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I share a hotel room with coworkers 1x a year at SXSW. All walking distance hotels sell out in 24 hours or less in august. Even then it is at my discretion and approval who I share with but I generally like my coworkers and it makes everyone's life easier to not have to wait for shuttles at 2am or later.
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Sep 3, 2014 16:05
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Thoguh posted:Plus, as you said, the hotel room is the only private place I've got when traveling with others. Take that away from me and I'm basically at work 24 hours a day. Completely agree on that. SXSW or some type of clusterfuck where you have to use a airbnb (and even then you would probably have separate sleeping spaces) would make sense too considering booking hotels is drat near impossible for an event like that. So regarding policies on expenses, I'm hearing rumblings at work that we'll be forced to put everything on a company card so you can't claim expenses off what you spend on a personal card. That's in the middle of a ton of other bullshit culture changes (rules on dress code, working remotely), but is it wrong that I feel like every little perk that made my job stand out is going away? I figure stashing away a ton of points for me to burn on my vacation time is a major part of what makes a frequent traveler lifestyle appealing.
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Sep 3, 2014 16:15
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air- posted:Completely agree on that. SXSW or some type of clusterfuck where you have to use a airbnb (and even then you would probably have separate sleeping spaces) would make sense too considering booking hotels is drat near impossible for an event like that. We already are "encouraged" to put as much as possible on the corporate card. I'm not a fan of it, but looking at it from the company perspective (makes auditing easier, makes expense reporting easier, and gives them more clout when negotiating with vendors) I can't bitch about it too much. Now, if they started demanding to keep my hotel/airline points that would be a dealbreaker. Though Delta seems hell bent to not give me many points anymore to begin with.
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Sep 3, 2014 16:19
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air- posted:So regarding policies on expenses, I'm hearing rumblings at work that we'll be forced to put everything on a company card so you can't claim expenses off what you spend on a personal card. That's in the middle of a ton of other bullshit culture changes (rules on dress code, working remotely), but is it wrong that I feel like every little perk that made my job stand out is going away? I figure stashing away a ton of points for me to burn on my vacation time is a major part of what makes a frequent traveler lifestyle appealing. This is effectively a pay cut.
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Sep 3, 2014 16:19
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DJCobol posted:Never ever, no way, no how. The day I'm forced to share a room with a co-worker is the day I quit. I already have to share a rental car with them, go to work with them, eat lunch with them, and 95% of the time, go to dinner after work with them. I need some time away from them at some point, and I'm sure they all feel the same way about me. Agreed; the only time I've done it is when I secured a two room suite with separate bathrooms and everything. Other than that, I'll be having my own room, thanks.
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Sep 3, 2014 16:22
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Thoguh posted:We already are "encouraged" to put as much as possible on the corporate card. I'm not a fan of it, but looking at it from the company perspective (makes auditing easier, makes expense reporting easier, and gives them more clout when negotiating with vendors) I can't bitch about it too much. Now, if they started demanding to keep my hotel/airline points that would be a dealbreaker. Though Delta seems hell bent to not give me many points anymore to begin with. Oh yeah, there's also rumors there's also the possibility of the company booking travel for us, so yep, effectively, we wouldn't be able to claim points/miles anymore. gently caress.
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Sep 3, 2014 16:27
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air- posted:Oh yeah, there's also rumors there's also the possibility of the company booking travel for us, so yep, effectively, we wouldn't be able to claim points/miles anymore. gently caress. We book everything via the corporate travel agent but that doesn't impact points earning.
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Sep 3, 2014 16:33
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air- posted:Oh yeah, there's also rumors there's also the possibility of the company booking travel for us, so yep, effectively, we wouldn't be able to claim points/miles anymore. gently caress. That doesn't usually take the points away. Give them your freaky flyer number at check in if the company travel guys won't take it and they'll stick it right on your account.
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Sep 3, 2014 16:39
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kitten smoothie posted:What's everyone else's company policy on this? As a matter of policy, NO! I'm flexible in situations where there is no choice but I think in such cases we would be well justified to get a suite and arrange things that way without my boss even blinking. air- posted:Oh yeah, there's also rumors there's also the possibility of the company booking travel for us, so yep, effectively, we wouldn't be able to claim points/miles anymore. gently caress. My company keeps making rumblings about P cards and using the travel portals. It's an effective pay cut for sure. Doubly so now that the points programs are increasingly terrible going to rev based earnings and so forth. The writing is on the wall. Things aren't as good for me as they were in '03 when I started doing this. AgrippaNothing fucked around with this message at 16:44 on Sep 3, 2014 |
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Sep 3, 2014 16:42
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Midjack posted:FYI he's the guy from Hong Kong who has to bring a teapot and suitcase of noodles for his seniors whenever they travel. I'm surprised his company actually pays for hotels rather than making them sleep in the rental car. Is that for real?
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Sep 3, 2014 17:04
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we book through corporate travel and still get points, so thats not really a big deal. The rest sounds lovely and not a good sign for the direction of the company.
