Business travel woes drive interest in luggage shipping services, as traveling solo not so glamorous, most business travelers prefer to take their spouse or significant other along -

In a summer travel season that has seen nearly a half-billion travelers(1) but also a record number of flight delays(2), business travelers continue to show interest in ways to get through airports and to their destinations more quickly.

And with luggage shipping services now available and designed to make air travel easier, 50 percent of those surveyed in the July Orbitz for Business corporate traveler poll say they'd pay between $25 and $75 for this type of service.

This was among the findings in this month's Orbitz for Business Traveler Survey, as 56% said they would pay to have bags shipped ahead of time when taking a trip. The breakdown of responses and costs is as follows:

• Would pay $25 - 30%
• Would pay $50 - 14%
• Would pay $75 - 6%
• Would pay $100 - 6%
• Would pay $200 - 1%
• Not interested in the service - 44%

Prices listed are for round-trip delivery of a single bag, with at least two-day advanced shipping.

"Business travelers today are certainly airport savvy, and given today's travel climate racked with delays and airport headaches, it's not surprising that many are looking for ways to make the process easier," said Dean Sivley, COO and general manager, Orbitz Worldwide's Corporate Travel Solutions group. "Services like OrbitzTLC, traveler alerts and luggage shipping are among the many now available services to make business travelers' lives easier and more hassle-free."

Another question in the July survey asked if business travelers had a trip to a popular vacation destination, would they prefer to bring their spouse or significant other along, or prefer to travel alone?

Seventy-two percent said they would rather bring their spouse/significant other. Twenty-eight percent favor traveling alone. Other questions and findings of the survey include:

1. How much of your annual leisure travel costs (not including spending money) would you estimate are paid for by being a frequent business traveler, such as free airline tickets through mileage programs, hotel stays through loyalty points, etc.?

• 0-10% - 58%
• 10-25% - 22%
• 25-50% - 15%
• 50-75% - 4%
• 75-100% - 1%

2. Most business hotels today offer Wi-Fi access and Internet service to make working while traveling easier. How many hours per day would you estimate you spend working outside of normal business hours when traveling?

• 0-1 - 27%
• 2 - 36%
• 3 - 23%
• 4 - 7%
• More than 4 hours - 7%

3. Assume you have a business trip to a popular vacation destination. Would you prefer to bring your spouse/significant other with you (assuming you are responsible for their travel costs) or to travel alone?

• Bring a spouse/significant other - 72%
• Travel alone - 28%

The Orbitz for Business survey is a subset of Orbitz' Take 5 initiative, which was launched in 2006 in celebration of the company's five-year anniversary.

The Take 5 Corporate Traveler poll was conducted online using a MarketTools panel of 436 adults ages 18-65 who are business travelers.

MarketTools is a market research firm that directly manages a nationally-representative online panel of more than 2.5 million individuals, with a global network extending to more than eight million consumers worldwide.