Delta, Starbucks top most submitted travel expenses

Delta Air Lines, Starbucks, Avis car rental and the Marriott have at least one thing in common: Their names dominate travel expense reports.

In its quarterly “SpendSmart” report, the firm Certify found Atlanta-based Delta tops the list of most expensed airline tickets with nearly 21 percent of the total. The average amount was $383.80.

Delta was followed by United (13 percent); Southwest (9 percent); American (8.9 percent) and US Airways (8.8 percent).

Starbucks was the most expensed restaurant overall (5 percent) and for breakfast (14 percent). The average Starbucks tab was $9.03. Subway (3 percent) was the most expensed restaurant for lunch and McDonald’s (1.7 percent) for dinner. Atlanta-based Chick-fil-A, however, beat McDonald’s as the most expensed restaurant in Atlanta, Certify reported.

Marriott was the most expensed hotel, showing up on 8.9 percent of reports with an average expense of $238.29. The hotel was followed by No. 2 expensed hotel Hampton Inn (6.4 percent) and Courtyard by Marriott (6.2 percent).

Among car rental companies, Avis showed up on 17 percent of expense reports with an average tab of $170.84, followed by National Car Rental (15.6 percent). National had the highest average tab of $177.76.

The report allowed business travelers to rate which companies were tops in their categories: Chick-fil-A ranked No. 1 among restaurants, followed by Panera Bread; Westin Hotels ranked No. 1 in its category, followed by Residence Inn; Southwest was No. 1 among airlines, followed by Alaska Airlines (Delta came in No. 3); Enterprise Rent-A-Car was No. 1 in its category, followed by Avis.