Register a SA Forums Account here!
JOINING THE SA FORUMS WILL REMOVE THIS BIG AD, THE ANNOYING UNDERLINED ADS, AND STUPID INTERSTITIAL ADS!!!

You can: log in, read the tech support FAQ, or request your lost password. This dumb message (and those ads) will appear on every screen until you register! Get rid of this crap by registering your own SA Forums Account and joining roughly 150,000 Goons, for the one-time price of $9.95! We charge money because it costs us money per month for bills, and since we don't believe in showing ads to our users, we try to make the money back through forum registrations.
 
  • Post
  • Reply
i like Ham
Dec 25, 2006

I'm a big fancy business man. Mind if I check you'r prostate?
I've noticed a surprising lack of threads on SA regarding business travel and/or hardcore frequent flyers. If any of you have done a large amount of travel for work or have known anybody that has, I'm sure you are aware that it has a very distinct type of culture to it.

I'm currently in a position that requires me to travel an average of about 4.5 days a week. By the end of 2012 I anticipate having roughly 200 "travel days" that have spanned over 150,000 airline miles and about 125 nights in hotels. The travel that my job requires is 100% domestic, so I can't comment on international travel. I would recommend a read through http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3489180 for anybody interested in information regarding international travel.

I'm not sure that there will be any interest in this. When I first started traveling heavily I found the whole frequent flyer culture and everything that goes with it pretty interesting, and I know that the flyertalk forums can be very overwhelming to people that aren't so well versed in all of it. I will try my best to respond to any questions as accurately and promptly as I can, but certainly encourage any other frequent flyer goons to contribute to this thread.

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

minya
Sep 7, 2004

SUN RA WAS HERE IN HIS ELEMENT
he invited me back for a ride
Great thread.

How long have you done this? Do you have a home? If not a home, a home base? Do you have a family, or a girlfriend, or a wife? Do you ever have sex with other frequent travelers, or do you ever use escorts or sex workers? Do you have friends that do this kind of thing, and do you ever coordinate your schedules to see each other somehow? Do you ever get to know certain people (employees, etc.) at certain airports? How much free time do you have whenever you arrive to wherever you're traveling? What kind of food do you eat? Do you ever cook your own food? What kind of clothes do you wear? What are your hobbies?

i like Ham
Dec 25, 2006

I'm a big fancy business man. Mind if I check you'r prostate?
I am fairly new to this. I've traveled off and on at various jobs in the past 5 years of my life, however I have only been traveling this frequently for the past year or two.

I currently rent a condo in Austin, TX where my company's office is located. I live with my girlfriend of about two years, and am in a very happy and monogamous relationship. I've not slept with other frequent travelers, this is due to my current relationship and the fact that most frequent travelers are quite a bit older than me. I've never used escorts or sex workers, while traveling or otherwise.

I don't have any friends that do this type of thing, however I have a few co-workers that I'm fairly close with that uphold a similar travel schedule. There are some industry workers that I have developed a certain familiarity with. For the most part this is the staff at some of the hotels and rental car centers that I frequent, however I do occasionally recognize or am recognized by gate agents and flight attendants.

The free time aspect can vary and is certainly one of the more difficult aspects of this type of travel. Due to the domestic nature of my travel I almost always return home on weekends. The amount of free time can vary; there are times where I leave home on a Monday afternoon and have no meetings or commitments until the following afternoon. There are other times where I am in meetings on the West coast until 4:00-5:00 in the afternoon, rush to the airport for a 7:00 p.m. flight, land on the East coast at 6:00 a.m. the following day, and have meetings at 9:00 that morning. I will certainly say that this job has made me in no way envious of people who are required to do extensive amounts of international travel.

The food is another difficult aspect of it. When first starting on this type of schedule I think most people see a pretty big decline in the quality of food they eat. Due to the nature of my job I often find myself taking customers out to meals and drinks. This can range anywhere from a quick lunch at a diner, to a $1000 meal at a steakhouse. When I'm not with customers I am forced into eating way more airport food (TGI Fridays and Chilis, etc...) than I would like, but it is somewhat unavoidable. I do my best to stay away from fast food, and stick to a pretty basic oatmeal for breakfast and a salad for lunch.

