Frequent Flyers and Tips

[4x15mph]

I have worked for a company for 25 years and I accepted a position with a new firm. My former company had a travel agency and handled everything.

For those that of you that travel a lot, I have a few questions and I am soliciting any tips. Thank you

1) Do you use an online travel site to book all itinerary? Which one's do you like (i.e. travelocity)?
2) Any opinions on good credit card programs? I will be using a personal card for travel and expense reimbursement
3) local transportation - taxi and Uber, right?
4) TSA pre check application - completed
5) receipt apps for the iPhone or other?
6) Any other travel tips? You can respond or PM

This is going to be quite a change. I appreciate your tips

 

[GiddYupJoe]

I will comment on the CC. I personally use the Cap One Quick Silver. 1.5% cash back on everything. No gimmicks where you get x% at gas stations and x% at wherever else. It also has no cap on the amount you get back. IMO I like this better than trying to keep track of different cards for different uses. It also has no annual fee and no foreign transaction charges. The iPhone app for tracking transaction is also very well put together.

TSA Pre-Check.... BEST THING EVER! Especially when you are coming home from Vegas!

 

[waterboy]

First off ... Good luck with the new job!!! I travel a fair amount, mostly short hops on the Eastern half of the US. Rent cars as I do a fair amount of driving when I stop, even sometimes flying 2 one ways on my trips out of different cities. My expense situation is the same as you and I play the points game but not obsessively.

Out of Raleigh, I fly Southwest almost always when I can and am A List with them. I do not have their credit card to get more points as we do not fly heavily as a family. I book direct on the airline flights but use Kayak or others to search for flights. One of my co-workers had an issue with a Travelocity booked flight when having to make a change and had a lot of problems because it was not booked direct with the airline. I have not seen a difference in "business" fares using the travel sites. Prices are identical. I do not see a reason to use any of the travel sites for airlines other than for searching for flight times.

For what it's worth, the Philly airport sucks but sounds like you are stuck there. Good luck with that one.

I rent cars on all my travel. I hate rental car companies and choose who ever is cheapest for me. What a racket and I haven't spent the time to figure this one out yet..

For hotels, I get points from Hilton and Holiday Inn. Holiday Inn gives out free nights quicker than anyone and our family uses up the free nights as fast as I get them.

On credit cards, I do use the IHG (Holiday Inn) credit card to ramp up points quicker with them. I use it for hotels only. I have another Citi card for general points that I use for all other business expenses.

For expense reports, our company uses Neat Receipts. pretty decent but there are other out there that are real nice too such as Expensables.

That it off the top of my head... Let me know if anything else comes up.

 

[Shuck Water]

My two cents:

• Book through airline/hotel websites. When something comes up, it's much easier to deal directly with airline or hotel itself versus them passing the buck back to expedia.
• Since you are in the Philly suburbs, get an AA Advantage Card (Would have said USScare, but now they have merged) or whatever airline you plan on using. Charge everything to that card! Also, consider an Amex Starwood or other hotel chain card too.
• Uber Uber Uber.....UBER!!!
• Pick a hotel chain. One of the big three, Marriot, Hilton, or Starwood. Become a member of each, but try to stay at the same chain. Again those points add up quick!

The credit card setup is always tricky trying to decide which one to use and when, but I have NOT paid for a personal flight for me or my family in two years!

 

[smthng]

I used to travel a lot for work, now I fly three or four trips a year for "not work".

1 - Kayak. They can keep track of the entire itinerary even if you book with other sites, they'll send you notices about gate changes, flight time changes, etc (if you want). Mobile app is awesome for road warriors.
2 - Marriott Rewards credit card is awesome... 10x the points if you use it at a Marriott property, which includes the Courtyards, Residence, Springhill, etc. Ties into most airline programs as well if you go through the trouble of setting it up. Generally ranked as one of the top three rewards programs by Consumer Reports annually. Bonus: My last three cards were made of steel!
3 - Depends on how far from airports you normally end up and how long you'll be there. If you work near the hotel, taxis and shuttles are normally sufficient. If you end up "in the boonies" a lot, get a rental. Keep in mind which you want to deal with when trying to catch the flight home... trying to get a taxi quickly or getting a rental car checked back in. For me, dropping off the rental wins that argument most of the time.
4 - Got nothing for ya, I don't fly quite enough to swallow the pre-check fee yet.
5 - Get a zippered case from any office supply place and stuff them in there all week. Deal with them when you get home. I use a NeatDesk scanner. It's over priced, the interface kind of sucks, but it scans receipts well. Also, ask any hotel or rental company to email the receipts. It's no extra effort for them and you can save the trouble of scanning it.
6 - Really evaluate checked vs unchecked every couple of flights. If you have to check a bag anyway, only carry on the bare necessities or stuff you absolutely cannot afford to risk in checked baggage.
6 - If you have to drive to your home airport, test out the various off-airport parking companies. They are always cheaper than parking on site and they can often get you to the check in faster, depending on the airport. In my opinion they're usually worth the extra shuttle ride.

