account almost immediately, with a refund of any fees within a few days.
Hotel loyalty programs make it trickier to book a room for someone else, but it’s usually still doable. World of Hyatt excels here, making it pretty straightforward to book a room in someone else’s name. You can also gift your free night certificates and suite upgrade awards to other World of Hyatt members.
Plus, Hyatt goes a step further than any other hotel chain for its top elite members. Globalist members can bestow their elite benefits on someone else for a stay, making them a “Guest of Honor.” This means your employees can enjoy some of your elite benefits, such as free breakfast, guaranteed late checkout and the potential for a room upgrade.
Other hotel chains aren’t quite as rewarding. Hilton Honors allows you to add a second name to your reservation when booking online, and in most cases, they should be able to check in without you there. But you cannot book solely in someone else’s name, and you cannot transfer free night certificates.
Marriott Bonvoy makes it more complicated. To book for someone else using points, you need to book over the phone and request a Gifted Award stay. You can only do this up to five times per year, and neither you nor the guest will earn any rewards on the stay. And despite this policy, there are numerous reports of phone agents saying Marriott doesn’t allow award bookings for someone else.
In all cases of hotel award bookings, if you need to change or cancel, the points you used will go right back into your account.
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The downside of booking airline tickets or hotel rooms for your employees is that you can end up stuck playing “travel agent” for them. You may need to gather their secure flight information for airline tickets, such as date of birth and their full name, as well as other items such as their Known Traveler number. You also may need to be involved in any changes or travel disruptions while they’re traveling.
If you don’t want to play travel agent for your employees, pooling or transferring rewards may be better options (where available).
Pooling miles
Some airlines allow you to create a shared pool of miles with other people. Just as with redeeming miles or points for employee travel from your own account, there are benefits and drawbacks to pooling, and each program has slightly different rules.
For example, United MileagePlus creates an actual pool of miles that friends or family members can contribute to. So you can invite an employee to your mileage pool and add miles for them to use. Once the miles are in the pool, they cannot be transferred back into your account. Also, you can only book United Airlines-operated flights from mileage pools, not partner redemptions.
While mileage pooling can save some hassle for you in the booking process, it does come with some strings attached. Be sure to carefully read your program’s terms and conditions before participating.
Transferring flexible rewards to employees
If you participate in one of the programs with a flexible currency, such as Chase Ultimate Rewards, American Express Membership Rewards or Capital One miles, you can transfer miles or points to employees in a few different ways. Each program works differently, so you’ll want to familiarize yourself with the rules. Generally speaking, these transactions are not reversible.
Among these programs, Chase is the most restrictive, technically only allowing transfers to a co-owner of the business or a member of your household. American Express won’t allow you to transfer Membership Rewards points to another individual, but it will let you transfer points to a partner program (such as Hilton Honors) in an employee’s name if they’re an authorized user on your account. Capital One makes it the easiest, allowing transfers to anyone and providing a straightforward online sharing tool.
Remember that due to the permanent nature of these transfers, you want to be really sure about your transfer. If the employee leaves your employment or simply changes their mind about a trip, the rewards will be stuck wherever you transferred them.
Earning points while giving travel
One last way to consider giving the gift of travel is with airline or hotel chain gift cards. Purchasing the gift cards will earn you some amount of points if you charge them to a rewards-earning credit card.
With some brands, such as Delta Air Lines, gift cards generally code as travel. So those transactions will earn bonus miles if charged on a Delta cobranded credit card. Plus, airlines occasionally run gift card promotions, like this one Delta is currently running, where you can earn up to an additional 4 SkyMiles per dollar spent.
Bottom line
As a longtime business owner, points and miles have given me incredible opportunities to reward employees with the gift of travel. Being able to send employees to visit ailing family members when they otherwise couldn’t afford to make the trip is a powerful way to show you care about an employee outside of the workplace.
Just make sure you do your research before deciding how to use points and miles for employee travel.
