If you’re someone who travels a lot for business, you’ve probably developed a whole list of tricks and shortcuts for making your life easier. But if you’ve just started a career that requires a lot of business travel, you may not be as adept at making your travel experiences as pleasant and efficient as possible. To help you get a head start, we’ve put together a list of five tips for improving your corporate travel.
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Secure your travel visas in advance
If your work requires international travel, it’s important to stay on top of which destinations will require a travel visa. In many countries, you can purchase your visa once you land on the ground. Others use simple websites that allow you to purchase your visa online, usually for about $20. But some countries like Brazil, Russia, and China have a more complicated process. As soon as you find out about a trip, use this tool to find out whether you need a visa and begin the application process as soon as possible. If the trip is last-minute, you can use our expedited visa services to secure your visa in a hurry.
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Keep a travel checklist
Travelers have a tendency to write out little checklists before they go on trips to make sure they don’t forget anything important. If you travel all the time, it makes sense to create a comprehensive checklist that you can save to your phone, calendar, or email. Having this list always on you will make packing much easier and help ensure that you never forget something important. You might want to even create a few different checklists for weekend trips, week-long trips, and international trips.
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Save your travel itineraries in your phone
Make sure your travel itineraries are always accessible via email, but also save them somewhere on your phone so that you don’t need cell service or an Internet connection in order to access them. It also makes a lot of sense to have printed copies of your itinerary in case your phone dies or you travel some place where scanning your phone simply won’t do. Keep a folder dedicated to your itineraries and have them organized in the order that you will need them.
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Sign up for Global Entry
The application process is a bit annoying, but once you have Global Entry status, all of your international trips will be so much easier. You’ll get to bypass customs lines and enjoy the perks of TSA pre-check. The amount of time you’ll save in the long run will be well worth the effort of applying for the program.
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Make use of travel apps
There’s an app for literally everything these days, including all of your travel needs. Make a special folder on your phone and keep all of your essential travel apps in one place. Pick one for tracking the weather, another for tracking your flights, one for finding hotels at the last minute, and one for keeping track of all of your awards miles.
