Make the most of your trip by getting what you can out of it. Although many of you won’t be able to book the airline and flight of choice it’s always worth signing up for the frequent flier schemes many airlines offer. Once you have your account setup and membership number you can usually add your details (unless your company has specific rules prohibiting you from doing so) to the flight after it’s been booked. These points are the most valuable to you personally and most major airlines participate in a frequent flier Scheme in one form or another. British Airways (Avios points) and Delta Airlines offer particularly good schemes and even if you’re not flying with them you may still earn points if you’re with one of their partner airlines. The points you earn here can be redeemed to book new flights, upgrade existing ones and as you earn more you often progress through various tiers so you get priority boarding, free access to lounges and more.

You can also earn points through Hotel Reward Schemes such as IHG or Conrad Hilton, so if you have any say in the hotels being booked try and pick one with such a scheme in place. Hotel reward schemes often result in free nights’ accommodation in any of their chain of hotels throughout the world. So with the frequent flier and hotel rewards you could end up with a free holiday for yourself and your family if you earn enough of them!

As well as the airline and hotel rewards there are other schemes you can sign up to for your business trips; airports – for example Heathrow rewards and car hire can also earn you free, cheaper or options to upgrade once you earn enough.

It should also be pointed out that many of the point schemes mentioned above are interchangeable, for example you can earn points flying to stay in a hotel or vice-versa.

There are several things that you can do to ensure your trip is as economical as possible...

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