Life happens in the moment and so can travel. Last minute travel is a reality of the modern travel age -once held standards of planning certain amounts of time in advance have gone out the window. Whether you need to meet with your operations team in Paris or attend a matinee in London with your mom, there are several steps you can take to ensure that your last minute travel is easily planned.

First, you can prepare ahead of time, even for last minute travel. Although the timing of your travel may come as a surprise, the travel itself does not have to be. If you fly certain routes frequently, become familiar with which airlines serve those routes and what the frequencies of their flights are. Another way of preparing ahead of time is to have any documentation and information necessary to both book and embark on your travel swiftly and easily.

Second, you can more easily deal with the woes of last minute travel by remaining as flexible as possible when making your plans. You may need to make yourself available and open to the idea of alternative modes or routes of travel to ensure that you get to where you need to be, when you need to be there. If you have easy access to train routes, they may be very viable alternatives to plane routes that may fill up faster. If you do not set your mind on achieving a direct flight, you will discover that connecting flights may not add very much travel time to your itinerary, but could save you money. You can also remain flexible by shopping around loyalty to one carrier may help you to gain points or miles, but may rob extra cash from your pocketbook at the same time.

Next, make your travel planning easier by booking as much as you can at one time. Many websites offer the option of booking airline, hotel and car reservations in one itinerary, showing you many options to evaluate at the same time. These are most commonly available through widely-used discount travel websites, but are also available through many airline websites as well. Most major airlines have travel components to their websites that allow all-in-one booking in a flash.

Finally, do the obvious and look for packages. Again offered more commonly by widely-used discount travel websites, these packages are also often offered by major airlines. Last minute travel packages are often offered because airlines, hotels and car rental agencies would rather arrange for their excess inventory to be utilized at discounted rates to generate some revenue rather than not utilized at all.

So the next time you want to ensure that your travel is easily planned, remember the four easy steps of gathering knowledge ahead of time, remaining flexible, using all-in-one sites, and utilizing last minute packages. The days of ensuring that all travel is planned weeks and months in advance to find the best rates and to ensure you plans are actually feasible are gone. Travel has not only become easier to facilitate, but also much more common to participate in. Pack your bags, and enjoy!