How do consultants get their travel expenses paid?
I've read all around the web on how these big 4 or management consultant save up so much travel points that they can travel for months by themselves for free. I was wondering how do big consulting firms like big 4 deal with travel expense. Is it reimbursed at the end of the month or is it given as a per diem expense before the project starts? Also, is it true that most consultants spend most of their time on the road preparing and reviewing powerpoint presentations? Any insights would be great. Thanks
Generally you'll be given a corporate card that you can charge w/e client related expenses you may have and the company handles all the fees. This method can get cumbersome if you mix in personal purchases as well, which is pretty common since these corporate cards have great benefits so people try to max their points.
Corporate card.
/thread
"travel for months" for free - you must be dreaming - not even at top tier firms can you get points to do that
You get issued a corporate Amex. You fill out an expense report and get reimbursed. You are responsible for the bill.
I don't know of anyone who uses their corporate card for personal expenses. You get to keep any points on the card, but honestly the rewards are just ok--I get 2% cash back on my personal cards, which is better than Amex points IMO. I know a lot of people who use their personal SPG cards for their hotels so they can get the extra points.
It is technically against policy to use the corporate card for personal expenses, but I've never ever seen anyone get in trouble for doing so, and it's not uncommon (a couple of times I've forgotten my wallet but had my corporate Amex in my pocket, used it for gas or whatever and no one has ever cared--just don't expense that charge).
I know a number of people who have half a million Starwood points--that's ~3-4 months of free nights depending on where you go. It's not at all unusual for people to bank a million points and a couple of hundred thousand airline miles.
I banked 1.1M+ airline miles and some 600K hotel points within 4 years (3 years of actual travel). Doesn't even include the load of free nights (must have had 30+) SPG/Marriott/Hilton used to throw in back in 2009-10. All east coast.
From my 3 years of consulting so far, I have 450k SPG hotel points and 500k Delta airline miles.
To maximize your points: get SPG credit card and use it to book hotels. (you get extra points for that) Also, when you stay at hotels, refuse the room cleaning services so that you get additional points. Lastly, Delta and SPG have cross over points, so fly Delta and stay at SPG hotels.
My bad I guess it's possible if you stay at cat 1 SPG during vacations
There are no cat1s left in the world I think. But places like Sheraton Kampala are the most happening places in town for cat4 and SPG Cash & Point can take you far.
Cat 4 redeems ~10k points / night--so a million Starwood points is ~3 months of free nights
7-figure starwood point totals are not unusual among frequent travelers at an MBB firm (I try to staff locally where possible so I'm nowhere near that, but if you are trying to optimize in that dimension it's totally doable)
Just admit that you had no idea what you were talking about and move on
double post
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