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Sep 3, 2014 17:44
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Thoguh posted:We already are "encouraged" to put as much as possible on the corporate card. I'm not a fan of it, but looking at it from the company perspective (makes auditing easier, makes expense reporting easier, and gives them more clout when negotiating with vendors) I can't bitch about it too much. Now, if they started demanding to keep my hotel/airline points that would be a dealbreaker. Though Delta seems hell bent to not give me many points anymore to begin with. The one advantage for employees to a mandatory corporate card is that the company never owes you money. I know some frequent travellers are hardcore about that, even taking cash advances against their Amex to pay tips and such. Works even better if the company is wholly responsible for the corporate card.
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Sep 3, 2014 19:33
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smackfu posted:The one advantage for employees to a mandatory corporate card is that the company never owes you money. I know some frequent travellers are hardcore about that, even taking cash advances against their Amex to pay tips and such. Works even better if the company is wholly responsible for the corporate card. Yeah, I agree with that. I wish I was able to get the points from all the money spent while I'm on travel, but I also like the fact that I'm not being exposed to any risk.
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Sep 3, 2014 20:10
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I think if we end up with P-cards, that is the upshot. No two ways about it, accounting is a bitch using my own cards and running a slush fund to pay cards and run expenses check through not to mention pealing out my personal spend among the biz spend. But picking up a 1 or 2 new cards every year and clocking the min spend gives me serious miles/points to spend on top of the butt in seat/head on pillow points I rack up. Plus with all the airlines going to rev based earning I think CC churn/spend will be the only way to hang on to having a few dream flights a year.
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Sep 3, 2014 20:23
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When I've had to use corporate booking in the past I still get my points. I just have all my FF#s listed and they were tagged appropriately to the purchase. The downside was no incremental points due to credit card spend. The upside is that you don't have to float money to the company.
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Sep 3, 2014 20:56
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They just took away our car allowance ($6500!!), so I feel you dude.  Our travel booking portal is also not bad, but I sometimes end up searching outside the site to get the times and hotel locations I want first. Then I fiddle with the portal search parameters to get exactly what I want. Also, Seattle, what the hell?  
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Sep 4, 2014 02:28
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In our portal there's a place to punch in all the FF#s. We can either book through the portal and select routes ourselves or talk to a live agent who gives us a bunch of wonky route options (and waste 10 minutes going over seat selections for every segment even though I can just change it later whenever). But I guess using the live agent tacks on a hefty fee, more so than a more expensive route, so we are encouraged not to use them if at all possible.
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Sep 4, 2014 04:59
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skipdogg posted:Just getting to MCI is a pain in the rear end. Let's build the airport in the middle of nowhere. I have family in Topeka, flying there sucks, as I always have to transfer somewhere coming from SAT. The trip usually looks like SAT->DAL->MCI 90 minute drive to Topeka, since that city is so bullshit they don't even have public air transportation available. To be fair though living in Texas and flying from SAT I almost always have to transfer in Dallas or Houston. Welcome to my life every week for the past 15 out of 20 months except I get to go BDL -> (DTW, CVG, or ATL) -> MCI. United started flying 50 seat ERJs out of Topeka to Chicago but since I fly Delta I'm stuck making that drive every Monday morning & Thursday afternoon. Atleast it gives me an excuse to leave the office early to catch a 5:15 flight.
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Sep 5, 2014 21:28
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Well, finally showed up for a meeting a month early. I sort of blame one of my colleagues who invited me along and was unclear about the actual date (numeric day was correct). Fortunately, total cost was like a $7 MARC train ride, a $120 one way flight, and lunch. I sure do feel loving stupid though!!!
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Sep 9, 2014 13:11
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So my company cheaped out and now I have to fly from the US to my destination, going through the Heathrow Airport. It looks like I need to switch terminals from 3 to 4. The internet is a bit confusing on this. I need to take a train or something between the 2? I assume it's free?
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Sep 9, 2014 22:59
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There's a bus, T4 is on the other side of the runway so you can't walk it. Be glad you don't have to get a rental car from T4 because that's a 20 minute bus ride. gently caress Heathrow and/or Skyteam.
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Sep 9, 2014 23:21
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Pvt Dancer posted:There's a bus, T4 is on the other side of the runway so you can't walk it. So what the hell is this Heathrow connect train thing? gently caress, what a confusing airport.
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Sep 10, 2014 00:24
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Thousands of people navigate that airport easily for the first time every day. You will be fine. There are signs. They're even in English.
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Sep 10, 2014 03:24
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TLG James posted:So what the hell is this Heathrow connect train thing? gently caress, what a confusing airport. If I remember right that's the train that runs between the airport and Paddington station downtown. Fast and cheap way into the city.
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Sep 10, 2014 03:44
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I showed up to my global entry appointment 1.5 hours early (gently caress you google traffic!) and they took me immediately. I was done in less than 15 minutes, which was kinda surreal. Now to see if either global entry or pre-check will work because my name has special characters in it!
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Sep 10, 2014 05:08
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Midjack posted:If I remember right that's the train that runs between the airport and Paddington station downtown. Fast and cheap way into the city. That's the Heathrow Express, yeah. I'd only really call it cheap when compared to a taxi, though. If I remember right, it was 20-25 pounds each way when I was there last year. Then again, maybe there was a round-trip option I missed after having been up for 20 hours straight.
