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Count Freebasie
Jan 12, 2006

Kimpton Inner Circle is where it's at, son. I was staying in one of their hotels on my birthday and when I got back to my room from business, there were two slices of cheesecake and a bottle of champagne on ice for me. They treat you baller.

I'm actually typing this from a Kimpton Hotel right now (70 Park Ave in NYC -- hit me up if you want to go drinking -- I'm bored).

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sellouts
Apr 23, 2003

All about kimpton properties. We've done some business with them and they're great to work with.

Hotel Wilshire property in LA is strange though. Weird location and below par food options. Good thing uberx is so plentiful.

And Mackieman I have your back. Not everything requires a dissertation.

SuperSix
Aug 22, 2012
I'm in college and I'm just curious, what do you guys do?

Beef Of Ages
Jan 11, 2003

Your dumb is leaking.

sellouts posted:

And Mackieman I have your back. Not everything requires a dissertation.

Heh, 'preciate it. I think the sentiment that Thoguh and smackfu were trying to express was the all-too-common rear end in a top hat that sometimes inhabits FlyerTalk and MilePoint who acts like they're better than everyone else because they have status or otherwise derive increased self-worth through being top-tier on a particular program. I hate those jerks too and solemnly promise that I'm not one of them. There's a balance to be struck, especially in a thread like this, between commenting on a topic sarcastically and not providing enough supporting details.

I digress. I really should finish packing since I just SDC'd my Beijing trip to leave at 6:20 in the morning because gently caress being on the last flight of the day into EWR when it's supposed to rain.

Beef Of Ages
Jan 11, 2003

Your dumb is leaking.

SuperSix posted:

I'm in college and I'm just curious, what do you guys do?

I'm an eCommerce dev manager who works for a painfully large financial institution and, because I have niche expertise in digital data collection, I get begged asked to come to China to educate the poor fools who work at a painfully large financial institution that we've partnered with on how to do digital data collection. Normally I'm almost purely a leisure traveler, but these trips have been good for status and mileage balances.

I may be wrong but I think a bunch of the other regular posters in this thread are either consultants or field service folks.

Midjack
Dec 24, 2007



Most of us are either grey arms dealers or narcotics traffickers. I think one guy is a North Korean spy, and we have a couple of servants of the Lizardmen who post here when they're not inside the hollow earth.

Okay, not really. I'm a program manager.

Pissingintowind
Jul 27, 2006
Better than shitting into a fan.
I used to be a strategy and operations consultant in the US, so I had tons of domestic travel (yuck). I moved in-house to a corporate strategy and M&A team at a massive US company, but my travel has gone down considerably. I'm now located in a BRIC satellite office, so I do still have trips to the hubs.

FunOne
Aug 20, 2000
I am a slimey vat of concentrated stupidity

Fun Shoe

Ynglaur posted:

Contrast with, e.g. MSP, where its relatively trivial to find a spot to open your laptop during a delayed flight or long layover.

I used to kill time at MSP at the sitting area on the second floor. Nobody is ever up there except the employees.

caberham
Mar 18, 2009

by Smythe
Grimey Drawer

Mackieman posted:

I'm an eCommerce dev manager who works for a painfully large financial institution and, because I have niche expertise in digital data collection, I get begged asked to come to China to educate the poor fools who work at a painfully large financial institution that we've partnered with on how to do digital data collection. Normally I'm almost purely a leisure traveler, but these trips have been good for status and mileage balances.

I may be wrong but I think a bunch of the other regular posters in this thread are either consultants or field service folks.

If you got time, Beijing goons are nice folks. A spread out but great hosts.

taco show
Oct 6, 2011

motherforker


I'm in sales consulting which means I get to use meaningless business phrases like "boil the ocean" all the time. My territory currently covers everything in the Central to Pacific time zones, but occasionally a client or our sales team will request that I go out of the country.

