In big companies, flight reservations are nearly always centralised .. ie an internal travel department, or outsourced to a corporate travel agent. They are the ones that make the bookings .. so the employees aren't wasting their time searching for flights, given travel agents have far more efficient tools to do so. Such large companies have well defined travel policies, and the "loopholes" you described above simply won't be an option. When I say "big companies", I mean companies with thousands of employees travelling throughout the year, each with perhaps 3 different FF accounts (different airlines). So, yes, it will be different in small companies, and yes, I'm sure someone here can say "my brother works in a big company and it doesn't work like that ..." .. but still, I think it's generally accurate for large European and US companies. Maybe not in Australia .. you know better than me.