I just got a new job were I will be traveling constantly. Monday-Friday I will be gone, or so I am told. I am to pay for everything, and then be payed back. Flights, hotel, and car are my choice. From the sounds of it I will check in Monday, check out Friday and fly home.

I am based in DFW, so I was thinking AA for the airline. My buddy always liked Hertz for rental. Only thing with the cars is I don't like domestic cars, so that my make a differance as to who I should choose. Also want navigation. Not sure whether Hilton or Marriot for hotel stays.

Want to make my stays as nice as possible, and save up for vacations for the wife and I.

Also looking for a good credit card to put all this on, and collect. My fico scores are high 600's if anyone knows what it takes to get differant cards.

Thanks in advance

Find an airline that you'll be able to fly on a lot and stick with it. Since AA is in your home city, sticking with them would be good. The benefits initially will be sparse, but once you hit Platinum, they'll treat you as well as NW or CO would. You can also try to have your travel agent nominate you for status. Sometimes airlines will give out silver status for free if you move into a high travel role. Since you can pick your airline fly only them and avoid others where possible. Hertz do offer very good service. I would stick with them and don't rent at others. Figure out how you handle insurance with them before you rent. Your company probably has you covered. Find a credit card that you really like. Some of them offer cash discounts for their use so that might be a very good option for you.

Find one hotel group and stick with it. I wouldn't make this decision based on where the corporate headquarters are. We all live in the one country after all. Hilton and Marriott are the most common domestically, but I'd go with a chain that has hotels wherever you will want to stay.

Get good luggage especially a good carryon. Get a light laptop. Get some in ear buds or noise cancelling headphones. THe Bose ones are popular, but not the best. Shure and Etyomic Research offer some great in ear buds and Sennheiser do great noise cancelling cans.

Put EVERYTHING on your credit card. If you pay for cabs with cash make them fill it out. Otherwise, you'll forget what the amount was. Paying cash is handy, but bad as you'll end up losing receipts.

Learn your company's travel policy and find a good travel agent.

AA is the most obvious choice for flight selection from Dallas (WN from Love is mainly good if you have shorter flights and care only about free flights instead of status perks).

You can check the rental car company web sites to see which car companies' cars are most heavily represented at each rental car company. For example:

Hertz: Ford (including Mazda, Volvo, Lincoln in their premium collection, and the Mustang GT-H special-for-Hertz edition)
Budget: Ford or Hyundai
Avis, National: GM
Dollar, Thrifty: DaimlerChrysler

However, all of them do have some other-company cars in their fleets, so there is no guarantee that they will give you the desired brand of car (but you can improve the odds by choosing the rental car company whose fleet is heavy with the brand you like).

For hotels, if you know where you are going, find out which chains have hotels where you are going. Note that Hilton, Marriott, Intercontinental, and Choice have various brands of hotels to choose from.

If you're going to be flying a lot right away, check out the AA Platinum Challenge to get fast-tracked to PLT status. There's a link in the AA forum to FewMiles' AA elite status web site- it will give you loads of info about the challenge and how to do it.

As for hotels, I can't speak to Hilton, but it only takes 10 nights to get to Silver status with Marriott and the hotels are usually decent.

GG

The Hilton Honors program also gives you extra points for your rental car. You have to remember to show your rental car keys when you check in. Look into getting a hotel affiliated credit card. There is usually no annual fee for the Hilton Visa or AMEX.

We have found that hotel points have become very valuable to us. We can usually find a good flight price but then find hotel prices to be $200-400 a night overseas. Being able to use points for a free two week stay in an expensive city is real a bonus, in my opinion.

Review your firm's travel policy NOW. Negotiate if necessary.

Status rules. Look at where your destinations are and choose the appropriate accordingly.

Find a good rewards credit card if you don't carry a balance.

Set up CC auto pay or online payments for EVERYTHING!

Learn to Pack lightly and buy good quality luggage.

Oh yes, wear sunscreen.

Make sure all your points go to YOU, and not your employer.

If you choose AA as a carrier, the advice to challenge status is good. However, I'd recommend going to the the wiki in the AA forum here on FT to learn more about challenges. The info there is more up-to-date than that on FewMiles website. (Since challenges are an undocumented feature, you won't find anything regarding them on aa.com.)

It's very rare for an employer to take the miles/points, as the IRS has ruled that they're taxable if they do.

Oh, excellent point, oklAAhoma!

And to the OP, if you do go with AA, DEFINITELY look for an AA card to get the miles (Citibank has a debit card attached to a checking account- the only one out there, I think- AND a couple of credit cards to choose from) and use the Aadvantage shopping portal when purchasing online.

GG

Yes. One card to consider is the SPG AmEx card. It initially earns SPG points but these can be traded in lots of 20K for 25K AA miles. That's a 25% bonus. ^

The OP can search both the AA and the Starwood forums for details.

<<20K for 25K AA miles. That's a 20% bonus>>

25%.

I second the suggestion to start with the Starwood Preferred Guest credit card (issued by American Express), because the annual fee is low (waived for the first year), and the number of airline partners is large. This gives flexibility in case you change airlines after a few months. You can use the card and redeem the points even if you never stay at Starwood hotels (Sheraton, Westin etc).

However, it's important to always carry a second credit card from a different issuer. This assures you have a way to pay if your primary card is declined for any reason, including a failure of the issuer's authorization system. If your primary card is an American Express product your backup should be a Mastercard or Visa because those networks offer somewhat wider acceptance. If you plan to fly American you could use the AAdvantage Mastercard issue by Citibank, or for more flexbility Diners Club Mastercard also issued by Citibank.

dennis

Yep. You are correct. (Let's just pretend it was a typo. )

If they are asking YOU to put everything on your own CC, and not providing you with some sort of company card, I would start out small and make sure they are going to pay you in a reasonable amount of time. Find out what the limits are as well. If this is a consulting gig, and you are new with the company, don't go crazy until you establish when you are getting your money!

If it is going to take a few months to get reimbursed, you may look into an AMEX sign and travel account.

ChrisR