Business travel is suddenly a lot more work.

Airlines say red-hot travel demand is driving higher prices. The average price of a U.S. round-trip ticket booked in February was $571, up 23 percent from a year ago and up 8 percent from January, according to Airline Correspondence, a travel agency that tracks ticket sales.

Jerry Abiog took the intensive route from Atlanta to Boston for a conference in early March to save money.

A Southwest Airlines executive’s six-hour trip to Atlanta includes connections in Greenville, S.C., and Baltimore. Delta Air Lines could have found it non-stop in less than half the time, but the tickets it bought were at least $200 more. I could explain that Mr. Abiog wouldn’t cut it if the price gap was narrow, but that was too much for a self-funded AI startup.

“That’s the sacrifice you have to make,” he said.

Close examination

Brandon Strauss, co-founder of Atlanta-based KesselRun Corporate Travel Solutions, said businesses have long been committed to stop-and-go travel since the pandemic, but with higher ticket prices, they are carefully scrutinizing the cost of each trip.

“Return on investment is more of a focus today than I can remember in the 20 years I’ve been doing it,” Mr. Strauss said.

More clients of his travel management company have added a step to the approval process for business trips, he said. Trips that may have received automatic authorization in the past now require manual administrator approval before ticketing.

George Kalka, vice president for Oshkosh Business Travel,

At Fox World Travel, Wis., a client recently asked the agency to search for airports within a 60-mile radius when the agency’s employees shop for travel. Others are slashing the maximum amount travelers can spend on the road with low-cost airfare.

Another change: a limit on one-day business trips. Mr. Kalka suggested a “significant reduction” in such enrollments at the agency in favor of longer trips on the agenda. (JetBlue CEO Robin Hayes last week cited the airline’s plans to reduce the number of flights between Boston and New York as the reason.)

Mr. Kalka said: “They are saying that if we buy such a high amount of air travel, it will not be a day out and out or a night. “Take the second one overnight, they’re saying, ‘See more customers.’

Small and medium-sized companies and travelers are making the best travel experience adjustments on their own dime, the agencies say.

Tracy Carrillo, San Antonio Travel’s senior vice president of business development and marketing, says large businesses often have deals with airlines that save them 2% to 5% on domestic flights and 9 to 11% on international flights. Integrated, a corporate travel management company in Duluth, Ga. Companies make those deals for a limited amount of business.

“They still have to prove that they deserve it [prepandemic] offers,” says Ms. Carrillo.

Plus, most frequent flyers, street vendors and consultants aren’t going to suffer a week-in, week-out, tough connection, out-of-the-way airport, no-name airline, or sit-down. In the economy class, there is not even any extra legroom.

Tighten the travel policy too much and companies could lose top-producing workers to competitors in a still-tight labor market, Ms. Carrillo and other business travel executives say.

More hats

Georg Bender is not bound by any corporate contracts and books her travels for the retail consulting business she owns. Price is a factor, which is why she and her partner flew from Chicago to St. Louis and drove 2½ hours in a rental car to Lebanon, Mo., for a recent client visit.

They paid $442 round trip for two on Southwest Airlines, and about $700 for one person on another airline to Springfield, Mo.

Not that she recommends the cost-saving move.

“It’s boring,” she says.

Matthew Beiranevand, a Massachusetts math teacher, author and speaker, has a level with Delta and hopes to advance to the next level this year. But he found his eyes wandering to other airlines to save money.

He flew American Airlines from Boston to Charlotte, N.C., earlier this year to visit a school district because American was cheaper than nonstop flights on Delta.

He missed the lounge access that came with his premium Delta credit card when he flew the airline. Still, he booked JetBlue on Delta for a January 2024 vacation to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., because round-trip tickets were $300 cheaper.

“Sometimes you have to be like, ‘You know what? If all I’m trying to do is travel from one place to another, is it worth it?'” he says.

Delta declined to comment on individual travelers’ decisions, but a spokesman for Morgan Durant CEO Ed Bastian told investors last week that the airline had the 10 highest sales days in its history in the past 30 days.

Write to Dawn Gilbertson at dawn.gilbertson@wsj.com