Leverage Business Travel to Fund Personal Trips
This Fortune survey says
46% of business travelers extend business trips for personal time and 54% occasionally bring a partner, friend, spouse or kids. Vacation-starved business travelers are reclaiming work-life balance by mixing business with pleasure, and are stretching their travel dollar at the same time.
When leveraged properly, business travel can afford you a travel lifestyle that might otherwise be unattainable. In my early corporate audit days, I stockpiled hundreds of thousands of points I later used for personal travel by:
- Paying business expenses on a personal credit card, and later getting reimbursed by the company.
- Enrolling to the loyalty program of every travel operator I stayed with.
- Extending business trips by a few days to explore the area on my own dime.
These strategies earned me more than 20 FREE trips and elite status with a number of travel operators.
CLICK HERE to hear me discuss how to do this on Corporate Talk with Charlie & Eva.
If you work for a large company, chances are your employer has a corporate travel agent that books business trips for employees at preferred corporate rates. These companies often encourage employees book personal travel through their corporate travel agent. Booking your personal travel this way usually entitles you to:
- Corporate rates offering 10-15% off hotels.
- Flexible change and cancelation terms.
- Reasonable change fees.
- Unlimited mileage on car rentals.
If you have a professional designation, you likely have to earn continuing education credits on an ongoing basis to maintain your standing. A great way to piggy back your vacation with your conference is to lookup your associations' event calendar and look for conferences scheduled in cities you would also like to visit. The best time to bring this up with your boss is the year prior to the conference for funds to be budgeted.
If your company won't cover the cost of traveling to your conference, you might be able to at least claim the cost as a deductible expense. Seek the expertise of a tax professional for your specific situation.
If you travel for work, the easiest and most effective way to stockpile travel rewards for personal use is to pay your business expenses with a personal credit card that offers points/miles per dollar spent, and later claim those expenses to your company for reimbursement.
To get the most value from your credit cards, shortlist those that offer at least three travel related benefits in addition to points/miles per dollar spent. To quickly find which travel rewards credit cards have the best combination of benefits for you, browse my list of Top Travel Rewards Credit Cards.
If you are a small business owner, imagine how many points you could stockpile by charging your payroll to a credit card that offers points per dollar spent. You can do exactly that with OnlineCheckWriter.com where you can charge your payroll direct to your credit or charge card. Be warned, you will have to absorb any credit card vendor charges which range from 1.5 - 3% of the transaction value. Costs measured as a percentage balloon quickly when dealing with five and six figure payroll.
Before you buy global medical travel insurance, check to see if your medical benefits offered through your employer extend includes global coverage.
CLICK HERE for an article I was quoted in on how to Piggyback your Vacation on your Next Business Trip.
Russell Hannon uses lean principles to travel at a fraction of the going rate. He has been featured on CNBC, FOX, America Tonight, CBS, CTV, CBC, the National Post and Around the World Travel TV. He is also the author of amazon.ca Budget Travel #1 Best Seller ‘Stop Dreaming Start Traveling: The Ultimate Guide to Traveling More & Spending Less’ available at Stop Dreaming Start Traveling.
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