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Sep 10, 2014 07:38
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MickeyFinn posted:I showed up to my global entry appointment 1.5 hours early (gently caress you google traffic!) and they took me immediately. I was done in less than 15 minutes, which was kinda surreal. Now to see if either global entry or pre-check will work because my name has special characters in it! My name has special characters in it and I've never had a problem.
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Sep 10, 2014 11:39
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TLG James posted:So my company cheaped out and now I have to fly from the US to my destination, going through the Heathrow Airport. It's pretty easy if everything's on time. You'll probably have to clear customs and go through security. Don't have a bunch of loose crap in your carry-on bags or that'll take forever. It's not hard though: sellouts posted:Thousands of people navigate that airport easily for the first time every day. You will be fine. There are signs. They're even in English.
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Sep 10, 2014 13:35
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Kreeblah posted:That's the Heathrow Express, yeah. I'd only really call it cheap when compared to a taxi, though. If I remember right, it was 20-25 pounds each way when I was there last year. Then again, maybe there was a round-trip option I missed after having been up for 20 hours straight. There is both a Heathrow Connect and a Heathrow Express train. The express train is dramatically more expensive, takes about fifteen or twenty minutes, and goes non-stop to Paddington. The Heathrow connect is significantly cheaper, takes thirty minutes, and makes three or four stops along the way. Unless work is paying, Heathrow Connect works just fine for me. Hell, last time I was over there, a dead train on the track that had stuff hosed up so we got to ride on the express train anyway. And yes, there are a couple of options to get between terminals at LHR. It's annoying but not difficult by any means. And remember that security is super duper serious about liquids in the UK; if they find something, they'll completely disassemble your entire bag and inspect each item. Make double drat sure you pulled your liquids out prior to screening. 
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Sep 10, 2014 13:50
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Brit security and immigration is uberseriousness.
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Sep 10, 2014 23:02
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I think you can go terminal to terminal airside at LHR but I am always O&D so I don't know for sure.
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Sep 11, 2014 00:57
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Aristotle Animes posted:Brit security and immigration is uberseriousness. I always get a kick out of US customs being populated by mostly middle-aged, unarmed men, whereas other countries all seem to have young, fit soldiers with submachineguns scanning the crowd. "Welcome to our country, but please don't gently caress around."
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Sep 11, 2014 06:50
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Ynglaur posted:I always get a kick out of US customs being populated by mostly middle-aged, unarmed men, whereas other countries all seem to have young, fit soldiers with submachineguns scanning the crowd. "Welcome to our country, but please don't gently caress around." Where have you been where custom officers were unarmed? I always see them with a side arm at minimum.
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Sep 11, 2014 06:59
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DaRealAce posted:Where have you been where custom officers were unarmed? I always see them with a side arm at minimum. I never noticed them carrying at the Toronto checkpoint, or in Chicago. This may be because I didn't notice, of course.
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Sep 11, 2014 07:11
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Cocoa Crispies posted:It's pretty easy if everything's on time. You'll probably have to clear customs and go through security. Don't have a bunch of loose crap in your carry-on bags or that'll take forever. Pretty sure last time I changed terminals at LHR it was security only. Customs was only necessary if you were leaving the airport. Granted it's a constant construction project there and I wouldn't be surprised if there were changes from time to time.
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Sep 11, 2014 07:28
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Ynglaur posted:I never noticed them carrying at the Toronto checkpoint, or in Chicago. This may be because I didn't notice, of course. I'm just thinking to my experiences at LAX and SFO.
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Sep 11, 2014 09:06
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Ynglaur posted:I never noticed them carrying at the Toronto checkpoint, or in Chicago. This may be because I didn't notice, of course. I'm not sure they carry while in Canada, because they have this weird thing here about being a sovereign country and poo poo. But otherwise I've never seen a CBP rep without a gun, and quite often a flak jacket. US Customs, in my experience, are some of the rudest, harshest and most inflexible there are... And I've been to a few countries where they just point machine guns in your face,
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Sep 11, 2014 11:56
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US, Canada, and GB can be jarringly hostile. One time in Halifax, when asked about the purpose of my business travel to Canada, I told them meetings and the immigration officer freaked out and told me that that was the most generic answer I could have given, what are these meetings aboot and then the follow up was of course why can't a Canadian do your job. She was tiny, in Kevlar, way too wound up, and as far as I could tell, doing the same to everyone. I'm sure she thought she was scary, but I've been shaken down for cash by sweaty, gun toting, shouty dudes in the Caribbean...Halifax ain't poo poo.
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Sep 11, 2014 13:50
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The Canadian border guards are so easy to win over if you suggest or hint that the meeting may result in future business deals with the Canadian based side. They practically fire up the motorcade for you.
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Sep 11, 2014 20:30
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Uncle Jam posted:The Canadian border guards are so easy to win over if you suggest or hint that the meeting may result in future business deals with the Canadian based side. They practically fire up the motorcade for you. I'm hesitant to believe that this is a universal experience.
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Sep 11, 2014 20:34
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