Business or Pleasure?: 10 Traveling Tips for the Professional Businessperson
Business travel’s become an essential component of corporate life.
Seriously, 1.3 million business trips take place every single day in the United States alone! Taking international markets into account, that number would increase significantly.
Clearly, people are traveling around the world for business day in and day out.
But just because it’s common doesn’t mean it’s always as easy or glamorous as it sounds! Knowing how to master the art of the business trip is important, especially if you’re new to them.
Thankfully, there are certain things that can help.
Keep reading to find out 10 tips that’ll ensure success in your forthcoming business trips.
10 All-Important Business Travel Tips
Check out these 10 tips to keep in mind for your next business trip.
1. Have an All-Purpose Luggage Option
Simplify your travels with an all-purpose piece of luggage.
Have one piece of go-to luggage that meets all your requirements. It shouldn’t be too large, while still fitting everything you need. It should have appropriate compartments for your electronics and valuables.
Doing so simplifies your packing, limits the possibility of overpacking, and helps you speed through airport checkpoints.
Roller back packs are a great option. Their dual functionality makes them ideal for what you need.
As a backpack, they’re easily transportable when moving from place to place in a hurry. But their wheels allow you to move for longer distances without putting unnecessary pressure on your back.
2. Avoid Checked Luggage
In an ideal world, your go-to item of luggage will pass as hand-luggage.
If possible, endeavor to avoid checking your bags. Having hand-luggage only means you skip the queues to check your bags into the hold. Instead, you head straight to security and on to your flight.
Then you’ll simply walk off the plane without the need to wait for your luggage to emerge at baggage collection. Any opportunity to speed up your travel time should be taken!
Top Tip:
The maximum dimensions for your cabin bags are usually 56cm (22 inches) by 45cm (18 inches) by 25cm (10 inches).
3. Don’t Exceed Luggage Limits
Keeping your luggage to the correct weight is another way of minimizing time (and money) spent at the airport.
If you need to check your luggage into the hold, try hard not to exceed the weight limits.
It isn’t cheap to check-in overweight luggage. And even if you can shed some weight, no-one enjoys the awkwardness of opening, repacking, and reorganizing luggage at the desk!
Weigh your bag before you leave to prevent any surprises at the airport.
4. Don’t Overpack
Travel packing’s something of an art.
It’s tempting to pack for every occasion, but it’s easy to overpack in the process. You don’t need as much as you might think!
As a rule of thumb, pull together everything you think you might need, then halve it.
There’s little point in taking clothes and other items that you won’t use. Take the bare essentials and know you can buy almost everything else on the road.
Top Tip:
You can prevent your smarter clothes from creasing by packing them into dry cleaner style plastic bags!
5. Ensure You’ve Charged Your Electronics
Charge your electronics before you travel.
It’s true that all major airports (and some airlines too) will have sockets available for use. But you can save yourself the hassle of requiring them (and the stress of running out of battery) by heading to the airport fully charged.
Where business and work often relies on being constantly connected, running out of battery in transit is an annoying and unnecessary hiccup.
6. Dress for Maximum Airport Efficiency
What you wear to the airport will depend on your intentions.
For instance, there’s a common theory that dressing smartly for your flight gives you a better chance of an upgrade. By all means, give this a shot!
Remember what awaits if it doesn’t work, though: a lengthy flight in uncomfortable clothing…
An arguably better option is to dress for comfort and speed! Wearing easily removable shoes, jackets, and so on will enable you to slip swiftly through security and sit in comfort on your flight.
Here are some more business attire tips to keep in mind too.
7. Leverage Frequent Flyer Programs
Frequent flyer programs are gold-dust to anyone traveling on business.
There’s a bunch available. But regardless of which you choose, you get rewarded with redeemable points when you fly. You earn upgrades, free flights and more as you continue to rack up your air miles.
Your loyalty to a particular company will be rewarded over time too. Help your points stack up by sticking to the same airlines and hotels.
8. Develop a Jetlag Strategy
Jetlag’s the bane of many a business traveler’s life.
The constant movement between time zones can run riot with your internal clock. Thankfully there are different things that can help.
Eating correctly and at the right time, exercising, exposure to bright lights, and setting your phone and watches to local time can all make a difference.
Find a strategy that works for you to prevent jet lag impacting your trip!
9. Save Money with Multiple Flights
Finding the cheapest way to travel is often a priority for business travelers.
In this endeavor, you can sometimes grab the best deals with multiple one-way flights. For example, instead of going direct, you pay for two one-way tickets where the final destination is where you want to end up.
It may take longer, but combining airlines and routes like this can be a useful money saving technique.
10. Be Sensible When Seeking Hotel Upgrades
Getting a hotel room upgrade isn’t always easy.
You can improve your chances by following certain rules, though. For instance, ask nicely and at an appropriate time!
It sounds simple, but all too often you find angry customers clamoring for an upgrade when the receptionist’s busy. Being polite and respectful (but still direct), and asking at a quieter moment may be all you need to succeed.
Time to Wrap Up
There you have it: 10 business travel tips to help you on the road!
Business travel is now a big part of many job roles. Ever more people are taking to the skies in the name of their profession.
Travel for work may sound like your dream job. It isn’t always easy, though! Hopefully, the tips here will benefit anyone new to the game.
Remember, have your go-to all-purpose piece of luggage, but don’t pack unnecessary items or exceed your luggage allowance. Charge your electrics, wear suitable clothing, and sign up to frequent flyer programs. Next up, know how to handle jet lag, mix and match one-way tickets to save money, and be sensible when it comes to hotel upgrade requests!
Follow these rules and you’ll be an expert in no time.
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