For the most part I am wearing basic business/business casual attire when traveling. This is due to both the fact that I'm generally running from the airport to a client's office, and the fact that it helps keep the luggage to a minimum. When I'm heading to or from home on a day that I'm not in front of clients I generally wear jeans and whatever casual shirt I happen to have with me. One of the more interesting things that I have noticed is that I am treated much differently by people when traveling in non business attire.


When I'm on the road I don't really have many hobbies if any at all. I normally spend my weekdays either at the airport, in a customer's office, flying/at the airport, or catching up on work in my hotel room. Surprisingly enough I don't really play any video games. When I'm at home I enjoy spending time with my girlfriend, family, and friends; working on cars, cooking, and seeing live music whenever I get a chance.

i like Ham fucked around with this message at 05:32 on Nov 9, 2012

ijii
Mar 17, 2007
I'M APPARENTLY GAY AND MY POSTING SUCKS.
Are you happy with your current pay? Can you see yourself doing your current job for another 5 years? 10 years?

When you are on a business trip, do they pay for your meals outside of client meetings? If so, how much do they allot you?

C-Euro
Mar 20, 2010

:science:
Soiled Meat
What's your standard "loadout" for travelling (clothes, work gear, electronics etc.)? What sort of luggage can you typically fit it all into? I would imagine that if you're travelling so much you have it down to a science.

What cities/regions do you most often travel to?

i like Ham
Dec 25, 2006

I'm a big fancy business man. Mind if I check you'r prostate?
I'm rather unhappy with my current pay and am currently looking for another job. This has less to do with the travel and more to do with some poor decisions I made when first starting in my job that have left me fairly underpaid compared to my peers or similar positions with other companies. I am an account manager, and so any positions I've applied for require upwards of 50% travel.

I can't imagine that I would be able to do this for more than 5 more years, and even that is pretty daunting to picture. I'm young with no kids and pets, so I'm able to put my career first, however it is a bit of a mental and emotional beat-down to do this all of the time.

i like Ham
Dec 25, 2006

I'm a big fancy business man. Mind if I check you'r prostate?

C-Euro posted:

What's your standard "loadout" for travelling (clothes, work gear, electronics etc.)? What sort of luggage can you typically fit it all into? I would imagine that if you're travelling so much you have it down to a science.

What cities/regions do you most often travel to?

I've generally carry a laptop bag/briefcase and 21" rolling luggage. For shorter trips I've got an overnight bag that I use, and for longer ones I generally bring the 21" roller and a matching 12" piece. You definitely get this down to a science after even a few weeks of regular travel, and the name of the game is avoiding checking luggage. I generally bring 4 dress shirts, two pairs of slacks, a pair of dress shoes, a pair of jeans, running shoes, and workout clothes. Generally I can pack in under 15 minutes the night before, or morning of travel. The biggest thing that I can say makes this easier is that I keep a toiletry kit completely separate of my regular home toiletries. In this I keep the necessities like deodorant and toothpaste, as well as a grooming kit, first aid kit, and a pill box with various medicine/vitamins/sleep aids. This makes it very easy to just throw the whole toiletry kit in a suitcase without second guessing if you have everything you need.

As far as technology goes I carry my work laptop and a personal laptop, a laptop charger with interchangeable tips, a work phone and my personal phone, my ipad (I'm the furthest thing from an apple fanboy, but this is the greatest thing ever created for travel), a wireless hotspot as well as a wireless usb adapter, some decent earbuds, an ipod nano, and various a/c-usb chargers with retractable USB cables.

While I frequently hit other areas all over the U.S. my most common stops are clients' offices in Dallas, Memphis, San Jose, and Atlanta. I'm in Dallas and Atlanta every week, and normally San Jose and Memphis every other week or once a month.

i like Ham fucked around with this message at 06:11 on Nov 9, 2012

Uncle Jam
Aug 20, 2005

Perfect

i like Ham posted:

I'm rather unhappy with my current pay and am currently looking for another job. This has less to do with the travel and more to do with some poor decisions I made when first starting in my job that have left me fairly underpaid compared to my peers or similar positions with other companies. I am an account manager, and so any positions I've applied for require upwards of 50% travel.

