Travel on the Cheap

E-mail, fax, videoconferencing and Web surfing are all useful business tools, but they’ll never replace travel. Sometimes you just have to be there.

Yet as the cost of phone calls and electronic communications is going down, the cost of business travel is going up. A last-minute round-trip coach ticket between Los Angeles and New York, for example, costs about $1,840. If you’re willing to pay for legroom and a decent meal, a business-class ticket will set you back about $2,850.

Fortunately, there are cheaper ways to travel, but you must know the tricks. If you can, find a good travel agent who’ll go out of the way to find you the best deals. But even if you have a good travel agent, it pays to do your own research.

I travel a lot on business, often at my own expense, and I have learned some useful tips. Some involve using the Internet to locate inexpensive air fares, hotels and rental cars, but others are decidedly low tech.

Air fares are designed to favor vacationers over business travelers, with the best fares going to those with flexible schedules. However, there is nothing to stop savvy business fliers from trying to use those fares.

The best deals are for travelers who can stay over a Saturday night. That sounds like an impediment to business travel, but it doesn’t have to be.

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When I have business on the East Coast, I try to arrange my meetings for Monday so I can take an overnight flight that leaves late Saturday night and arrives early Sunday morning. I arrive exhausted, but I can usually check into the hotel first thing in the morning and get some rest.

Sure, I don’t get much done Sunday, but I wouldn’t get much done if I were on a plane all day. The hotel bill is the same as if I had checked in that night, but I’ll save hundreds of dollars or more on air fare.

Another low-tech trick is to check alternate airports. It’s sometimes cheaper to fly into Newark, N.J., than it is to fly into New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport. The Baltimore airport, which is only an hour from Washington, is sometimes a lot cheaper than Washington National or Dulles. You can sometimes save money flying to the Bay Area by choosing San Jose or Oakland instead of San Francisco.

Another trick is to use frequent-flier miles for business travel. If you’re thinking about using your frequent-flier miles for a free vacation, think again. You can plan ahead for your vacation and get a cheap flight, but some airlines will allow you to use frequent-flier miles for last-minute midweek business trips. Why use your mileage to save $300 or so on a vacation flight when you can use the same number of miles to save $1,800 on a business trip?

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Going online can save you money in a number of ways. First, it makes it easier to comparison shop. There are several Web sites that can book air, hotel and car rental, and each has a way to search for low fares. Before you start typing in Web addresses, go to https://www.larrysworld.com/travel.htm, which has links to all sites mentioned, plus many more.

The Travelocity Web site (https://www.travelocity.com) has a low-fare search engine that locates the three cheapest itineraries to any location. It might even be able to save you money by coming up with an airline you have overlooked.

The system found a last-minute round-trip fare between Los Angeles and New York on Tower Airlines for $399. It also found a $1,205 fare on United, which is more than $600 less than what United quoted me over the phone. The service also gives you the choice of paying for your airline ticket online with a credit card, or making a reservation and picking up the ticket from the airline or a travel agency.

Internet Travel Network (https://www.itn.com) is a full-service Web site that offers air, car and hotel reservations as well as driving directions, a travel bookstore, maps, weather information and a guide to airline frequent-flier programs. After you select a flight, it tells you the fare and, if available, less-expensive fares on alternate flights. Microsoft Expedia (https://www.expedia.com) automatically searches for the cheapest flights, but if those flights don’t meet your schedule, it’s a bit awkward to find ones that do.

Finding a hotel on both ITN and Travelocity is a breeze. You enter the basic information and both give you a listing of what’s available, including the price and location. You can get more in-depth information, including a description of the property and its location on a map. When you sign on to the service you have the option of specifying a travel agency from their list of about 4,000 member agencies. Your reservation is automatically sent to the agency, which will issue tickets and provide other services.

Biztravel.com (https://www.biztravel.com) has a no-nonsense interface and offers services similar to the other sites. It also offers a way to track your frequent-flier miles, as well as various travel guides.

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Most of the major airlines and hotel companies have their own Web sites, which sometimes offer special promotions. I had to attend a business meeting at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Arlington, Va., but got sticker shock when I found out the room rate. I was about to book a room in a cheaper hotel nearby, but visited the Ritz-Carlton Web site (https://www.ritzcarlton.com) instead and found a promotional rate that not only saved money but also came with extra amenities.

When you visit a hotel or airline site, see if they have an e-mail newsletter that informs you about specials. American Airlines and TWA send me weekly letters that tell me about good weekend deals.

In addition to official travel booking sites, there are plenty of other ways to use the Web to help plan a trip. There are a number of electronic yellow pages services on the Net that you can use to locate hotels, restaurants, dry cleaners and any other type of business, including possible customer contacts in case you want to do some prospecting when you’re in town. BigBook (https://www.bigbook.com) is well-organized and easy to use and displays a map to the business. Switchboard (https://www.switchboard.com) and Yahoo (https://www.yahoo.com) offer electronic yellow and white pages. Yahoo’s yellow pages have a great feature that lets you search for businesses near a specified address. It’s a good way to find hotels and other businesses that are walking distance from where you are going.

I like to read local newspapers when I travel, but now I don’t have to wait until I land. You can find online newspapers from most cities in the world, which can help give you a sense of the local business climate. You’ll find links to newspapers around the world at https://www.larrysworld.com/newspapers.htm

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For more about travel and small business, point your Web browser to https://www.larrysworld.com

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Keeping Travel Expenses Down

The expense of last-minute business trips can be sky-high. Here are some tips for keeping costs down:

* Use a travel agent.

* Use the Internet to find cheaper air fares, hotels and rental cars.

* Arrange your meetings on Mondays to take advantage of Saturday-night-stay fares geared to leisure travelers.

* Fly into alternate airports--for example, Newark instead of John F. Kennedy in New York.

* Use frequent-flier miles. Save your cash for the lower fares that can be had with vacation trips planned in advance.