Urgent business meetings can require last-minute bookings to be made, usually reducing your choice of airline and flight time options - unless you're willing to pay a hefty price.
Often these are unavoidable and should be allowed for in your overall travel budget. However, it is crucial to forward plan travel whenever possible.
For instance, if you know you'll be travelling from Auckland to Wellington for a meeting once a fortnight, booking in advance will typically see you fly for under $200 one-way or $400 for a return fare at peak travel times. Compare that to booking the day before - which could see you paying over $300 one-way or approximately $600 return.
Based on an average of 20 trips to Wellington per year, you're quickly looking at a few thousand dollars in potential savings, all by planning in advance.
The same theory applies if you're planning work trips for a busy executive - the red-eye flight or the economy class long-haul flight can be tempting when it comes to saving money but you need to determine whether the objective of the trip outweighs potential savings.