When I was based out of DFW I flew a ton, but now that I live in Chicago, a lot of my deals are juuuust close enough that flying no longer makes sense (Milwaukee, Fond du Lac, South Bend, etc. etc.) and my air miles have dropped significantly.

majestic12
Sep 2, 2003

Pete likes coffee
Field service engineer. We make research grade equipment that goes in universities and other labs and I make it work right. Cover all of N America, but it's pretty rare that I go to Mexico, which is alright cause my Spanish sucks. The only hard part is my job is reactive since we respond to poo poo breaking, and that can make it very hard to plan trips more than a week or two ahead of time. ^^ I'm also based out of Chicago

SuperSix
Aug 22, 2012

Midjack posted:

Most of us are either grey arms dealers or narcotics traffickers. I think one guy is a North Korean spy, and we have a couple of servants of the Lizardmen who post here when they're not inside the hollow earth.

Okay, not really. I'm a program manager.

Hahahaha

Thanks for the answers guys, that's pretty interesting. I'm imagining you're all George Clooneys in my mind.

canoshiz
Nov 6, 2005

THANK GOD FOR THE SMOKE MACHINE!
I'm a field service/product support engineer for a major semiconductor tool manufacturer. We have business both domestically (US) and globally. I'm assigned to our Korea account officially, although whenever we're short staffed pretty much anywhere else in the world I end up going to provide additional support. Not as cool as George Clooney but whatever. majestic12's job description is pretty much identical to mine, except to Asia.

ScooterMcTiny
Apr 7, 2004

I work in music marketing - I'd say 50% of my travel is work related. The other half is personal heading back to the east coast to see friends and family since I relocated to Los Angeles for work. Flew 130,000 miles total last year and managed to spend less than 10 nights in hotels.

Thoguh
Nov 8, 2002

College Slice

SuperSix posted:

I'm in college and I'm just curious, what do you guys do?

Engineer at a second tier aerospace company. My travel is split between field service type integration stuff and visiting our prime contractors.

KYOON GRIFFEY JR
Apr 12, 2010



Runner-up, TRP Sack Race 2021/22
Consultant, heavy equipment industry - construction, mining, agriculture, some rail.

Ynglaur
Oct 9, 2013

The Malta Conference, anyone?

taco show posted:

I'm in sales consulting which means I get to use meaningless business phrases like "boil the ocean" all the time. My territory currently covers everything in the Central to Pacific time zones, but occasionally a client or our sales team will request that I go out of the country.

When I was based out of DFW I flew a ton, but now that I live in Chicago, a lot of my deals are juuuust close enough that flying no longer makes sense (Milwaukee, Fond du Lac, South Bend, etc. etc.) and my air miles have dropped significantly.

Sales effectiveness consultant, mostly on the systems and sales ops process side.

sink the biz
Jun 13, 2002

My goodness my Guinness

SuperSix posted:

I'm in college and I'm just curious, what do you guys do?

management consultant focusing on financial services. based out of NYC but most of my clients happen to be in LA, DC and Charlotte

Xguard86
Nov 22, 2004

"You don't understand his pain. Everywhere he goes he sees women working, wearing pants, speaking in gatherings, voting. Surely they will burn in the white hot flames of Hell"
technology consultant: mostly teaching clients why their 20 year old technologies and practices need to be updated before they are eaten alive by competitors.

Lyon
Apr 17, 2003
I do software sales (formerly software training) for laboratories. This year I think I'll end up right around 75k miles. So not nearly as much as some of you characters but a pretty decent amount of travel.

sellouts
Apr 23, 2003

ScooterMcTiny posted:

I work in music marketing - I'd say 50% of my travel is work related. The other half is personal heading back to the east coast to see friends and family since I relocated to Los Angeles for work. Flew 130,000 miles total last year and managed to spend less than 10 nights in hotels.

Similar story here. Now don't travel as much and am stoked.

