To set up a corporate travel rewards program, write its terms before you launch: who can earn, what counts, when rewards expire and what happens when someone leaves. Start with the currency you'll pay rewards in, because it comes with terms of its own. American Express can cancel its corporate rewards program "as long as we give you three months notice." Marriott can end Bonvoy with six months' notice.
Your terms shouldn't promise more than that currency lets you deliver. If the card program behind your rewards can close on three months' notice, a clause saying rewards never expire is a promise you may not be able to keep.
Below, we go through the clauses one at a time, with the decision behind each and wording you can borrow, then a fill-in template. How big the reward should be and how to set the benchmark are in our guide to rewarding employees for saving on business travel. Who owns the points and what the IRS has said are in our guide to corporate travel rewards compliance and tax. None of this is legal advice, so have counsel read your draft.
Start with the currency you'll pay rewards in
Every way of paying a reward except cash brings someone else's rules on expiry and notice. Find yours below and copy its limits into your terms.
| You pay rewards in | Whose rules apply | What those rules say | What your terms need to say |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cash, through payroll | Yours | You set expiry, notice and timing | Which payroll run a reward is paid in |
| Gift cards | The card issuer's | Whatever the issuer prints on the card and puts in its terms. The federal gift card rule, 12 CFR 1005.20, describes a "loyalty, award, or promotional gift card" as one that shows its purpose and "the expiration date for the underlying funds" on its front | When cards expire, and who replaces a lost one |
| Points in a corporate card program | The card issuer's | American Express can cancel on three months' notice. If the company leaves the program, it has 30 days to use its points (90 for New York companies) | Who can redeem, and what happens to the balance if the program closes |
| Miles or points from a travel platform | The platform's | Dyme closes an account with no sign-in, earning or spending for 24 months in a row, and its Miles are forfeited | That the platform's rules apply, with a link to them |
If you pay in gift cards, ask counsel how the federal gift card rule applies to yours, and put the date printed on them into your terms. Each currency also raises its own tax question, which our table of reward types and tax wording covers.
Eligibility: who can earn
Start with employees on your payroll who book business travel through your booking tool. Then settle these four cases in writing.
- Contractors. If you pay rewards through payroll, a contractor has no payroll line for them to land on.
- Bookings made for someone else. An assistant books, the executive travels. We'd give the reward to the traveler, since they're the one staying at the cheaper hotel.
- Guests the company pays for, such as candidates and clients. Leave them out.
- Trips booked outside your tool. The tool is where the comparable options are shown, so a trip booked elsewhere has nothing to measure the saving against.
Sample wording: "Employees on [Company] payroll who book business travel through [booking tool] can earn rewards. The reward goes to the traveler named on the booking, including when someone else books for them. Bookings for guests, candidates and contractors don't earn."
What earns a reward, and what doesn't
A reward pays for choosing a cheaper option on a comparable trip. The Federal Travel Regulation has a two-part test worth borrowing, though it's written for federal employees. 41 CFR 301-53.1 lets federal travelers keep promotional benefits "obtained under the same conditions as those offered to the general public and at no additional cost to the Government."
Your version might read: "A booking earns a reward when the option was offered to the traveler in [booking tool] and cost the company at least [minimum saving] less than the benchmark." Our guide to comparable options covers how to define comparable. The terms need to name what's excluded:
- Bookings that needed a policy exception.
- Trips canceled before travel. If a trip changes, the reward is worked out again on the final price.
- Personal nights added to a business trip. Only the business nights count.
- Group and event bookings, where one person picks the hotel for everyone.
Caps
A cap per trip protects you when a benchmark is wrong. If the city average is still inflated from last week's conference, every booking this week can look like a big saving. A cap per person per year keeps the budget predictable, but it stops rewarding your heaviest travelers partway through the year, and they're the ones whose booking habits matter most.
We'd start with a cap per trip and add an annual one only if finance needs a fixed number. Whichever you choose, the terms should say what happens at the cap: travelers keep booking under the same policy, and rewards pause until the next period.
Expiry: when unused rewards lapse
Where a reward is held decides who sets its expiry. While it waits in a company ledger to be paid, the rule is yours. Once it's in the traveler's own account, the currency's rule takes over.
Marriott's Bonvoy terms (updated October 2026) are one example: "If an Account has no Qualifying Activity for twenty-four (24) consecutive months, all accumulated Points, Awards, and other benefits will be forfeited and cannot be reinstated."
We'd skip an internal expiry date and pay rewards on a fixed schedule instead, such as the payroll run after the trip ends. Then the expiry clause is one line pointing to the currency's rule, and nobody loses a reward while it waits on your side.
When someone leaves the company
At the leaving date, each reward is in one of three states, and the terms should cover all three.
- Already paid into the traveler's account. Say it stays with them. Recovering a balance from a personal account would be hard and would sour the exit.
- Earned on a finished trip but not paid yet. We'd pay it, since the company already has the saving.
- Booked for a trip after the leaving date. That trip is usually canceled, and canceled trips don't earn.
Say separately what happens when someone is dismissed for misconduct, and link it to your disputes clause. This is the clause to have employment counsel read.
Disputes, corrections and clawback
Big loyalty programs give themselves wide room to fix mistakes. Marriott may "correct, adjust, cancel, or reconcile" points "including where a benefit was issued in error, the Member was not eligible, or fraudulent activity is suspected." The American Express corporate rewards terms (updated July 2026) say disputes about eligibility, earning or using points "will be resolved solely by American Express."
