16 Golden Guidelines That Business Travelers Swear By

This story is a part of The New Era of Work Travel, a collaboration between the editors of Condé Nast Traveler and WIRED that can assist you navigate the perks and pitfalls of the trendy enterprise journey.

Business vacationers are made, not born. And nearly everybody who travels incessantly for work can checklist off at the very least just a few issues they want they’d recognized once they first received into the sport. It’s not all apparent—just like the significance of committing to a factors and miles program early on; these packages actually exist due to you, pricey enterprise vacationers—and a few is nuanced and solely learnable with time, like discovering a resort that looks like residence and allows you to depart a go well with within the closet.

To collect the foundations of the street, we chatted with highly-seasoned enterprise vacationers about what they need somebody wiser had informed them at first of all of it. These sources come from many traces of labor and walks of life—museum administrators who know which gala clothes are best to pack, non-public fairness and company legislation guys preferring boutique lodges, younger communications specialists who’ve discovered to search out the romance in every part, and so forth. (A variety of individuals we interviewed requested to make use of a pseudonym—that is arduous hitting stuff!—which you may see mirrored beneath.)

Read on for his or her ideas and methods of profitable enterprise journey.

Work journey is just not leisure journey

It’s thrilling when work sends you to far-flung locations that you simply’ve all the time needed to go to—however don’t let the novelty trick you into considering you’re getting a trip. “My first couple of work trips took me to Europe, which was very exciting for a fresh out of college twenty-something,” says Zelda, a communications specialist for the International Council on Clean Transportation. “Being a young person who couldn’t afford a transatlantic flight and three-star hotel rooms on my dime, I immediately felt the need to get the most out of the experience. That pressure, combined with the actual work I needed to do on the trip, was a recipe for burnout.”

You need to do your work, and do it properly, with a purpose to proceed being despatched on work journeys. And you’re doubtless going to be exhausted because of the itinerary, networking, and ingesting, all of that are dependable parts of her enterprise journeys. Make positive work, after which relaxation, are your precedence, earlier than discovering time for sightseeing and moments of leisure in your after-hours. To that finish…

Prioritize relaxation

“I have given up trying to get the most out of the hours directly around my required work, because I really need those times to rest,” Zelda says. “A fancy hotel room should be enjoyed to its fullest. A bathrobe? Pool? Spa? Even just sleeping or watching TV in freshly changed sheets. Charli XCX says it best: Everything is romantic.” Give yourself a break, especially if you’re going to be on the clock for longer hours than when you’re at home.

Convenience is not king—loyalty is

Frequent business travelers are the reason points, miles, and loyalty programs exist, and to not take advantage of them only hurts you. This may feel less true in recent years, as it’s become notoriously difficult to earn status at one single airline. But most agree that the following remains true: The moment it becomes clear that travel is going to be a big part of your job, choose an airline alliance and lock into the loyalty program. When Lucie, now a partner at a major management consulting company based in New York, first began traveling a lot for work, she booked whichever airline had the most convenient departure time. “I admittedly was not in that game as early as I should have been, and then I realized the money that I was leaving on the table.” Now, she has “insane” Delta status that makes her personal travel basically free, she says.

Which Airline Has the Best Rewards Program?

A new study from Point.me ranks the world’s best airline rewards programs that offer the most value for travelers—even those who don’t fly frequently.

Delta, among the sources in this story, is far and away the favorite, with United not-so-close behind. But if you’re wondering which airline has the best rewards program, Paul, a corporate lawyer, keeps an eye on the situation and says it’s not always so simple: “Some airlines are clearly better than others, and it’s fluid. Right now, I’ve been getting way better deals from American Airlines than United or Delta.” Which brings up another point: Even if you’re loyal to one airline, enroll with everyone and collect points wherever you can.

Book flight times strategically

Give yourself the luxury of time and book your flight to arrive the day before you have to get down to business. You don’t have to take that red eye. Rahul Khosla of Heady.io says, “It makes the trip longer, yes, but it’s much easier to keep your routine this way and feel more sharp for the meeting [or work event] itself. [Otherwise] eating gets weird, sleep gets disrupted, and you probably won’t have time to go to the gym because you’ll be too tired. One more perk of flying out early—I’m not as stressed if delays happen, because I know I’m not cutting it super close.”

Clear and TSA PreCheck are non-negotiable

“I don’t know if you can call yourself a savvy business traveler without them,” says Paul of programs like Clear and TSA PreCheck that help expedite travelers’ journeys through airport security. The lines at most airports are long and only getting longer, and the lounge is sitting on the other side waiting for you. Divide the annual fee by the amount of times you traveled last year and see how little it will really cost you. (And, if you’ve got a great credit card, the fee may even be waived.)

10 Credit Cards That Cover the Cost of Global Entry and TSA PreCheck

There’s no excuse not to enroll in one program or the other, especially with one of these cards in your wallet.