I can't imagine that I would be able to do this for more than 5 more years, and even that is pretty daunting to picture. I'm young with no kids and pets, so I'm able to put my career first, however it is a bit of a mental and emotional beat-down to do this all of the time.

Good luck man, and be careful on those red-eyes. My company prohibits red-eye flights because its literally dangerous to be so worn out but trying to operate in a city.

An observer
Aug 30, 2008

where the stars are drowning and whales ferry their vast souls through the black and seamless sea
What's your favourite airport you've been to?

i like Ham
Dec 25, 2006

I'm a big fancy business man. Mind if I check you'r prostate?

An observer posted:

What's your favourite airport you've been to?

I imagine that it's probably a bit biased, but I honestly think that my home airport in Austin is my favorite. They make a really serious effort to keep the food primarily local, and as such it is significantly more edible than most airport food. I also like how small it is, as it is very easy to get around. The security lines can be get a little rough sometimes, but the first class/frequent flyer lines go pretty quickly.

I will say I've developed a serious respect and fascination with any of the massive airports and "airport cities". I know some guys who have worked operations at DFW and the logistics of efficiently moving tens of thousands of people through a secure area of that size is bewildering to me.

Honorable mention for me would be San Jose, and Indianapolis for general cleanliness/age; as well as Detroit and Denver for sheer uniqueness.

C-Euro
Mar 20, 2010

:science:
Soiled Meat
I never thought to keep a separate toiletries bag, that's a great call.

i like Ham posted:

As far as technology goes I carry my work laptop and a personal laptop, a laptop charger with interchangeable tips, a work phone and my personal phone, my ipad (I'm the furthest thing from an apple fanboy, but this is the greatest thing ever created for travel), a wireless hotspot as well as a wireless usb adapter, some decent earbuds, an ipod nano, and various a/c-usb chargers with retractable USB cables.

This is kind of surprising to me. I can understand having both a work phone and personal phone but why bring two laptops AND an iPad? Heck, originally I was just going to ask if you traveled with a laptop or an iPad+keyboard add-on. Seems like a lot of extra stuff to me.

i like Ham
Dec 25, 2006

I'm a big fancy business man. Mind if I check you'r prostate?

C-Euro posted:

I never thought to keep a separate toiletries bag, that's a great call.


This is kind of surprising to me. I can understand having both a work phone and personal phone but why bring two laptops AND an iPad? Heck, originally I was just going to ask if you traveled with a laptop or an iPad+keyboard add-on. Seems like a lot of extra stuff to me.

I wouldn't be able to get by with a tablet and keyboard alone simply because I need to keep my work laptop with me. I've gone without the personal laptop before. Sometimes if I'm on a short trip I won't take it, and I went about a month without a personal laptop when my last one broke. One of the main reasons I bring it along is that my company's IT infrastructure is pretty terrible, so my laptop goes out of commission frequently and unexpectedly; so it's nice to have a backup.

Also call me old fashioned but I prefer my porn watching to be done on a laptop over an iPad any day :colbert:

FrozenVent
May 1, 2009

The Boeing 737-200QC is the undisputed workhorse of the skies.
Is there a way to pack a suit in a carry-on roller and not have it come out looking like poo poo?

Ever had a hard time taking razor blades in a carry on? I never tried it, but then I never travelled more than a day out with just carry on.

moana
Jun 18, 2005

one of the more intellectual satire communities on the web
Have you seen Up in the Air and what did you think about it?

mr_cardholder
Jun 30, 2009

Oh well. It's humanity's problem now.

i like Ham posted:

The travel that my job requires is 100% domestic, so I can't comment on international travel. I would recommend a read through http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3489180 for anybody interested in information regarding international travel.

