Added Perks to Improve Traveler Experience

No matter how large or small your travel program is, you have travelers who are affected by your travel policy decisions. It’s important to consider the individual traveler and their journey to identify potential pain points. Unhappy travelers can experience decreased overall morale and job productivity, which could eventually cost the company.

Avoid this by making your people a priority, which leads to happy employees and a successful business.

The Perks

Here are a few of our favorite and most common travel program perks that can make a huge difference for your company.

Lift Departure City Restrictions

While smaller airports may be more expensive, consider allowing a traveler to depart from a location closer to home. By offering options to your employees, you are putting time back in their day — time to say goodbye to their families, to better prepare, and to destress. You are also showing them that you value their time.

Allow Avoiding Flights with Layovers

Similar to lifting departure city restrictions, this added perk puts choice and trust in the employee’s hands to do what is best for them. Layovers are often cheaper yet can add significant travel time, so weigh the pros and cons of cost savings versus time savings.

Increase Per Diem

Penny-pinching and eating at less-than-desirable restaurants to stay under budget is not a recipe for happy travel. Increasing the amount of spending money available allows travelers to make more options aligned with their dietary and personal eating habits. This keeps them happy and healthy on the road, for only a few dollars more.

Include TSA-PreCheck

Every traveler sees it when they go through security: the TSA PreCheck line. Those who travel frequently and even those who don’t often look at that empty line with envy. By providing PreCheck, even if only for the biggest road warriors in your company, you are offering an experience that makes employees feel valued and, again, saves time.

To really understand how these perks would make your employees feel, you need to step into their shoes. Consider a trip sitting in economy for a long flight, with an added layover departing from an airport over two hours away. Then compare that to a flight where you have time to get ready, have a better seat, and travel from a location that gets you home from the airport in half the time. It’s easy to see how the second trip would offer improved physical and mental health for your travelers. You have an employee with more time on their hands who can catch up on emails and get work done. Finally, employees will feel cared for and, importantly, be more likely to go the extra mile for your company. All these perks and more work together to create an environment for everyone to thrive.

Interested in learning more? All these perks and more work together to create a business travel environment for everyone to thrive.