Do you travel more than 25 days out of the year? Or perhaps more than 100? The rising travel needs of the today’s business traveller require smart travel planning. UNIGLOBE experts offer eight smart ideas for any entrepreneurial road warrior to rely upon to make his or her travel as painless as possible:
Use a packing list
Even a seasoned traveller is bound to forget pack important items. According to a frequent UNIGLOBE client, the most common items to forget include small but essential items such as razor, toothbrush or belt. Many hotels can help out in a pinch, but it's better to avoid that stress altogether.
A packing list ensures that you will walk out the door with everything needed. Find a list app online, customize it and avoid becoming the unwitting owner of 26 strikingly similar black leather belts. Check this one out (insert link to an online packing list)
Make travel time productive time
Travel creates massive pockets of downtime, what with airport lines, taxi queues and flight delays. Use those minutes productively by deciding in advance what to do – for example you could use that time to get even smarter! . Devour reports, white papers, business magazines and blogs. Check out our travel blogs and white papers here (link to the agency’s website here)
De-stress - join an airline club
Costing thousands of rupees a year, airline clubs certainly aren't cheap. But a membership in one airline club will provide respite from loud surroundings, the scarce pickings for seating and power outlets and the incessant blaring of announcements. Especially in the face of flight delays, airport lounges provide shelter from the storm. You could feel your blood pressure decrease the moment you walk through the door.
Invest in practical comforts
A pair of noise-canceling headphones could be your best companion while onboard. They may be expensive but well worth the price –especially on flights with unhappy children or boisterous cricketers! Also carry a light sweatshirt in the outside pocket of your carry-on to use for lumbar support or added warmth on a chilly plane.
Every entrepreneurial road warrior with any street cred absolutely needs a carry-on roller bag – update your bag to today’s super-light expandables and you’ll also save your company money on checked baggage fees!
Avoid short-hop flights
UNIGLOBE experts suggest to live by a three-hour rule: If you can travel from one destination to the next in three hours or less by car, do so.
Counting the minutes it takes to return a rental car, wade through security, wait for a flight, then endure a flight delay, fly, land, disembark, pick up a rental car and then motor over to a hotel, driving usually gets a businessperson there faster on shorter trips. Plus it scores points for providing a big block of time to return phone calls.
Be picky about a hotel room
If you prefer a particular room, location or bed size in a hotel be sure it’s in your travel profile so it can be requested when your UNIGLOBE expert books it for you. When you walk into your hotel room, make a quick assessment - if you didn’t get what was requested or it seems that something in the room will negatively affect the way you sleep, take immediate action to request a room change. Don't shy away from requesting what you want or need when traveling. That’s what you, or your company, pay for.
Pay for an earlier flight home
You finished an all-week trip and could catch an earlier flight home on Friday, bringing you home three and a half hours earlier than planned. The flight-change fee is Rs.3000. Would you do it? Perhaps consider it an investment in your mental health and a great stress release. For most road-warriors, , arriving home early feels like a “win”- and that’s a great way to end a week! .