(February is a weird word to write in the plural!)

February 2012:

• I compiled my favorite tips for the plane etiquette round up
• TOMS came out with ballet flats
• The New York Times and I disagreed about the top 5 ways to avoid baggage fees
• A friend got some help about traveling with injectable medicine

February 2011:

• I got some great packing tips for your more delicate items.
• Since missing loved ones is a hard part of business travel, I talked about dealing with homesickness
• The series Building a Business Travel Wardrobe started, with a focus on suits and business casual.

February 2010:

• I learned what to pack for a winter business trip
• After much trial and error, I shared my tips for dealing with swollen ankles
•  Snowmaggedon 2010 happened.

Points for Business Travelers is a new series aimed at helping business travelers maximize miles and points without a lot of effort. Have a suggestion or question? Email roadwarriorette @ gmail.com.

We’ve talked about goals, loyalty programs, and credit cards (plus a quick call out for email lists). Now it’s time for something pretty simple: shopping portals. Before I started trying to maximize points, I had no idea shopping portals existed. And I didn’t start using them until, well, last month.

Basically, the way they work is that instead of going straight to OldNavy.com or BabiesRUs.com (two of my most recent purchases) you get to those sites through your airline’s shopping portal. Then you get 2, 3, or more points per dollar spent. (And of course if you purchase it on your points-accruing credit card that’s even more!) Simply sign up on your loyalty program’s website. Pretty much every site I want to purchase from (except for Amazon! Darn them.) is on there.

Another way shopping portals are awesome—there are often bonus points. For example, I recently sent flowers to my grandmother and got an extra 2500 Rapid Rewards points. When we filed our taxes, we accessed Turbo Tax through the portal and got an extra 1000 points. I am looking to go to Chicago again in the next few months, and that is already half of the lowest Wanna Get Away fare for a one-way ticket. You’ll often get emails about these bonus opportunities, or you can just check the portal.

One thing to watch for—I have heard (but not actually witnessed) that sometimes when you go through the shopping portal the price is not always the same, for example a 20% off sale is not reflected. So just do a quick double check with the original site if you’re worried about that.

Oh and try not to think about the points you could have gotten in the past. Once I started using the Rapid Rewards shopping portal I realized that I could have gotten something like 5,000 points if I had done my Christmas shopping through the portals. Oh well. Live and learn!

Readers, do you use a shopping portal? What is the biggest amount of bonus points you’ve ever gotten for a purchase?

The dreary weather has me longing for sunshine, spring, and bright colors. I feel like I’ve got a case of the blahs, and my accessories aren’t exactly doing it for me lately. One thing that I bet would help (because let’s be honest, it always helps) is new shoes. Not to mention that my feet have grown a bit from pregnancy (thanks a lot Mini Warrior!) and only a few pairs of shoes fit comfortably. Sooooo I have to suck it up and go shoe shopping! No fun at all, right?

For any shoes I buy (and really most clothing too) I look for options that will work for travel, work, and play. Here are my main considerations when looking for shoes:

Comfort comes first! If a shoe is too small, comes up too high on your heel, rubs the wrong way, or feels wrong in any form or fashion I won’t get it, and please, please don’t buy it for travel. If you have to have them, buy them for a time when you’ll be sitting. Even if you don’t think you’ll be wearing them on a travel day, I just don’t recommend it. (True story—I had a pair of adorable shoes that I took on a trip to wear at the office. My meetings ran so late on my departure day that I didn’t have time to change, and in order to make my flight had to run/hobble through the airport—alongside my vice-president—in painful shoes. Not my finest moment!)

Not a paper thin sole. I’ll admit—I don’t always buy shoes with the best support. But one thing I always look out for is the sole. If it is super thin, or if I even think I will be able to feel tiny pebbles on a sidewalk through it I won’t get the shoes. Of course, you can always add a gel sole insert to increase your comfort level. Just don’t try it out for the first time on a trip!

Durability. Take a pass on anything that looks or feels like it won’t last. The cutest shoe in the world can turn ugly if it starts falling apart on a long trip!

Grip. Slippery shoes are not your friend in an airport (or anywhere, really). If a pair of shoes is perfect otherwise, you can have a cobbler add grippy soles to the bottom. Another true story—I have the cutest pair of black quilted ballet flats. They are super comfy and I love them. Their soles are very slippery though, and once while leaving a hotel I slipped and fell. In front of a whole bunch of people. Again, not my finest moment. However, now that my cobbler has added rubber soles they are perfect!!