I can chime in on frequent international travel as long as you don't think I'll be hijacking your thread. I travel every about every 5 weeks to some obscure part of the world for my work. I'm currently offshore Myanmar on a project and will be traveling to New Zealand and Australia next week for some vacation with a one night stopover in Bangkok. I started off my trip in Houston, flew to Dubai and then down to South Africa where I joined the ship that took me here.

RazorDX
Nov 7, 2008

i like Ham posted:

One of the more interesting things that I have noticed is that I am treated much differently by people when traveling in non business attire.

Can you elaborate on this? I've always been fascinated with this type of thing.

Uncle Jam
Aug 20, 2005

Perfect

RazorDX posted:

Can you elaborate on this? I've always been fascinated with this type of thing.

It is kind of funny. All of the service people don't care at all, maybe because they're aware of hot shits dressing like shlubs but it is all the other passengers. When I typically fly its the opposite of Ham, I wear the same well worn jeans and well worn hoodie every time because they are extremely comfortable and 80% of my flights are more than 4 hours, so I'll be smelly anyway. My schedule at destination is not as tight either.

I'll be wearing this, and they'll get the gate ready to call passengers. I'll be upgraded to first class so I roll up nearby, and these older guys in suits or khakis will push through and stand in front of me. They open up to first class and the guys in front won't budge. So I'll push through them. Its really bizarre and it has never not happened. It doesn't make much sense if you sit in economy anyway, because I'd rather stand a couple minutes longer than sit cramped up waiting for people to board.

Water Resistant
Jul 10, 2003
What airline do you usually fly? How many miles have you ever earned in a year? What's the coolest place you used miles to get to?

Seconding Austin as being one of my favorite airports. They actually have live music most weekdays inside the terminal.

KYOON GRIFFEY JR
Apr 12, 2010



Runner-up, TRP Sack Race 2021/22
I actually notice that at my airline's club, the staff react differently to me depending on how I'm dressed. However, I'm also young, and look even younger, so I think this has something to do with it.

I'm in the approximately 100,000 flown miles per year territory. Mostly domestic and Canada.

One key perk with airline status is dedicated phone staff. I can call my airline, get a live person on the phone nearly instantly, and they'll help me out with any issues. This includes in situations (Sandy, etc) where everyone is calling in to change flights. I can call in and get my poo poo fixed, get early availability and get upgraded for my trouble. That's probably the best feature.

The other nice thing with status is that you are eligible for TSA Pre-Check. This allows you to leave your shoes and belt on, and your laptop in your bag. You also get a dedicated TSA Pre-Check lane.

SERPUS
Mar 20, 2004
How many times have you pooped at 30,000 feet? If many times, do you develop a certain technique for it, or does your body somehow sense the altitude change and clamp up?

Thoguh
Nov 8, 2002

College Slice

i like Ham posted:

As far as technology goes I carry my work laptop and a personal laptop, a laptop charger with interchangeable tips, a work phone and my personal phone, my ipad (I'm the furthest thing from an apple fanboy, but this is the greatest thing ever created for travel), a wireless hotspot as well as a wireless usb adapter, some decent earbuds, an ipod nano, and various a/c-usb chargers with retractable USB cables.

Doesn't that end up taking up a huge portion of your luggage space? I travel 1-2 weeks a month for work and usually have my work laptop, kindle fire, my phone, & an iPod and by the time I get all the cords and stuff even that is starting to take up an appreciable amount of room. I would ditch the iPod but my phone battery can't handle being used for several hours of music on a long flight without draining.

I do the "seperate toiletry bag" thing also, it makes life a lot easier since I don't have to pack/unpack it every other week.

One thing I've noticed about the clothes thing: Anybody wearing a Harley Davidson t-shirt is probably going to be in first class. I'm not sure what the correlation is, but I've traveled fairly extensively for the past few years (all domestic) and it never fails.

Thoguh
Nov 8, 2002

College Slice

FrozenVent posted:

Ever had a hard time taking razor blades in a carry on? I never tried it, but then I never travelled more than a day out with just carry on.

TSA doesn't care about razors.

