I fly a lot and am considered a master beyond my years by industry experts corporate travel. I have flown so much that I have known the birthdays of pilots on some regular flights. One time when I was taking a couple of months off 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 method of correcting those issues, 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 frequently I left home, where I liked to sit on airplanes, which airlines I preferred, how much I was typically spending per flight to different locations, what type of accommodations the hotels 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 e-mail to him letting him know the specifics about the trip and gave him a few hours to go to work. In the meantime I also began to look to see what I would be able to book on my own. After spending about 45 minutes of my time I had a held itinerary for a flight, rental car and hotel room. The reservations wereall made with my regular member numbers and frequent flier accounts and all discounts were applied. The entire 3 day travel itinerary was budgeted at $1,620.00 for air fare, rental car and a hotel stay.
I received an e-mail from the corporate travel agents a few shor t 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 this guy who had called me out of the blue a week ago. He had saved me and my company exactly $510. At that point I loved corporate discount travel.
Our department participates in a margin sharing plan that rewards our team of sales people for the margin that we bring in. Travel has been a sore spot for the corporation and the department as the expenses have gone up for travel and we have struggled with ways to cut back. We sell a service that is difficult 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. I sent the person who contacted me originally a personal thank you note.
