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For the last 6 years I've traveled up to 75% of the time for business to various places around the country. With all this travel you learn little things that you wouldn't normally think of. Here are some of those things that I've learned.

Rewards Programs:

Try to choose an airline, hotel chain, and car rental place and sign up for their rewards program. Then, do your best to stick to that specific company to reap the rewards.

When you choose an airline, find one that has the best schedules at your local airport, as this will ensure that you will be able to use them more often. For example, I use United as often as I can because they have the best schedules in my area and fly into all three airports in my area.

When you choose a hotel chain research to see which one offers the most hotels in the cities that you will be traveling to. For example, I knew that I was going to be heading to small towns more often than not, so I found the best chains would be either Marriott or Hilton. I liked the Hilton line better at the time, so I chose that one to try to spend most of my nights in. I also signed up for the others as I stayed at them. Once you reach a status with a hotel they will usually guarantee that they don't give your room away, which is a big plus! It wil also give you access to their concierge floors and upgrades to suites so you can feel like a pimp.

Car rental places have rewards programs, but most of them suck. So, the best thing to do is sign up for one that offers to have a car ready for you when you arrive and allows you to skip the general counter. This will save you hours of your life..

Credit Card:

Get a card that you use for business and purchases you pay off immediately. American Express is good for this because they require you to pay off the balance every month. They offer great service, but aren't accepted everywhere, so make sure you have a personal Visa or Mastercard to back it up.

When choosing a card, make sure it's tied to the airline or hotel chain that you use the most. They will often give you the most rewards for your money, especially when using them to buy from them.

Phone numbers:

Make sure you keep the phone numbers of all the airlines, hotel chains, and rental car companies that you use in your cell phone. They come in handy when unexpected things happen like canceled flights, broken down rental cars, and other issues. The first time something happens, you'll be pissed if you don't have these numbers handy. If you have reached a specific

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