Dear Diane,
My friend and I recently took a trip, each of us bringing our one daughter. She chose the hotel but asked me to use my credit card to make the reservation and pay for the tickets to the show we were attending the first night. I used my credit card to buy the show tickets and my husbands travel points to book the hotel. It costs A LOT of points for one night and I told her of the savings. Since they are my husband’s points, I feel like I got stuck between being generous to my friend, and being fair to my husband. Shouldn’t she have offered to pay the amount before the deduction?
M.
Dear M.,
When traveling with friends, upfront communication is the priority. “Should” to one person varies to another. She may have “assumed” she was splitting the hotel fee based on the bill, including the discount. This is a common issue that can be alleviated by a simple conversation in advance.
In the future, you can let her know you would prefer to use separate cards and pay individually for travel, lodging and food. The answer to this question, “Should I expect her to pay cash for her half of the hotel?” is yes, based on the price YOU quoted her. Not the actual rate before points, unless you had the conversation in advance. The confusion rests with the lack of clarity on your part and the assumption you were offering her your husband’s travel discount.
I hope this is beneficial for future travel plans, although probably not the answer you were hoping for this time around.
Best,
Diane
You may also like Dining Etiquette: Splitting the Bill. For more of Diane’s etiquette tips read her posts on Inc., subscribe to her articles on HuffPost, “like” The Protocol School of Texas on Facebook, and follow her on Pinterest, Instagram, and Twitter. Buy her new book, Modern Etiquette for a Better Life.
