The amount of unnecessary travel these large corporations do is insane. All of it subsidized by taxpayers as well just to pollute and destroy the environment for imaginary profits that inflate away within 5 years.
Well folks, there you have it, @onebigtime is the ultimate decider on what "unnecessary travel" is :).
On a serious note, being able to go face to face is sometimes a huge win, and can really help hammer through sticky problems, to the point where companies that are downright cheapskates on expenses still see enough value to justify paying for travel. I promise you, if it was really unnecessary, they wouldn't spend a dime they didn't need to.
It's more that half my team is 9 hour time difference from me. When we meet up we can get a lot of discussions done without anyone having to work insane hours.