Uncle Jam
Aug 20, 2005

Perfect
I do research coordination and presentation of my own research. Head office is in Asia. However work in California has dried up a bit and the strategy is to move research in house more so I'm not even a frequent flier anymore. On top of that about 80% of the time I get the option to extend a trip a few days for pleasure without having to pay for airfare, so my flying for leisure is non existent.

oxsnard
Oct 8, 2003
Environmental engineer/specialist with a large energy company. I do internal compliance auditing

P.D.B. Fishsticks
Jun 19, 2010

I'm the lead engineer on a flight simulator project dealing with a contractor with multiple offices and subcontractors doing work for us nationwide, for devices that we're going to install in multiple locations across the US. So I have a lot of meetings, reviews, and site surveys across the country. I also do a reasonable amount of personal travel on my own dime.

P.D.B. Fishsticks fucked around with this message at 07:15 on Nov 7, 2014

Nifty
Aug 31, 2004

I perform audits on behalf of banks, on companies that are applying for loans with the banks. Job is about 1/3rd travel. I also use all those points and travel a lot on my own too. I keep track of this cause I'm a nerd and so far 2014 I've been out of town 71 nights for business and 61 nights for pleasures

caberham
Mar 18, 2009

by Smythe
Grimey Drawer
I work in marketing for metal fabrication. I ride buses to factory towns in China and sometimes do trade shows in Europe. If I'm out of town I like to seek out internet strangers

SuperSix posted:

Hahahaha

Thanks for the answers guys, that's pretty interesting. I'm imagining you're all George Clooneys in my mind.

You mean Geroge Goonies :smug:

Pissingintowind
Jul 27, 2006
Better than shitting into a fan.
For serving such a modern city, terminal 1 at DXB is truly an embarrassment from start to finish. gently caress this place.

AgrippaNothing
Feb 11, 2006

When flying, please wear a suit and tie just like me.
Just upholding the social conntract!

Thoguh posted:

The most Flyertalk possible response.

HHonors has ruined my life for the last time. I was upgraded to a double queen at the Conrad Suites in Bali. MY ROOM PREFERENCE IS A KING.

Real talk just got back from an vacay in asia, Philippines, Thailand, Bali. ANA, TG, BR all business class and being an HH diamond over there was sweet as all gently caress. Conrad Bali was awesome.

On the ground for 3 days and it's Monterey, CA, Munich, Southampton home for 3 days then Missouri, maybe a 5 days home and then South Carolina and Halifax.... sigh. Earn them miles and that money.


SuperSix posted:

I'm in college and I'm just curious, what do you guys do?

Demonstration deployments, key customer support and training for an environmental sensor company. It's a Tech supporty/salesy/markety thing.

Knitting Beetles
Feb 4, 2006

Fallen Rib
I do electrical safety assessment and auditing for US companies in Europe, the difference with other posters here is that I'm self employed. My travel arrangements are flexible in the way that I charge what I can get away with and money I save I get to keep, with some exceptions. This makes business class / premium hotels not worthwhile so I'm mostly concerned with getting value for money or seeing how cheap I can get without it becoming gross. With the amount of rating sites available you can usually find really good deals that you quoted at regular rates. Pretty much all my work requires flying so I typically can afford a long haul business class trip a year, my points are all over the place though because loyalty isn't worth it when you're paying the premium out of your own pocket. Rental car points cover me for a lot of my personal rentals through the year, don't own a car because of that.

oxsnard
Oct 8, 2003

Pvt Dancer posted:

I do electrical safety assessment and auditing for US companies in Europe, the difference with other posters here is that I'm self employed. My travel arrangements are flexible in the way that I charge what I can get away with and money I save I get to keep, with some exceptions. This makes business class / premium hotels not worthwhile so I'm mostly concerned with getting value for money or seeing how cheap I can get without it becoming gross. With the amount of rating sites available you can usually find really good deals that you quoted at regular rates. Pretty much all my work requires flying so I typically can afford a long haul business class trip a year, my points are all over the place though because loyalty isn't worth it when you're paying the premium out of your own pocket. Rental car points cover me for a lot of my personal rentals through the year, don't own a car because of that.

