I would try to find out who in the firm books the travel and start becoming friends with them to get their assistance.

If certain airlines fly out at certain times, perhaps asking for a specific time would work.

I work under contract for major engineering/construction firms around the world and one of the terms of my contracts is that I control all aspects of my travel. I book it, pay for it, and invoice for it.

Never had any company not agree to it.

Loyalty programs intentionally make it impossible for companies themselves to accrue points, accruing them only to the traveler. Travel departments are aware that travelers want to accrue points, and they generally aren't hostile to it.

Hotels are a tiny bit tricky, but you could try to tell your contact that you prefer, where possible, to stay in a certain chain, and pick one with broader rather than lesser coverage (i.e. Starwood rather than Hyatt). You can also let them know that you are fine with cheaper hotels, say Marriott Courtyard rather than full-service Marriott.

For flights, before going on a trip, you might explore flight options yourself and nudge the travel department. They are usually not getting any better rates than you can get on your own, although they may sometimes have volume deals of one sort or another. But if you know they have preferred arrangements with (say) Southwest, Delta, and USAir, you might pull up the fares for a trip you want to take and if you find a flight you want and it's within a few dollars of the cheapest, tell them you want to take it. Travel departments aren't usually totally in the dark here. If the cheapest flight is $300 and there is another for $340, but the cheapest gets in at 12:10AM and the $340 flight gets in at 8:00, they are usually not going to expect you to get to your hotel at 1AM with an 8:30 meeting, just to save $40. Likewise, if a nonstop is more expensive, they will usually be flexible about spending more to let you have a 3-hour trip rather than a 5-hour trip.

The travel department usually doesn't mind the help. I used to travel frequently, working for small companies with no travel department, and would book my own travel. Now I work for a very large company and travel infrequently, but I've never had them object to a flight I chose. As for hotels, I actually had to harrangue them to let me book "Name Your Own Price" on Priceline. They were reluctant to give up the 10% commission they get as a travel agency, until I showed them that using their hotels I was paying $150 a night, while on Priceline I could be paying $60 or $70.

But if you show them a flight you want, and the price is reasonable, they will usually be happy to book you on that. And nobody will care that you are trying to optimize your loyalty points. Who is going to object, you boss? He's doing the same thing, for sure!!!

Always do a search on Kayak to pick the flight you want and then adjust the times to filter out flights you don't want. That will help when you call the travel dept and want to justify staying on your preferred airline.

"I need to arrive by 10AM for a meeting so I can't take that flight on AirTran"

As someone above mentioned, ask your co-workers. All consultants (who travel) play the miles/points game to some degree and can let you know how best to get in on it. Since you're based in ATL and working for a major consulting firm, I can all but assure you that your colleagues are maximizing their earnings (having been there myself).

As a consultant with one of the major firms, I can tell you that all you need to do is ask a colleague who's been there more than three months. If they're not a points junkie, they'll know who in the local office is, and they can give you more advice than you could ever use.

Actually, Delta has SkyBonus. You earn miles, and your company earns points.

Excellent advice.

It seems every office has:
a) the airline junkie- can describe to you every seat in every class of every airline and minute benefits by aircraft
b) the hotel junkie- will not stay in a hotel that does not have a "marble bathroom" for example
c) the points junkie- 10 magazine subscriptions arriving per month for "research" oh and miles as an example

Have fun.

If ATL, then DL. Just be sure to get your FF number in there.

If you're really an FT'er...

For hotel and car, see if you can get away with booking as many split reservertations as possible. If you don't mind returning a car every day (say, if the hotel has a rental station), on Hertz you'd be mid-tier in 2 weeks, and top-tier in 8 weeks. If you don't mind moving every night, you can accumulate huge stay-counts by mattress-hopping.

Also, once you know your car and hotel alliance, visit the forums on FT. For instance, with ICH, seem to remember there's a thread about combining/mixing promotions, to get monster points on combos.