101 Travel Hacks for the Business Traveler

As a frequent business traveler over the years, I’ve made many mistakes and learned a good deal about how to minimize travel discomfort and maximize your enjoyment. Let’s face it, traveling for business isn’t always fun. In fact many times it’s not. Your are zipping from one meeting to the next, stuck in an airline terminal waiting for your delayed flight, sleeping in an uncomfortable bed, missing your family and eating crappy food. That is - if you don’t know what your doing.

With a little focus, though, you can definitely minimize the pain and make much of it smooth sailing. Here are few tips I’ve learned over the years (I will continue to update this over time and as folks share their tips with me and until I get to 101!). Here are the first 4 tips. Click here to read the rest.

1. Stick with a single Airline, Hotel, and Rental Car company. Since your going to be traveling, you might as well get some points for it. Your company policies may make this more difficult, but do your best to stick w/ a single Airline, Hotel and Rental Car company. You can accumulate points and status quicker this way. For example, I typically travel Southwest Airlines (sometimes Delta), stay in Hilton Hotels, and rent w/ National. Southwest offers early boarding privileges (which helps you get the best seat, and stow your bag) for status holders. Hilton gives all kinds of privileges like free breakfast, upgrades, extra points, snacks, etc to their higher tier members. And w/ National you can often get free upgrades to nicer cars. Delta will start to give you upgrades to first class depending on your status and availability.
2. Get the best credit card you can to maximize your points. It’s likely you are getting reimbursed by your company and travel is expensive. If you can, use your personal credit card and start racking up the points. It might be easier to use a completely separate card for this so you can track of your expenses. Use the points to get cash back, free vacations, and more. I prefer the Southwest Chase Card and the Delta Amex. I also use my cards for personal expenses (like the water bill) to maximize points. We took a week long trip to Hawaii (5 person family at the time) and the only thing I had to pay for was 2 rental car days, food, and entertainment. And we got upgraded to a SWEET suite!
3. Pack light (and well). This tip leads into the next one. But packing light minimizes the stuff you have to haul around, makes it easier to stuff your bag into an overhead bin, and reduces the pain when you have to store it under your seat. I do my best to use a single backpack (and Ogio Metro backpack) whenever I can. With good packing, and minimizing superfluous crap, I can make that last almost a week. For example, if you wear jeans on day 1 you can wear them again on day 5, getting that room back in your bag. Wear your jacket w/ you on the plane so it doesn’t have to go in the bag. Learn how to roll your clothes vs. fold so they store easier (and don’t wrinkle as bad)! Skip the heavy book to save room (use your iPad or better yet, your Kindle Reader app on your phone). If you have to use a suitcase, get one that rolls well (preferably 4 wheeled), fits easy into the overhead compartment, and is durable enough to stand the rigors of regular travel.
4. Never check your bag. Want to add 30 minutes to your trip and gamble with fate about lost luggage? Then check a bag. Setting aside bag check fees (which ought to deter your enough), checking a bag means extra time at the front and back of your trip. You have to interact w/ staff to check it, and then you wait w/ the huddled masses for it to (hopefully) arrive on the baggage Carousel. I confidently walk past all the schmucks waiting for the bags…and get the better rental car ahead of them, or get to my bed that much quicker.

Read the rest of the 101 Travel Hacks for the Business Travel here.