Your terms need four things:
- A window for raising a missing reward. Marriott gives members one year to claim missing credit. A shorter window suits a program that pays monthly.
- The role that decides a dispute. Name a role outside the traveler's reporting line, such as the travel manager.
- The right to reverse a reward issued in error, or one on a trip that was later canceled or refunded.
- What counts as misuse, such as canceling and rebooking to manufacture a saving, and that it's handled under your expense policy.
If a paid reward has to be recovered, take it from future rewards first. Anything that touches pay goes to counsel.
Changing or ending the program
Both programs above reserve the right to change almost anything. American Express lists changing eligibility, changing how many points are earned and imposing "caps and/or fees on earning and/or using points." Marriott says its changes take effect "when posted on Marriott Channels or otherwise communicated by the Company." For closing a program entirely, they give three months' and six months' notice.
Your terms should give a notice period for any change that reduces rewards, honor rewards already earned, and let trips booked before a change earn under the old terms. Check the notice period against your currency. If the card program behind your rewards gives you three months, promising employees six means you need another way to pay them for the gap.
Data and privacy
The program needs the traveler's name, the trip price, the benchmark and the reward. Decide who sees what before launch. Finance needs totals. A manager who can see each person's rewards will be tempted to compare them, so say plainly whether managers get that view.
Also say how long reward records are kept, and keep them for the same period as your expense records so the two can be checked against each other. If rewards can be spent on personal travel, say whether the company can see those trips.
How to communicate the terms
Publish the full terms where your travel policy lives, and add a one-page summary written for travelers. Give the terms a version number and an effective date, and keep a short change log at the bottom so people can see what changed and when.
Put the reward where the choice is made, in the booking tool next to the cheaper option. Tell travelers what a cheaper booking can cost them in hotel points, since some booking channels don't earn points. For the launch message itself, our sample travel benefit announcement is a starting point.
Fill-in template for your program terms
Copy this into a document, fill in the brackets and send it to counsel and finance together.
| Clause | Fill in |
|---|---|
| Purpose | [Company] rewards travelers who choose a lower-cost option on a comparable business trip. |
| Currency | Rewards are paid in [cash / gift cards / named points or miles]. The rules of [currency provider], at [link], apply once a reward is paid. |
| Eligibility | [Employees on payroll] booking through [tool]. The reward goes to the traveler named on the booking. Not eligible: [guests, candidates, contractors]. |
| What earns | An option offered in [tool] that cost at least [$ and %] less than the benchmark, as defined in [policy section]. |
| What doesn't earn | Policy exceptions, canceled trips, personal nights, group and event bookings, [other]. |
| Caps | [Amount] per trip. [Optional: amount per person per year.] At the cap, rewards pause until [date]. |
| Payment and expiry | Paid [in the payroll run after the trip ends / within X days]. Expiry follows the rules in the Currency clause. |
| Leavers | Paid rewards stay with the employee. Earned, unpaid rewards are [paid / forfeited]. Dismissal for misconduct: [see Disputes]. |
| Disputes | Raise a missing reward within [X days] with [role]. [Role] decides. [Company] may reverse rewards issued in error or on canceled or refunded trips. Misuse is handled under [expense policy]. |
| Changes and ending | [X days'] notice of changes that reduce rewards. Earned rewards are honored. Trips booked before a change earn under the old terms. |
| Data | Uses traveler name, trip price, benchmark and reward. [Finance / managers] can see [totals / per-person rewards]. Records kept for [period]. |
| Version | Version [X], effective [date]. Change log below. |
Where Dyme fits
On Dyme for Business, Smart Offers covers the earning clause: a traveler who picks a similar, lower-cost hotel or flight earns bonus Dyme Miles in their personal account. Admins switch it on separately for hotels and flights, and can change the minimum saving and the share of each saving that goes to the traveler (20% by default, up to 50%).
Because the Miles go to the traveler's own account, your expiry clause can be a link to our Dyme Miles page, which has the 24-month rule from the table above. Signing in once every 24 months keeps an account open.
Nobody at the company, admins included, can see an employee's personal trips on Dyme, which settles one line of your data clause. Eligibility, caps, leavers and disputes are still yours to write.
FAQ: setting up a corporate travel rewards program
What should the terms of a travel rewards program include?＋
Who can earn, what earns and what doesn't, caps, when rewards are paid and expire, what happens when someone leaves, how disputes and corrections work, how the company can change or end the program, and what data it uses. The template above has a line for each.
When should travel rewards expire?＋
We'd skip an internal expiry date and pay rewards on a fixed schedule, such as the payroll run after the trip ends. Once a reward is paid, the expiry rule of whatever you pay it in takes over, so your clause can point to that rule. If you pay in gift cards, put the date printed on them into your terms.
What happens to travel rewards when an employee leaves?＋
Decide before launch and put it in the terms. Cover rewards already paid, rewards earned but not yet paid, and trips booked for after the leaving date. Have employment counsel read that clause.
Can we change a travel rewards program after launch?＋
Write the change rules into the terms before launch: a notice period for changes that reduce rewards, and a promise to honor what has already been earned. Check that notice period against your currency's. American Express gives three months' notice before closing its corporate rewards program.
Should contractors earn travel rewards?＋
That's your call. If rewards are paid through payroll, contractors have nowhere for them to land, so leaving them out is the simpler rule. Whichever you choose, name contractors in the eligibility clause.