 

[Julian]

Agree with the above....

I have an Advantage card have 100,000s of miles from it! Be sure which ever you sign up for that you get a HUGE bonus for signing up! Last American flight I was on...I THINK they offered 50,000 miles for signing up.

For expense capture I JUST started using CamScanner (App has a black background a big CS at the top and a green bar across the bottom). I was just turned onto it by one of our services folks. Their team tested a whole bunch of apps and it came out on top. Also check to see if your company uses Oracle etc....ours does, and will roll out the oracle expense capture app in Q3. But knowing Oracle....if the app is anything like their PC UI....it will suck. :-(

 

[steined]

I've got 1.3+ Million Miles from my small business and personal Delta Skymiles cards. I am now a Platinum Medallion even if I don't make the MQMs every year. I'm not sure what I did to get this, but they've done it the last 2 years in a row. I can't complain and Delta has earned some real loyalty from me as a result! If you charge a lot of money (60K+) for small business (or personal), the Delta Reserve Card is worth it in my opinion. But only if you have Delta in your area. Otherwise the other cards are likely a lot more flexible.

 

[sysinu]

I travel for a living as well. my advise is to understand your most frequent locations you will travel to and identify the best carrier. If you're stuck with flying the lowest fair, I'm sorry :-(. I live in SLC, so I fly Delta almost exclusively. Because of that, I have a Delta Reserve card which works great for me as I usually hit both thresholds on the card and get the MQM bonuses.

BUT, since I live in SLC, flying DL as a hub flier... it is a PITA for me to hit Diamond, I have yet to do so even though I fly 3-5 times a week regionally between SLC and: LA, OAK/SJC, SEA, DEN, IAH. I spend a ridiculous amount of money with Delta, but because I'm a hub flier, it's hard to hit that 125K flown miles mark. So... my advice is again to figure out where you're going to fly to most, and pick the airline with the best hub for you and then get their FF card.

TSA Precheck is good, you probably should get Global Entry instead.

XpenseTracker is a great app. I use it heavily (which reminds me I need to submit 2 expense reports). There's like 6 renditions of the same expense app (I think they are called xpensetrkr, xpensetracker, business expenses, and a few others).

 

[4x15mph]

Perfect. Thank you for all of the advice and tips.

 

[scokill]

I have worked for a company for 25 years and I accepted a position with a new firm. My former company had a travel agency and handled everything.

For those that of you that travel a lot, I have a few questions and I am soliciting any tips. Thank you

1) Do you use an online travel site to book all itinerary? Which one's do you like (i.e. travelocity)?
2) Any opinions on good credit card programs? I will be using a personal card for travel and expense reimbursement
3) local transportation - taxi and Uber, right?
4) TSA pre check application - completed
5) receipt apps for the iPhone or other?
6) Any other travel tips? You can respond or PM

This is going to be quite a change. I appreciate your tips

1. We use Amex Business Tavel. I would use travelocity, orbitz, etc. to get a basic fare comparison and book directly with the airline. Go with your status airline unless there is a huge difference in fare. Making changes, standby, etc. will be easier and most likely less/no cost. I missed a Ft. Lauderdale flight Wednesday and my travel agent wanted to book me a one way the next day. Called American and the rerouted no charge on last flight out of Miami.
2. Travel miles cards or cash back. There are numerous. I would make sure you know what you reimbursement timeframe is as when I was a contractor sometimes it was 60-90 days. When I traveled internationally I could have $20K out.
3. I rent car most of the time as taxi/uber would be more. We have a good corporate deal and intermediate/ full size is about $38/day. I do taxi sometimes if it makes sense.
4. TSA is great.
5. Take a photo of receipt on iphone when you get it. It's a lifesaver. Our expense system has an iphone app and you directly upload the photos of receipts.