FrozenVent
May 1, 2009

The Boeing 737-200QC is the undisputed workhorse of the skies.

Thoguh posted:

Doesn't that end up taking up a huge portion of your luggage space? I travel 1-2 weeks a month for work and usually have my work laptop, kindle fire, my phone, & an iPod and by the time I get all the cords and stuff even that is starting to take up an appreciable amount of room. I would ditch the iPod but my phone battery can't handle being used for several hours of music on a long flight without draining.

Get a bigger bag? My laptop bag fits my laptop with the wiring and kindle, along with the chargers and a small umbrella, and I still have plenty of space for files, magazines and all sorts of poo poo.

Thoguh
Nov 8, 2002

College Slice

FrozenVent posted:

Get a bigger bag?

Not an option if you aren't checking.

Tastic
Jun 3, 2005

Uncle Jam posted:

Good luck man, and be careful on those red-eyes. My company prohibits red-eye flights because its literally dangerous to be so worn out but trying to operate in a city.

What are red-eyes? Like, just being tired?

Thoguh
Nov 8, 2002

College Slice

Tastic posted:

What are red-eyes? Like, just being tired?

Overnight flights.

Morby
Sep 6, 2007

minya posted:

Great thread.

How long have you done this? Do you have a home? If not a home, a home base? Do you have a family, or a girlfriend, or a wife? Do you ever have sex with other frequent travelers, or do you ever use escorts or sex workers? Do you have friends that do this kind of thing, and do you ever coordinate your schedules to see each other somehow? Do you ever get to know certain people (employees, etc.) at certain airports? How much free time do you have whenever you arrive to wherever you're traveling? What kind of food do you eat? Do you ever cook your own food? What kind of clothes do you wear? What are your hobbies?

If it's ok with the OP, I'll contribute. I've had my job for a little over 3 years and I work in finance. My homebase is in GA. That's where my mom and grandparents live, and I have an apartment here. Currently single and not really looking. No escorts or random hookups in other cities or anything like that.

I'm really lucky in that my coworkers are also my really good friends and we all have a crazy travel schedule. We try to get together as best we can, but sometimes it's harder than others. Our schedules can be crazy. There have been times I've gone to the office with the mindset of "Herp, derp, no travel for the next two weeks" only to find out at 11AM that I need to leave in 2 days and be gone for a week. It just really depends on what the clients need.

As far as employees you meet on the road, there is a shuttle that takes us from my city in GA to the ATL airport. If I don't drive myself (and my folks prefer that I don't, so I don't and kick myself every time), I can use them pretty frequently. They know me by face at least. I've been to Mexico about 10 times this year and we stay at the same hotel, so the concierge and hospitality staff know us really well. The clients were EXTREMELY kind. We happened to be there over my birthday and also Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), and they gave me some small gifts. Just wonderful folks. I was there for 2 weeks this time and I was really sad to leave because I might not see them again for a while.

Free time on the road varies. One time we were "forced" to stay the weekend in Ottawa because the flight was cheaper to leave on Sunday than to leave on Saturday. It was a lot of fun. We were there for Winterlude (even though it was too warm), crossed the bridge to Quebec, went to the museum, ate good food, and generally hosed around. It owned. My most recent trip to Minneapolis we had a little bit of free time and so we went to the Mall of America and walked around downtown. I like Minneapolis a lot. There have also been times where "Oh, I'm done for the day. Cool!" turns into "Oh...I'm staying until 10 to get this done. loving awesome."

As far as food goes, we eat out pretty much constantly which is obviously bad. We don't stay in hotels that have kitchens or anything and we don't stay long enough to actually buy groceries or anything. That can be pretty challenging sometimes. Clothes range from casual Friday type outfits (most recent trip to Mexico was like this) to business professional (suit, blouse, etc.). Depends on the client.

My hobbies? Reading, writing, games (which are hard to play on the road), sight-seeing, and football (which is hard to follow out of the US).

kru
Oct 5, 2003

Thoguh posted:

Overnight flights.