Do you have PMs? Love to talk with you sometime as I do safety auditing as well

DJCobol
May 16, 2003

CALL OF DUTY! :rock:
Grimey Drawer
I manage a team of field operations trainers and process improvement people for a multinational (North America, Europe, Australia, Taiwan) auto parts company. We all cover North America (Canada and the US, no Mexico).

nikosoft
Dec 17, 2011

ghost in the shell, but somehow much worse
College Slice
I work as an IT consultant in the EHR industry. There are contracts available all over the place, but I generally try to stay on the west coast to make travel easier.

The Risk
Mar 6, 2014
Someone save me from paper receipts. I need to scan my expenses receipts for work.

Anyone recommends a good iPhone app to track expenses? All I want is to scan the receipt and forget about it.

Tyro
Nov 10, 2009
I am an android guy but I use sure scan to make PDFs. Also have Expensify but haven't really played with it much yet.

Beef Of Ages
Jan 11, 2003

Your dumb is leaking.
So, good news/bad news.


Good news is the wifi on this UA 777 is working pretty well. Bad news is I've been on this plane for 11 hours and I'm not there yet.

canoshiz
Nov 6, 2005

THANK GOD FOR THE SMOKE MACHINE!

The Risk posted:

Someone save me from paper receipts. I need to scan my expenses receipts for work.

Anyone recommends a good iPhone app to track expenses? All I want is to scan the receipt and forget about it.

If you guys use Concur their mobile app lets you take a picture of the receipt and enter it as an expense directly from there.

Anza Borrego
Feb 11, 2005

Ovis canadensis nelsoni
SoCal-based landscape architect practicing across the continental US. My firm does some international work but so far I haven't gotten any of it.

Flying back to CA from NC and going to make Plat with AA from this trip. Used to be a Continental loyalist but my travel is fragmented all over the country and I couldn't make status reliably; been traveling to Dallas and Greensboro quite a bit and thought I would give American a try. One thing I do miss was all of the complimentary upgrades on United, this voucher business is not very good.

kitten smoothie
Dec 29, 2001

canoshiz posted:

If you guys use Concur their mobile app lets you take a picture of the receipt and enter it as an expense directly from there.

Concur also has the ExpenseIt app, which will automatically fill in all the expense item info (or try to) given a receipt image. I think your company may need to have a separate license for this app over and above what you already have for Concur expense tracking.

Considering that sometimes it comes back in minutes and other times overnight, I feel like they most likely are just using Mechanical Turk to have an actual human copy the details off the receipts. It seems to do a decent enough job though on simple stuff like taxi and meal receipts.

sellouts
Apr 23, 2003

Noggin Monkey posted:

One thing I do miss was all of the complimentary upgrades on United, this voucher business is not very good.

You finding a lot of flights going out with open seats in first or a lot of plats clearing with upgrades?

I stopped flying regularly and lost status this year and upgrades out of so cal during the work week were always brutal to dfw, AUS JFK or ord. But I'm guessing there are a lot fewer elites as well now.

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Xguard86
Nov 22, 2004

"You don't understand his pain. Everywhere he goes he sees women working, wearing pants, speaking in gatherings, voting. Surely they will burn in the white hot flames of Hell"

kitten smoothie posted:

Concur also has the ExpenseIt app, which will automatically fill in all the expense item info (or try to) given a receipt image. I think your company may need to have a separate license for this app over and above what you already have for Concur expense tracking.

Considering that sometimes it comes back in minutes and other times overnight, I feel like they most likely are just using Mechanical Turk to have an actual human copy the details off the receipts. It seems to do a decent enough job though on simple stuff like taxi and meal receipts.

Based on the accuracy they return vs my chicken scratch handwriting this is my belief too. The timing variation is a clue too: probably It tries some automatic system then kicks it to the crowd if it can't guess accurately enough. I love it and makes expenses 0 effort.

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