Do you or your significant other travel for work or business?! Start cashing in on getting cash back on business travel! Taking a little more time when making your travel arrangements and staying up to date on current offers could increase your income in a snap. As a salesman’s widow, as I like to call myself, I often find myself helping my husband with his travel arrangements for upcoming business trips. Why not make a little extra coin at the same time? Think of these tips as a way to boost your income with very little effort!

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Here are my best tips for cash back on business travel:

Air Travel:

Get a credit card that gives you rewards, like the American Express Delta SkyMiles Card.

If you are like us, you like to travel but find your destinations and trips can sometimes outweigh your budget. While cash back cards are good, we find that cards specifically related to travel are more of a fit for our lifestyle. The rewards are there when we need them and have a specific purpose. With the American Express Delta SkyMiles Card, we earn miles (and bonus miles depending on our spending) that can be used toward the purchase of tickets on Delta.com for air travel. We have used miles to go to Ireland (Roundtrip First Class tickets cost us a whopping – $200 for both tickets!), the Dominican Republic, Mexico and all over the US.

The bonus for this particular card?! When you book travel with Delta, you get additional miles for using the American Express Delta SkyMiles Card, as well as additional miles on purchases while on board.

Get cash back on your air travel reservations using a cash-back website or app.

Both ebates.com (website and app) and the Ibotta (app) provide cash back through companies that offer air travel reservations. Utilize these methods to get cash back and find deals if you aren’t loyal to a particular airline. Use both of the cash back platforms to search websites like Expedia, JustFly.com or Hotwire to book your travel.

Cash Back from your Business Trip Expenses

Booking Hotels:

Utilize your credit card’s additional travel-related offers.

This may sound like we are repeating Tip Number 1, but we aren’t! The American Express Delta SkyMiles Card also comes with discount features depending on your spend. Cash back on business travel is a snap with these offers! Offers will be available to you when you login to your account via the web or the app. Be sure to load them to your card to make them active on your account.

My husband likes to stay at Hilton properties when he travels. I paid our American Express bill and happened to see that an offer was available to load to our card that provided a $50 statement credit for a $200 stay at a Hampton Inn. Win – win! On an upcoming business trip, we made sure to book through the website and followed the rules indicated specifically for the offer. It’s not just Hilton properties though, I have loaded rewards on our card for Marriott Hotels, the Crowne-Plaza, and even Ritz-Carlton Properties. If you don’t use them, they just expire.

Book your hotels directly using a cash back website.

Loyal to one particular hotel company? You can absolutely get cash back when booking directly with a specific hotel company. I like to use ebates.com for this. Simply search your favorite hotel company via their search engine and book through their link to receive cash back. Your cash back will be credited to your account once your stay is complete, but as long as you create the tracking ticket by following all the links, the money will be deposited to your ebates account. This can really add up!

For example, a stay at Hotel Indigo, could yield much as 8% (at the time of this publication) back on your hotel stay. If your total bill for three nights was $500, you would receive $40 in cash back by using ebates! That’s a huge payback for little effort!

Shop for the best deals using a cash back website.

If you don’t care which hotel brand you stay with on your next trip, you can still get quite a bit of cash back. Using a cash back website like ebates is perfect for this! You can search the big hotel websites like Expedia, Orbitz, and Hotels.com and receive cash back for your purchases. You can even get cash back if you book a VRBO property! Just remember to book through the prompts on the ebates.com website or through the app.

Use a cash back app to book your hotels.

While ebates.com does offer an app, you may want to check Ibotta to see who is providing a better cash back incentive. Ibotta offers cash back on bookings through their app for companies like Booking.com, Hotwire.com and even Intercontinental Hotels Group. Be sure to download the app (you get $5 when you redeem your first offer) and follow the prompts to receive your credit.

Securing Airport Parking:

Use cash back websites for airport parking.

It doesn’t seem like a lot when you are looking at overall travel expenses, but if you are traveling week in and week out, airport parking starts to add up – BIG TIME! Again, I use ebates and receive cash back! In most cases, this works best if you are at a larger airport. Many of the cash back offers are for companies that are off-site, like Park ‘N Fly (at the time of this posting, they were offering 3% back). However, you can also use ebates to search and book airport parking with websites like Groupon and Living Social.

Renting a Rental Car:

Get cash back on your air travel reservations using a cash-back website or app.

As stated with air travel reservations, we recommend cash back websites like ebates.com and the cash back app, Ibotta for rental car reservations. These two avenues provide direct money back through their partners like National (ebates), Avis (ebates), and Hertz, among others.

Get cash back on common business expenses from your next business trip.

While you may not get rich with these suggestions, you will likely make enough to pay a monthly bill if your travel is consistent! Maybe you are a stay-at-home mom, hoping to pay your light bill with your husbands travel plans. Perhaps you are simply trying to pay your monthly gym membership! Either way, utilizing these services websites and credit card programs for your travel will provide a boost to your income while taking a very minimal amount of time. Plan ahead. Remember to use these programs. Safe Travels!