In my business, it means 'first flight of the day', like 4 am or whatever

Thoguh
Nov 8, 2002

College Slice

kru posted:

In my business, it means 'first flight of the day', like 4 am or whatever

Mine considers it anything that arrives after 10PM or leaves before 6AM. We have to take flights that are reasonably close to the cheapest flight of the day that isn't a red eye unless we have a "business need" that forces a specific itinerary.

H.R. Paperstacks
May 1, 2006

This is America
My president is black
and my Lambo is blue
Suggestions for carry on luggage manufactures?

I travel a good bit for work 2-3x a month, usually for about a week each and I'm looking for new carry on luggage because my older stuff that was cheap, is really starting to show it's age.

I was looking at TravelPro and Zero Halliburton. I am leaning towards the ZH stuff because of the hard case in the event I do have to gate check or even fully check it depending on situation.

Morby
Sep 6, 2007

routenull0 posted:

Suggestions for carry on luggage manufactures?

I travel a good bit for work 2-3x a month, usually for about a week each and I'm looking for new carry on luggage because my older stuff that was cheap, is really starting to show it's age.

I was looking at TravelPro and Zero Halliburton. I am leaning towards the ZH stuff because of the hard case in the event I do have to gate check or even fully check it depending on situation.

I've never been one for brands, but I've used a 21" Delsey for 3 years and it's worked perfectly for a 5-7 day trip. It was a Christmas gift, but I believe it was $75. I just bought a larger Samsonite for a 2 week trip and it's also been great along with the 360 wheels. I think it was $300 at Macy's but I picked it up for $80 at Ross.

mr_cardholder
Jun 30, 2009

Oh well. It's humanity's problem now.

routenull0 posted:

Suggestions for carry on luggage manufactures?

I travel a good bit for work 2-3x a month, usually for about a week each and I'm looking for new carry on luggage because my older stuff that was cheap, is really starting to show it's age.

I was looking at TravelPro and Zero Halliburton. I am leaning towards the ZH stuff because of the hard case in the event I do have to gate check or even fully check it depending on situation.

For whatever it's worth, I have never had a problem with people at the gate checking carry-on luggage size. The only place I've seen it happen is at Charles De Gaulle on a flight to Abidjan. It frequently happens on flights to Africa because nobody wants to check luggage for fear of it getting stolen at the airport.

I can't seem to find the carry-on I use on amazon anymore, it's called the Pacsafe metrosafe 400.

http://www.vagabondish.com/pacsafe-metrosafe-400-travel-bag/

It's got a ton of built in security features like un-slashable shoulder straps and a protective metal mesh inside, as well as it's own built in chain and lock. It's really good for me as I stay in hostels frequently so I often worry about getting my stuff stolen so YMMV.

An observer posted:

What's your favourite airport you've been to?

Domestic: Austin and Denver are probably my favorites.
International: Toss up between Amsterdam's Schiphol and Hong Kong's International airport. Both are really efficient, have decent food and the people who work there are friendly enough. My one complaint with Schiphol is that they have two security checkpoints, one general checkpoint and then one at the gate. It's a pain because I can't bring any water on board my flight with me unless it's packed in one of the security bags. Totally unnecessary pain in the rear end.

FrozenVent posted:

Ever had a hard time taking razor blades in a carry on? I never tried it, but then I never travelled more than a day out with just carry on.

Disposable cartridge style razor blades are no problem anywhere in the world. A good rule of thumb is if you can get it past US security, you are good for everywhere else. As a side note, the US and UK are the only countries in the world that I've flown through where you have to take off your shoes before going through the detectors.

SERPUS posted:

How many times have you pooped at 30,000 feet? If many times, do you develop a certain technique for it, or does your body somehow sense the altitude change and clamp up?

my technique is: whenever we hit bad turbulence.

Serious answer: I always try to use the restroom before flying but as I've been on flights as long as 17 hours, it's unavoidable, especially if you have the fish. It takes a little bit of extra work as it were but for me, it's not normally too difficult.


moana posted:

Have you seen Up in the Air and what did you think about it?

