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tbp posted:Any recommendations for career paths for anyone that would be interested in doing this? I do integration on complex engineering projects. It's cyclical. I might not travel for an entire year, and then the next year I might be on travel 80% of the time. Usually it's 1-2 weeks a month. It's way less fun than all your friends/significant others will think it is. Thoguh fucked around with this message at 15:22 on Nov 13, 2012 |
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Nov 13, 2012 15:19
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WAFFLEHOUND posted: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. This is a Good Idea. I suggest looking into teaching internationally, the wage is relatively high and it's generally expected that you bugger off after a year anyway, and even if you don't there's usually enough vacation time to hop out to your country of choice.
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Nov 13, 2012 16:28
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Sorry for the lack of response for the past few days. I was home this weekend after a few weeks of straight travel so my time was primarily focused on catching up with friends and family.FrozenVent posted:Is there a way to pack a suit in a carry-on roller and not have it come out looking like poo poo? The short answer is no. I rarely if ever have to wear a suit while traveling. Once in a while I will wear a sports coat, but I generally get by wearing this on the flight the day I travel. Having a suiter built into your luggage will go a long way toward preventing wrinkles though. As stated by Thoguh, TSA doesn't care about regular razors. I used a double-edged safety razor while at home, and it is always disappointing that I'm not able to bring one with me on the road. Probably related here, I don't know about the other guys in this thread, but I absolutely never take out liquids from my toiletry kit and have never had a problem. Not sure if I'm just THAT lucky, or if most agents are too apathetic to really bother with it when it is clearly in a toiletry bag. moana posted:Have you seen Up in the Air and what did you think about it? Yes I've seen Up in the Air. I thought it was a fair, but certainly overstated depiction of this lifestyle. I think more than anything they nailed it with the scenes where they are about to go through security, and the one in the hotel bar where they are comparing statuses with various hotels and rental car companies. The whole status game is a big piece of frequent travel, people take it pretty seriously. RazorDx posted:Can you elaborate on this? I've always been fascinated with this type of thing. I'm inclined to agree with Uncle Jam, the airline and airport staff don't treat you any differently, but the other frequent travelers do. I will also say that it is significantly more prevalent in first class. I'm 25 years old and look about 17 on most days. When I'm in work clothes generally people completely ignore me, or try to strike up conversation and seem genuinely curious as to what somebody my age is doing up there. It's subtle and somewhat difficult to explain until you experience it, but things like trying to get in front of you in the priority boarding lines, and not getting up to let you into your seat when you are putting luggage up in first class. A lot of the guys that do this have a very snooty attitude, they don't want you getting in the way of their travel and will look down upon you unless you are a member of their little club. BananaFusion posted: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? I've not really used miles to get anywhere interesting. This is due to a few things, partially that when you travel this much your desire to travel in your free time diminishes greatly. It's very hard to rack up miles domestically, and as such you develop the same mentality a lot of people do with savings. Even when I can spare plenty of miles I tend to hoard them because I can't stand the thought of "wasting" miles. I'll end up burning through most of mine next year. I'm sending my mom to Italy in April, and my girlfriend's best friend just moved to France so I will likely use 100-120k to fly us out there to visit for a week. Due to the amount I travel I can basically go anywhere in the U.S. for the weekend for free. My schedule most weeks has my employer paying to "fly me home" on Friday, and to fly my out to another place come Monday or Tuesday. They don't really care where they fly me back to, so as long as I'm using points or personal funds to pay for hotels and rental cars in whatever city I'm going to for the weekend, it's all the same to them. I will probably use some additional points to fly my girlfriend out to spend some different weekends in different U.S. cities next year. routenull0 posted:Suggestions for carry on luggage manufactures? I personally use TravelPro and am VERY happy with their stuff. I did a lot of research before buying anything as I knew my travel was going to get pretty ridiculous. The big thing that really sold me on mine was that it had a built in suiter, which means I can actually pack slacks and shirts and have minimal need to iron after four days and 7 flights worth of travel. As mentioned earlier I use a pretty standard 21" rolling suitcase, which is the largest size allowed for carryon. However mine is expandable, so when I'm going for longer trips I unzip the expansion and gain about 3" of depth and just check the thing. Construction quality is really solid and it has held up well. If you notice pretty much and flight crew will be using TravelPro luggage, so that really helped sell me on their products. I'm not a fan of hard shell luggage at all, but I hack that up to personal preference. I will say that the biggest piece of advice I would offer anybody when shopping for luggage is do not get anything with those stupid spinner wheels. They seem great but keep in mind that when you are going through an airport you generally have your hands very full, and those things will constantly try to roll away from you. Ever frequent traveler I have ever known despises those things. tbp posted:Any recommendations for career paths for anyone that would be interested in doing this? Basically anything with "consultant" in the title, as well as most sales jobs. I know there are a lot of specialized engineering functions that see a high level of travel, but from what I know that generally involves long stints in one area before moving along to another. I will 100% agree with the other posters here that it is definitely not something I would look for in a job, or strive to find. When doing this type of travel you rarely get to see or do much outside of the offices and hotels that you are in. For example I absolutely love the Bay Area and was there yesterday. I left home at 7:00 CST, got in at about noon, met my client at a site at 1, went straight to my hotel and arrived at about 7:00, proceeded to eat dinner, have a few drinks, get some work done and then pass out, I woke up at 3:00 this morning to make my way to the airport to fly out. Hardly got to enjoy what I consider one of the most beautiful places in this country. i like Ham fucked around with this message at 17:06 on Nov 13, 2012 |
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Nov 13, 2012 16:55
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tbp posted:Any recommendations for career paths for anyone that would be interested in doing this? I'm a corporate trainer for a financial software company.
