New to “Work Travel”. Perks? What do I request?

[brunner]

I am about to begin some work travel. Around 6-9 nights a month from Victoria area to Baton Rouge/New Orleans.

Potentially more.

I’ve never had a job that required any significant over night travel.

I currently already have a company truck and Amex for expenses/fuel.

I’ve asked for a credit card of my own that I can pick to collect hotel/airline points.

However I was turned down because the company (aka CEO) likes everything to go through Amex so he’s able to cash in on the perks for his own travel. I get it and that fine

I will be asking for a significant raise in salary as my work load will increase by 30-40%.

What else can I benefit from personally on the travel portion?

Any programs that even using the Amex I can still benefit from?

What other perks do you traveling work guys cash in on, whether through your company or through hotel / airline / rental car perks even if you’re using a company credit card?

Any help, info, and recommendations will be very much appreciated.

Thanks!


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[aggie2000tx]

Choose one hotel chain you will stay at. Make sure you sign up for the hotel rewards programs. We go a lot of places and stay for free in the points that I get for work travel.

[one66stang]

Yes get the rewards card. Make sure the front desk puts the point to your account.

[texaspyro21]

However I was turned down because the company (aka CEO) likes everything to go through Amex so he’s able to cash in on the perks for his own travel. I get it and that fine


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Owner of my previous company was the same way. His monthly Amex bill came in a box. The bookkeeper said one year he bought a Mercedes S500 with the points.

Look into a hotel credit card. While you can’t use it for the cost, several of them do give you a base level of status like silver or gold which come with a points multipler. I have a marriott card so I’m always silver, even if I haven’t stayed enough nights for the year and always earn at least 1.5x points.

[BubRay]

Hotel rewards. Rent a car rewards. Airline rewards. Depending on how your expenses pay. Stay in a Hampton inn or somewhere where they feed you breakfast so you can save that on your per diam.

[brunner]

Hotel rewards. Rent a car rewards. Airline rewards. Depending on how your expenses pay. Stay in a Hampton inn or somewhere where they feed you breakfast so you can save that on your per diam.

I do not think they will do per diem, probably just use my Amex to expense all meals, fuel, flights, and hotel


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[Rubberdown]

Hotel points, car rental points, etc. Pick one hotel/car/airline company and stick with it religiously. Also if you're going to fly see if they will pick up a membership to the united club... that's a nice place to pass time, recharge your phone, have a drink, etc. And they can update your flights, etc. Also join the parking club at the airport if you are going to leave your car when you fly.

[MassMan]

I am in the same boat. Company gas and credit cards. I used to expense on my own cards. The added points were nice but I don't miss the weekly expense reports one bit.

Gas rewards. Everyone should do this even if it's not work related. I do Exxon/Mobil but most or all majors have a program. I usually earn about $5/week. Not much but forget about it for awhile and you have a free fill up.

Sticking with one hotel chain is a good idea but sign up for the rewards program of every major chain. You will get email notice of promos, which if good enough will sway me to another chain temporarily. I try to stick with Marriott. I like that as a Titanium Elite I get complimentary United Silver status. I don't fly much so without it I wouldn't have status. Silver gets me Economy Plus seating and the occasional FC upgrade. Nice for leisure travel as well.

[slayr]

As other have said, pick a rental company, hotel chain, and airline then rack up the points with them. I don’t travel as much as I used to, but most of my personal travel in the past was done using reward points from business travel.

[OldRiverRat]

i don't know who will do your expense reports or how. assume you so ask for some kind of scanner so you can easily keep up with rcpts. expense reports for travel are just a huge pita. i travel as little as possible these days . seems like i always lose money on company travel

[Rubberdown]

Dont do the scanner! Get an app and take pictures of the receipt with your phone. Your company may already do it with a standard app or something. My company used concur and you could use the concur app. You can do it every time you get a receipt right then and you don't have to mess with it later. Man I hate expense reports.

[Sleepy]

Open an Acorns account and an Orbitz account. Book your rooms with Orbitz through the Acorns App. Doing this you will earn “Orbucks” through Orbitz and a by booking through Acorns, they will invest 2% into your account. It used to be 4% but they’ve dropped it. In 2020, I earned over $4K in Orbucks and just over $3K from Acorns investments. All from booking hotels and flights. It’s the epitome of double dipping!

[chehunt]

travel

Dont do the scanner! Get an app and take pictures of the receipt with your phone. Your company may already do it with a standard app or something. My company used concur and you could use the concur app. You can do it every time you get a receipt right then and you don't have to mess with it later. Man I hate expense reports.

Smart Receipts App

[MassMan]

Open an Acorns account and an Orbitz account. Book your rooms with Orbitz through the Acorns App. Doing this you will earn “Orbucks” through Orbitz and a by booking through Acorns, they will invest 2% into your account. It used to be 4% but they’ve dropped it. In 2020, I earned over $4K in Orbucks and just over $3K from Acorns investments. All from booking hotels and flights. It’s the epitome of double dipping!

Your company covers the extra $3K from Acorn? How do they not catch on to the rounding up?

[Sleepy]

Your company covers the extra $3K from Acorn? How do they not catch on to the rounding up?

I doesn’t have anything to do with rounding up. Acorns invests 2% of the total booking amount. If I spend $100 they’ll invest $2.