I'd say it really hit home in a lot of ways for me. My folks recommended I watch it after I started this job. I think it really does take a person with a different mentality than most to work a job like this where you have to pack up and leave frequently. I will admit I didn't like the way it ended but it was pretty close to real life for me anyway.

Thoguh
Nov 8, 2002

College Slice

routenull0 posted:

Suggestions for carry on luggage manufactures?

If you don't care about it being a hard case I have two Red Oxx bags that I loving love. An Air Boss and a Sky Train. They hold a shitload and I don't think I could damage their construction if I tried.

H.R. Paperstacks
May 1, 2006

This is America
My president is black
and my Lambo is blue

Thoguh posted:

If you don't care about it being a hard case I have two Red Oxx bags that I loving love. An Air Boss and a Sky Train. They hold a shitload and I don't think I could damage their construction if I tried.

I'm actually looking at Red Oxx bag for my daily laptop bag. I'll look more at their carry-on stuff.

tbp
Mar 1, 2008

DU WIRST NIEMALS ALLEINE MARSCHIEREN
Any recommendations for career paths for anyone that would be interested in doing this?

Waterfowl
Apr 18, 2005

tbp posted:

Any recommendations for career paths for anyone that would be interested in doing this?

Management consulting at large, national firms(i.e. MBB, Big 4, etc)

PHIZ KALIFA
Dec 21, 2011

#mood

tbp posted:

Any recommendations for career paths for anyone that would be interested in doing this?

The International branch of any sufficiently large labor union. Honestly, any large enough company is going to have positions where travel is required. I don't know why you'd seek this sort of thing out, though. You're there on business, it's rare that you'll have enough time to get out and see the sights, you know? There are other jobs out there that focus more on the "travel" and less on the "business" part, like travel writer, or hotel magnate.

Hi everybody, I'm a union organizer. I travel, on average 150 miles a day. I am on a first-name basis with the folk at many of the hotels in my area. I work a two-week shift, 11 days on 3 days off, and keep a spare set of clothes in my car because of how frequently plans change and I'm sent to a new area on short notice. My friends have forgotten what I look like.

So, you know, it has its ups and downs.

KaiserBen
Aug 11, 2007

tbp posted:

Any recommendations for career paths for anyone that would be interested in doing this?

Commissioning engineer/technician. That's how I do it, at least.

KYOON GRIFFEY JR
Apr 12, 2010



Runner-up, TRP Sack Race 2021/22

Thoguh posted:

One thing I've noticed about the clothes thing: Anybody wearing a Harley Davidson t-shirt is probably going to be in first class. I'm not sure what the correlation is, but I've traveled fairly extensively for the past few years (all domestic) and it never fails.

Here's the correlation: Harleys are extremely expensive toys with a lifestyle buyer, so not only do you buy the 20K bike but you buy 13K in accessories to customize the bike and you buy 4K in clothing and gear and then you go on Harley owners' trips and poo poo. In order to have a Harley, you have to have money. If you have money, you're probably traveling a lot for work, in which case you have status. If you're traveling for leisure, you can afford to pay first class, and most Harley owners are pretty big dudes who would pay for first.

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

WAFFLEHOUND
Apr 26, 2007

KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:

Here's the correlation: Harleys are extremely expensive toys with a lifestyle buyer, so not only do you buy the 20K bike but you buy 13K in accessories to customize the bike and you buy 4K in clothing and gear and then you go on Harley owners' trips and poo poo. In order to have a Harley, you have to have money. If you have money, you're probably traveling a lot for work, in which case you have status. If you're traveling for leisure, you can afford to pay first class, and most Harley owners are pretty big dudes who would pay for first.

This, amusingly enough, is one of the number one reasons I sold my harley. I got a relatively nice used cheap one and I couldn't stand the "culture" that came along with it.

As a heads up to anyone who wants to travel a lot, the best career path is something temporary and low paying which you can quit on a whim. Spend a year saving, take a year off and travel. Rinse, repeat. It's not glamourous, but you'll see more of the world than almost anyone else. :)

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • Post
  • Reply