Heels or flats? You guys know I will always choose flats, but if you can comfortably wear heels I say go for it. Again, just don’t wear a pair of shoes for the first time on a trip.

I typically go for colorful flats, either pointy toe or ballet flats. There are several brands of shoe designed to be comfortable and durable. Dansko, Born, and Clarks are often worn by flight attendants and frequent travelers. Many pairs are very cute, like these blue Marnee ballet flats from Born.

I also love these less expensive options: Mix No. 6 Emely cutout flats and French Follies Addy Flat  (pictured above) in a cheerful yellow and white stripe, both from DSW.

Readers, what is most important to you in travel shoes? Any crazy or embarrassing  shoe-related travel moments?

Southwest has a promotion through May 15^th that gets you double points AND double tier qualifying points. I like this promo—it’s easy and a good deal. All you have to do is register here, then travel anywhere in the country by the May 15^th end date. Love things that are this simple! It’s also a great way to get to that next Rapid Rewards tier since Southwest points add up so quickly.

This reminds me—for the points newbies, pay attention to the emails that come from your loyalty programs. They often have information about bonus offers that are very simple to qualify for!

Points for Business Travelers is a new weekly series aimed at helping business travelers maximize miles and points without a lot of effort. Have a suggestion or question? Email roadwarriorette @ gmail.com.

It’s easy for business travelers to get lots of points without doing much extra work. So far we’ve talked about setting goals and loyalty programs. This week the topic is credit cards.

Credit Cards

There are about one million credit cards available, all with different hooks. Cash back, bonus points, airline affiliations, charitable giving, and more. If you are looking for the easiest, fastest way to get points, the answer is credit card bonuses.

(Note: Before you start applying for credit cards, check your credit score and credit report. If you plan to utilize credit card sign-up bonuses as part of your strategy, make sure your report is accurate and your score is as high as it can be.)

The strategy. I’m not going to tell you which card to get—there are tons of blogs that do that already. What I will say is that you need to be strategic about it and look for the card that aligns with your goals. For example, if you are saving up points for an international first class trip, the Southwest Chase card is not for you (since Southwest does not fly internationally). But if you want the Companion Pass, it’s a great card! If most of your travel is in the car, you want a card that gives bonus points for gas. If you have lots of airline points, you may want to diversify—look into a card tied to a hotel, or get a non-specific card like the Chase Sapphire.

Sign up bonuses. Bonuses are the best way to easily get lots of points very quickly. They almost always have corresponding spend requirements, so watch those carefully. (I didn’t realize there was a minimum spend for my first reward card, and so didn’t get the bonus. So it does happen!) However, even if a spend sounds like a lot ($2k or $3k in a few months), it can be attainable if you plan for it. We have transferred all of our spending to credit cards—bills, groceries, gas, etc., so that we can maximize the number of points we get. With the Southwest Chase cards we had to spend $4k in 3 months, which we easily did. Read more of this article »

This week, I traveled to Chicago. It was a very productive visit, where I got a lot of work done and I was able to hang out with my sisters. But there was one thing that wasn’t awesome. All of my flights were all on time, which was nice, but they were on small planes. American used to have several direct flights to Chicago every day, all on the Super 80. Not the newest planes, but with a reasonable amount of space. However, now the majority of these flights are on American Eagle planes. Awesome. And since I exhausted my supply of upgrades during my pregnancy and haven’t replenished it yet, I had to sit in coach. Man those seats are tight. But that’s not even the point of my story!

Whenever I travel during the winter, I always put my coat in my suitcase before going through security. It is just way easier to navigate the airport without worrying about tripping over your long coat. Sometimes I will take it out of for the flight (especially if I’m worried about my bag fitting in the overhead bin), but since I knew I would be gate checking I left it in. After dropping my bag off on the ramp I got on the plane feeling so light and free with just my personal item. That continued through the flight, until the very end. See, even though I had appreciated the gate-check at the beginning of the flight, I was less appreciative at the end. Because I had to stand on that jetbridge waiting for my suitcase, and it was cold. By the time my suitcase finally appeared (next to last omg) I was shivering and my teeth were chattering. My cozy red coat would have made the wait much more bearable!

