How to Improve Your Business Travel Experience

Raise your hand if you are looking forward to your next business trip. Anybody? I didn’t think so. For all of the romantic ideas connected with being on the road, business travel is often, well, hard work. Here are some tips for improving every aspect of your business travel experience.

Fly Better

Getting to airports, standing in line, waiting for delayed flights, sitting for hours—these are not the most fun parts of business travel. Luckily, there are ways to fly better.

• Sign up for TSA Precheck. It won’t allow you to skip the lines entirely, but it will get you through them faster and with less hassle.
• Know your airport lounges. If you have a long wait, why not be comfortable and have a snack? If you don’t have a credit card that gets you access to airport lounges, consider getting one. Otherwise, many airlines offer short-term memberships that aren’t hard on the wallet, and Priority Pass has annual memberships starting at just $99.
• Fly business class. In an attempt to squeeze even more money out of travelers, airlines have been competing to build a better business class experience. It isn’t cheap, but if you fly a lot, it might be worth it. And, if you have elite status with an airline, you can often book on points. Think about it this way: if you’re comfortable, your in-flight productivity will soar.

Stay Better

Just because you are trying to stretch your business travel budget doesn’t mean you can’t have a nice place to stay.

• Book through Engine. Our low rates on hotel rooms and generous rewards program mean your travel budget goes further.
• Go for elite status. The best way to get hotel perks and room upgrades is by becoming an elite member of a hotel’s loyalty program.
• Ask for upgrades. If a hotel isn’t full, you can often still get a free upgrade just by asking at check-in. This might not get you on the club level, but hey, a corner room is better than nothing!

For more ways to save money on hotel rooms, check out 13 Hotel Booking Hacks for Business Travelers.

Use Apps

As a whole, business travelers are probably the group of people who can most benefit from the myriad productivity, organization, and travel apps on the market. There are a host of apps to take the pain out of business travel, from keeping your itineraries and reservations to finding local services, to helping you stay productive. Check out our list of the 5 Best Business Apps for iPhone in 2014 and our Ultimate Guide to Travel Apps for Business Travelers.Finally, sometimes all you need is to change your point of view. Yes, business travel can be exhausting, but it’s still travel! Approach each trip as a travel experience, rather than just a business duty: plan 30 minutes or an hour every day to take a walk, visit a famous local site, or hunt down whatever food the city you are visiting is known for. Your business travel experience will improve instantly—guaranteed!Start your next business trip off on the right foot. Join Engine today.Featured image by Dmitry Petrov [CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons