I fly a lot and am considered a master beyond my years by industry experts corporate travel. I have flown so much that I have known the birthdays of pilots on some regular flights. One time when I was taking a couple of months off and trying to stay home more I actually received calls from the airlines asking where I was and if everything was alright. That is too much. That is too much because of the wear and tear it places on your body and family life but also because of the dent it places in your wallet. I have found a method of correcting those issues, at least the expense part anyway.

I received a cold call from a funny salesperson asking if he could have the honor of booking my next set of travel arrangements for me. During a quick phone call he asked me where I typically went, how frequently I left home, where my seat preferences are on types of airlines, which airlines I preferred, how much I was typically spending per flight to different locations, what hotel accommodations I liked to have I stayed in needed to have for me to be happy, what size and type of rental cars I preferred, all about my frequent traveler programs and away he went. I did not think another thing about it.

Within a few days I had a need to book a trip. I sent a quick communication outlining the details about the trip and gave him a few hours to go to work. In the meantime I also went to work to check out what I would be able to book on my own. After revewing information for about an hour I had a held itinerary for a flight, rental car and hotel room. The reservations were all made with my regular member numbers and frequent flier accounts and all discounts were applied. The total trip was going to cost $1,620.00 over 3 days for air fare, rental car and a hotel stay.

I received an e-mail a few shor t minutes later I received word that I could save $200 off of my flight if I would be willing to make one-stop (I wasn’t), $30 a day off my rental car if I would use a different company (I would gladly for a $90 savings) and that a nice upgrade over my original lodging plans would cost me $69 per night and not $199 per night (a savings of $130 per night and $420 for the trip). I fell in love with salesperson who had taken the time to get in touch with me a week ago. He had saved me and my company exactly $510.

Our department participates in a margin sharing plan that rewards our team of sales people for the margin that we bring in. Travel has been a sore spot for the corporation and the department as the expenses have gone up for travel and we have struggled with ways to cut back. We sell a service that is difficult to sell over the phone, typically requiring a couple of multiple day visits on-site to get a new project started. My next call was to our corporate team to let them know about how we can all save money on our corporate travel. Many thanks to the man who made the cold call.

Tags: Hotels

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