Accumulating points as a consultant?
 

Hello,

I am on a ~4 month project for one of the major consulting firms and am set to travel quite a bit. I want to maximize my points on airfare/hotels/cars without annoying everyone at the firm with special requests. The policy is usually that the firm will book my airfare/car/hotel and I will fly/drive/stay. I am already a member of just about every loyalty program. What can I do to maximize my points, given that I am not booking? (Obviously, I would like to book and be reimbursed, but that's not going to happen)

Sorry if I missed a thread on this when I searched

p.s. if anyone is in the consulting industry in Atlanta, I would definitely like to grab lunch sometime. I am a (young) attorney trying to move into consulting permanently.

Recommendation:
Focus on the project and have great success there.
Don't bother anyone at this early stage with your travel requirements- later when you make partner you will have plent of time for that ;)

you should be able to put the air mi on 1 carrier w/i an alliance, but that is ff 101.....

date someone in the travel dept!.....thats business/politics 101...

I'm a consultant and book all of my own travel.

If you're tied to using the travel desk of the company you're consulting for, then you need to give them the flight numbers of the flights that you want to take. As the previous poster says, stick to the same airline alliance.

If you do some research on fares in advance, you should be able to give them flights that are reasonable value compared to the cheapest available. This way they will have little argument about booking the flights you want, rather than the cheapest ones available.

I really don't want to annoy anyone at this point. They are booking all the travel as I'm pretty entry-level and trying to work my way up. Is it possible to get any credit for hotel stays or car rentals if they book cars/stays for me, using my name as the driver/guest?

Usually yes. When checking in for your car rental/hotel/airline show your membership card and verify that your number has been entered. Note there are certain (very very few) companies which have negotiated NET rates without points- however the only consulting company I know of that has done is this is the successor of HAL.

Maybe. Who makes the booking is not as important as how the payment is made and the terms of the rate. When you pickup the car or check-in to the hotel simply present your membership card and ask to have the rental or stay credited. If the rate is ineligible they will probably tell you, but nothing bad will happen.

I'd highly recommend adding in member numbers after everything is booked.

Much worse chance of airlines/hotels not giving the benefits one would earn if you wait.

OP - When everything is booked, simply add in your member number. Be it Alamo/National, Marriott/Hilton.

For airplanes - use one number for US/UA/CO flights or others in the *A.

Please follow this discussion in the Miles Buzz forum.

--jpdx, MR Moderator

For hotels just add you loyalty number on the reservation. If the stay is paid directly by the company, ie masterbilled, then chances are you won't get any points but you may get stay credit.

I once did 4 months at a Residence Inn that was masterbilled. I didn't get any points but did get stay credit that made me Platinum.

Thanks for the help!

Ask first
 

OP is an entry-level doing work for a client which is clearly persnickety about travel. I would ask other more experienced co-workers how this is all handled before I did anything.

Most companies which do this, find that it cuts their costs and cuts down fraud.

I agree with this. Take it slow. Even if you leave some miles in a program that you end up abandoning with 17124 miles or some odd amount because you had to take those 3 round trips on some other airline alliance big deal. If you do a good job at your firm and consulting in the next couple years, you will set yourself up to not have to ask these questions for the rest of your life, for you will be in the drivers seat. We all have to start out somewhere. Good luck.

Since you're based in Atlanta, you will probably end up taking Delta more frequently than other airlines. If you don't have a credit card associated with Delta, it might be worthwhile to get one that offers 30k-40k (or more) bonus miles on Delta for obtaining the card and meeting certain spending requirements.

Doesn't the group that arranges your travel keep your FF numbers on file? It would be odd, in my experiences, to have any issues with that. You may not be able to specify airlines or properties, but should have no problems getting credit for every stay.

Unless all stays/travel for all consultants are master billed, but that would be out of the ordinary, IME.

I'd call the travel group and ask. They won't have input into any performance evals/etc. and are surely used to answering a couple questions, in their area of experts, for newbies.

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.