Portal4Travel.com

How do you make a good travel experience out of a business trip?  Not possible you say?  There may be times when quick and efficient transfers and check-ins are what is most important from a excursion, but with the holiday season almost upon us, even the most hardened road warriors will be forgiven for thinking more about winding down for the year than business.

Some airlines use the Christmas and New Year period to discount their business class seats and offer some extra perks. With the weak dollar, transatlantic carriers have been full to the brim with leisure and business travelers keen to take advantage of favorable exchange rates.

All-business class airline Silverjet has spotted an attractive way to get bums on seats and give time-pressed business travelers a helping hand in their Christmas present buying with a retail therapist. Passengers on the airline's flights from London to New York and Dubai get the benefit of British journalist Lucia van der Post's extensive shopping knowledge.

Passengers provide the grand-dame of luxurious living and style with a wish-list of presents before their trip. In return, van der Post compiles present advice and an itinerary of the best places to find them, thereby avoiding the tiresome task of battling through hoards of tourists and Christmas shoppers and hopefully making the experience as pleasant as possible.

For many, though, Christmas shopping might seem more a chore rather than a good way to make the most of their down-time on a business trip. Falling short of a personal assistant or good old fashioned butler to do the leg work for you, an online concierge service could the next best thing.

GetFriday and Ask Sunday are two companies catering for a growing demand among time-poor professionals and business travelers for someone else to deal with life's tedious chores.

For $15 an hour, customers with GetFriday -- an Indian company based in Bangalore -- are paired with a personal assistant. The customer can call or email their overseas assistant, calling them by their first name (for that personal touch) and request almost anything, from helping to draft documents to more everyday chores such as paying bills that they might not be able to pay because they are away on business