Discount Corporate Travel – Get There For Less

I fly a lot and am considered a master beyond my years by industry experts. I have flown so much that I have received Christmas gifts from the major airlines. One time when I was getting away from the office for an extended period of time and trying to stay home more I actually received calls from the airlines asking where I was and if everything was alright. That is too much. That is too much because of the exhaustion that inevitably comes from the daily travel struggles and family life but also because of the dent it places in your wallet. I have found a way to fix all of that, at least the expense part anyway.

I received a cold call from a funny salesperson asking if he could have the honor of booking my next set of travel arrangements for me. During a quick phone call he asked me where I typically went, how often I traveled, where my seat preferences are on types of airlines, which airlines I preferred, how much I was typically spending per flight to different locations, what hotel accommodations I liked to have I stayed in needed to have for me to be happy, what size and type of rental cars I preferred, all about my frequent traveler programs and away he went. I tucked it in the back of my mind and forgot about it.

Within a few days I had a need to book a trip. I sent a quick communication outlining the details about the trip and gave him a few hours to go to work. In the meantime I also went to work to check out what I would be able to book on my own. After reviewing information for about an hour I had a held itinerary for a flight, rental car and hotel room. The reservations were made all with my regular frequent flier and member numbers and all discounts were applied. The total trip was going to cost $1,620.00 over 3 days for air fare, rental car and a hotel stay.

I received an e-mail from the few short minutes later I received word that I could save $200 off of my flight if I would be willing to make one-stop (I wasn’t), $30 a day off my rental car if I would use a different company (I would gladly for a $90 savings) and that a better grade of hotel would cost me $69 per night and not $199 per night (a savings of $130 per night and $420 for the trip). I fell in love with salesperson who had taken the time to get in touch with me a week ago. He had saved me and my company exactly $510. At that point I loved corporate discount travel.

Our company has a great departmental profit sharing plan that rewards our team of sales people for the margin that we bring in. Travel has been a big isues and expense for the company and the department as the expenses have gone up for travel and we have struggled with ways to cut back. We sell a product that is almost impossible to sell over the phone, typically requiring a couple of multiple day visits on-site to get a new project started. The next call I made was to our CFO to let her know about how we can all save money on our corporate travel. Many thanks to the man who made the cold call.