So the next time I fly on a small plane, if it’s cold at my destination I will take my coat with me on the plane. Yes it’s more of a hassle but it’s better than freezing my tail off for twenty minutes!

Readers, have you ever had issues with gate-checking?

With all the talk about American and US Airlines merging, I started thinking about airlines and frequent fliers. Loyal frequent fliers can be an airline’s best asset, and there are so many ways to treat them well. I’m just curious—if you had to pick the top three things, which are the most important?  Is it boarding first, loyalty programs, comfy seats, lounges, fly-by lanes, or something else?

In my opinion, the loyalty program, availability of upgrades, and comfortable seats are the things I value in an airline. The loyalty program is a no brainer. Upgrades are great—I’d rather sit in first class than just about anything else. But of course I won’t get upgraded every time, so it’s important to have comfortable seats in coach too. In fact, I think I would rank comfortable seats as second most important after the loyalty program.

Readers, what do you think?

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A few weeks ago Online MBA sent me a video they put together called “Why Women Make Better Business Leaders.” It raises some very interesting points—only 12 of the Fortune 500 companies are run by women, yet firms with women on their boards have 42% higher sales returns and 66% higher return on investment capital than firms that do not.

Readers, what are your thoughts?

Points for Business Travelers is a new weekly series aimed at helping business travelers maximize miles and points without a lot of effort. Have a suggestion or question? Email roadwarriorette @ gmail.com.

Last week I talked about setting goals. Once you know what you’re trying to gain, it’s much easier to map out a points strategy. This week, before I start talking about credit cards, challenges, and other strategies, I want to cover a few things about loyalty programs. For those of you who have been around for a while, you probably know most of this stuff. But anyone who is brand new to accruing points should read ahead.

The first step to maximizing points is, well, to sign up for them! Loyalty programs are available for all aspects of travel. Each time you fly, stay in a hotel, or rent a car you should get compensated by points or miles. The best way to know which ones to sign up for are the ones you use. It’s pretty simple: look back over your travel and see if there is a pattern for which brands you use the most, then sign up for those programs.  (If you’re new to business travel, look at the programs you think you’ll use the most.)

If possible, stick to one or two programs. This way your points are concentrated in a few locations instead of spread out over a bunch of different places.  In my case I almost always use Southwest and American for airlines, Hilton and SPG for hotels, and Hertz and Budget for car rentals. Obviously sometimes you have no control over who you use, but do your best.

(If you don’t have any say over what hotel you stay in, I’ve heard good things about the Hotels.com loyalty program. Any readers have any experience with it?)

Keep in mind that hotel rewards programs encompass all of their brands, so for example Hilton, Hampton Inn, Embassy Suites, Doubletree, Conrad, Hilton Garden Inn, Homewood Suites, and Waldorf Astoria all fall under the Hilton Hhonors program. It took me two years of frequent travel to realize this, and made it way easier to find Hilton Hhonors hotels that were located where I needed them and priced within my company’s budget.

If you are just now signing up for rewards programs, don’t be sad about the points you’ve missed in your past! While I knew to sign up for American Airline’s Aadvantage program right away, I didn’t know to sign up for hotel programs until I had been traveling for months. There’s nothing you can do, so just vow to get the most points you can moving forward.

Next installment: credit cards!!

(Also, check out Mommy Points’ Guide for Beginners if you haven’t already. It’s a very helpful overview!)

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American Airlines and US Airways: The merger is finally supposed to happen. Or is it? Articles abound today about the merger and what it means for travelers. A secret board meeting is supposed to happen next week to vote.  Reports are that the company will be based in Dallas, will be called American Airlines, and that they won’t have to change their new livery. Also members of the loyalty programs can rest easy—neither program will disappear. I do think it’s interesting  that American’s labor unions want their CEO far, far away from the new company….

Delta and SPG will be launching a promotion March 1 where elite customers get perks from both companies. Even if you’re only elite with one, you get the benefits from the other. Sounds like a great deal to me! I hope other companies team up too.

And speaking of travel benefits! According to the BBC, studies say travel can make you healthier. And according to USA Today, studies show that travel can increase your sex life. Awesome! Sign me up. Except that I’m pretty sure they are not talking about business travel where you often eat lots of food late at night, have no time to exercise, don’t sleep enough, and your SO is thousands of miles away…. But it sure does sound nice!

Readers, any thoughts? News stories I missed?