For the best shot at an upgrade, book premium economy

Regardless of your status, it’s unlikely, according to my sources, that you’ll get upgraded out of basic economy into business. But premium? That’s when they see you. That’s when they might move you up. And if they don’t, you’re already in premium. It’s difficult to regret.

Always ask for the upgrade, but be super polite about it

That second part is key. You have nothing to lose when you request an upgrade, whether that’s from the aforementioned premium into business, or from a standard hotel room to an executive suite. But it’s also true that you’ll catch more flies with honey: Gate agents and hotel reception are the keepers of the keys, they’ve seen it all, and they get to be arbitrary. If you approach them with even a shred of entitlement, they’ll clock it and you’ll lose out. Humble yourself, business traveler. “I’ve gotten some outrageous upgrades just from asking nicely,” one private equity man tells me.

Use the packing cubes

While there’s a clear break up between checking luggage and carrying them on, in no house had been these sources extra unanimous than of their exultation of packing cubes. Nearly all people that I spoke to introduced them up organically, together with Carl Friedrik, co-founder of Niklas Oppermann (and never simply because his firm sells them). “I do it by type of clothing,” he says, “and then you can use one or two for dirty laundry as the trip progresses. I’m a convert to packing cubes.”

The Best Packing Cubes to Keep Your Suitcase Organized

These Traveler-tested sets will save space and maintain order in your carry-on.

Don’t take jet lag lightly

Jet lag is the bane of the business traveler’s existence. Some cases are worse than others, but it’s always looming to some degree in the shadow of those who change time zones. Tips on how to best cope vary, but there’s a consensus around one particular strategy: adopting the time zone of your destination the moment you board your flight. “So, if you’re landing at 9 in the morning wherever you’re going, you have to act like it’s night on the plane even if it isn’t where you’re leaving from,” DEI executive Yentil Rawlinson of Sherwin-Williams tells me. “It’s a necessary evil and the only thing I’ve tried that works.” Some travelers even manually reset their phone to the time zone of their destination upon boarding the plane, to begin adjusting. However you can trick yourself, trust your body will follow.

Find a hotel that can feel like home

I know we said that loyalty is everything, and for airlines it absolutely is. It is similarly difficult to deny the power of accruing those big brand points at hotels, which many travelers use to cash in on a luxury stay (ideally, on their personal travels in the future). But while you’re untethered and unmoored, go for something that feels like a version of home to you. “I generally prefer staying in independent hotels because they get to know you over repeat visits,” says Paul. “If you stay at a big brand, it’s hard—the concierges at these places are not as good as they used to be. In London, I used to stay at the Chiltern before it burned down. I’ve gotten on a flight, texted them that I forgot my pajamas, and guess what’s waiting for me pressed on arrival? High thread count cotton pajamas.” He would even depart a go well with and tie there. While many such properties aren’t a part of loyalty packages, World of Hyatt introduced Mr. and Mrs. Smith, and the boutique properties accessible on their reserving platform, beneath the Hyatt umbrella this 12 months—so it’s changing into potential to earn factors whereas staying boutique.

You can expense these mundane resort providers, so make use of them

One of probably the most precious classes a former CEO taught Rawlinson was at hand your garments over to the resort urgent service upon arrival. “If you’re going for 4 or 5 days, maintain one outfit and have the remaining pressed,” she says. “And on the finish, have all of them dry cleaned so that you’re solely packing clear garments.”

Build out your wrinkle-free wardrobe

Mariet Westerman, director of the Guggenheim, is carrying certainly one of her favourite fits for journey when she speaks to me. It’s from Theory. “They make these really lightweight clothes that you almost never have to dry clean.” When issues get extra formal, a gala for instance, she trusts one model: Missoni. “Missoni just does not crinkle—they have the crinkles they need, and that’s it.” For the boys, most observe that fits have been phased out of their packing checklist totally. They as an alternative convey black or navy pants, and black or navy shirts.

Your gymnasium sneakers are additionally your strolling sneakers and your informal workplace sneakers

You want one pair of sneakers that may do all of it. Multiple individuals I converse to swear by the collaboration sneaker between New Balance and Aimé Leon Dore for this precise multi-purposing.

The resort gymnasium is an extension of the office

Bring good gymnasium garments, individuals—odds are, your boss goes to be on the treadmill subsequent to yours. “You do not want to show up in ratty gym shorts,” Bianca Consunji of Netflix tells me, “I speak from experience. You also want to bring headphones, to signal that this is time that you want for yourself.”

Talk to your coworkers—particularly once they’re the locals

Whether they’re fellow convention-goers, or coworkers from the workplace overseas, the individuals who reside within the vacation spot you might be touring to harbor the perfect suggestions for low-key, off-the-beaten path issues to do as soon as the working day is completed. Westermann from Guggenheim was in Hong Kong with a locally-based colleague, they usually had quite a lot of time to spend collectively. He informed her: “Let’s go walking in the warehouse district and you’ll see a different demographic.” They walked and took the metro collectively, as was his desire, reasonably than hailing cabs; this confirmed her the town anew.