from Patrick McKenzie | by Patrick McKenzie

TripActions, an employee travel platform, has a really, really interesting feature where you can offer employees an Amazon gift card for money saved versus a travel budget.

This is an interesting adaptation against the way airlines and hotels typically capture business traveller dollars, where they hope to get you on loyalty programs and then select them due to privately-received benefits (points against personal travel) rather than strict merit.

This is widely accepted as the way things are done in the professional class, and no one wants to e.g. audit employees to make sure their $210 stay at Holiday Inn was optimal for the business.

But what businesses would like to avoid is you spending hundreds or thousands extra to receive points you subjectively value at $20. Which they can now do by saying “Look, we will *pay you directly* to make better decisions here. You retain flexibility though.”