Out of Office: Survival Guide for Newbie Business Travelers

This post is part of a series in which LinkedIn Influencers and members share their business travel advice and stories from life on the road. Read all the posts here.

This post continues my series on business travel, focusing on hacks from seasoned business travelers on how they pack. These no-nonsense travel pros included colleagues from Citi and my LinkedIn network — Sulemaan Ahmed, Rema N. Deo, Meredith Guerriero, Steve Kietz, Mary McHale, Frank Squilla, Dawn Treffeisen, and Alexandra Tyler. I also tapped members of the Citi-sponsored Connect Professional Women’s Network for their advice (you can read the discussion thread here).

I distilled their comments into these no-fail strategies for smart and light packing whether traveling for business or pleasure:

• Remember your ABC: Always Be Courteous. As former flight attendant and now entrepreneur Sulemaan Ahmed said, “Remember, airline and hotel personnel don’t control the weather, aircraft mechanicals or oversell situations. But they do control things like getting onboard an earlier flight without penalty, allowing you late check-out or an upgrade to business class. Or as in my case, see me checking in [to my room] at 2 a.m. due to a brutal flight delay and, upon hearing I had a 6:30 a.m. meeting, pounding on my door at 6 a.m. to ensure I woke up when I didn't respond to my wake-up calls.”

• Travel the night before (if you can). This helps make sure you're refreshed the next morning, rather than stressed, and ready to take on the world.

• Carry a paper copy of your itinerary. Make sure it has addresses and telephone numbers, dates and times for meetings, and names and titles of those you are meeting with. Include a brief summary of each of your meeting agendas. This will serve as a final checklist to ensure that you have saved all files, and thought through all of your transportation and travel needs.

• Follow the two-bag rule: one carry-on suitcase (on wheels, of course!) and one work bag or backpack.

• Take a toiletry kit and change of clothes with you even on one-day trips. This will get you through those inevitable spills or delays on the flight back.

• Select hotels that provide gym gear to lighten your load.

• Pay up for “better” hotels, even if out-of-pocket.

• Sign up for TSA PreCheck and Global Entry.

• Figure out what airline point system works for you and stick with it.

• Keep all receipts in a letter-size envelope. Make a quick note of daily cash expenses that don’t have receipts (tips/public transportation) on the outside of the envelope to make T&E reporting much easier when you return to the office.

In terms of what clothing they pack for a week-long business trip, Mary and Frank — a dear friend and a dear cousin, respectively — provided a detailed break-out of what's in their suitcases, which you can see below:

For more tips and tricks to travel smart, check out my Postcards from the Road series for Women & Co.: Best Advice from Seasoned Business Travelers and Best Advice from Travel Savvy Entrepreneurs.