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Nov 13, 2012 17:16
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ijii posted: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? Just realized that I never answered this earlier. Yes my company pays for my meals outside of client meetings. I have an expense account and they allot $50 per day for meals, which is pretty standard for any business travel I've done at other jobs. I've normally heard that this is based on the guideline of $10 for breakfast, $15 for lunch, and $25 for dinner; but they certainly don't enforce it down to that level. Considering that I get free breakfast at hotels, and am generally taking clients out for either lunch or dinner on a given day, I have more than enough to get myself whatever I want for the remaining meal.
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Nov 13, 2012 17:20
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i like Ham posted:I have an expense account and they allot $50 per day for meals, which is pretty standard for any business travel I've done at other jobs. Here we have no limit but have to provide a receipt if it is over $50. However if you are regularly having $49.99 breakfasts you're likely to get audited and no longer asked to travel.
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Nov 13, 2012 17:32
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i like Ham posted:Probably related here, I don't know about the other guys in this thread, but I absolutely never take out liquids from my toiletry kit and have never had a problem. Not sure if I'm just THAT lucky, or if most agents are too apathetic to really bother with it when it is clearly in a toiletry bag. 99% of TSA agents give no fucks about anything and the other 1% will power trip over any perceived slight or rulebreaking. I just use a clear plastic toiletry bag that I bought at Target for a dollar and take the whole thing out. All of my toiletry stuff fits easily into it so I don't bother to separate the liquids from the non-liquids.
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Nov 13, 2012 17:41
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tbp posted:Any recommendations for career paths for anyone that would be interested in doing this? If you want to travel to some REALLY far away and obscure places, where you may occasionally get shot at, attacked by pirates or kidnapped and held for ransom, come join me in the oil industry. Some of my friends in the same business have had to lock the doors to their hotel rooms with padlocks and sleep with a gun under their pillows. Look for any position with the word "Field" in it. WAFFLEHOUND posted: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. This is a great suggestion. It seems like a great life at first, all those seat upgrades and private lounges, but the truth is it can get old really fast. You're constantly on the road and it's difficult to maintain relationships with friends and family, not to mention all the logistical problems that come with being away from your residence for long periods of time. And god help you if you're not in any sort of relationship and want to start one. Thoguh posted:99% of TSA agents give no fucks about anything and the other 1% will power trip over any perceived slight or rulebreaking. I just use a clear plastic toiletry bag that I bought at Target for a dollar and take the whole thing out. All of my toiletry stuff fits easily into it so I don't bother to separate the liquids from the non-liquids. Pretty much this. The vast majority don't give a rats rear end. I think most of them took the job just so they could fondle all the female passengers.
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Nov 13, 2012 20:46
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Yeah, all the perks just serve to make the whole thing less miserable. It's not like you stay at the same level of personal comfort and then you have all this cool stuff too. It's to bring you back up to par. i am one of those sick fuckers who really enjoys the travel part though. if i'm in the office for a full week i go insane.
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Nov 13, 2012 21:55
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KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:Yeah, all the perks just serve to make the whole thing less miserable. It's not like you stay at the same level of personal comfort and then you have all this cool stuff too. It's to bring you back up to par. I'm also one of those weirdos who loves the travel. The best perks of my job are I work on a rotation schedule so I work for five weeks and then get 5 weeks off and I get free air travel anywhere in the world when I'm going to and from a job site. I'm currently not planning on returning to the states until April so I can go gallivanting all over Southeast Asia. I think some people in this world, like myself, were just made for these kinds of jobs. People who get restless without some kind of new environment, new problems to solve and new people to work with. Most people like the stability that comes with a regular 9-5 no travel job. As much as they say they loathe their regular office job, people are usually very hesitant to try something like we do. Not that I'm saying there's anything wrong with that, just trying to point out that most people really don't want these jobs as much as they think they do.
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Nov 13, 2012 22:16
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I found that you have to be really, really in to planning out every single loving thing that you do like six or seven moves in advance, or you get really stressed. The handle on my Hartmann hard carryon suitcase broke this morning.  I have a little travelpro crew series garment bag which I like, so maybe I'll get the roller in the same series. The Crew has all sorts of dumbass pockets I don't use, though. Any other suggestions? The Red Oxx bags don't really match my required appearance, unfortunately.
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Nov 13, 2012 22:56
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Thoguh posted:Here we have no limit but have to provide a receipt if it is over $50. However if you are regularly having $49.99 breakfasts you're likely to get audited and no longer asked to travel. We have to provide receipts for everything. It's ok if you miss one or two as long as they're not over $25. All the Dilbert comics about expense reports are pretty drat accurate. I hate those things. They take hours. We don't necessarily have a limit on food, per se. It depends on where we are (i.e. Canada is loving expensive. Hotel food is expensive no matter where you are.). We have some basic guidelines, but thankfully the company is pretty loose about it. Well...except that we're only allowed one alcoholic beverage at dinner. That kinda sucks.
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Nov 14, 2012 00:40
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Morby posted:We have to provide receipts for everything. It's ok if you miss one or two as long as they're not over $25. All the Dilbert comics about expense reports are pretty drat accurate. I hate those things. They take hours. Seconding this, expense reports are a royal pain in the rear end and, while I understand that they are a necessary evil, they are a huge waste of time. I've been getting emails from the group that reviews and pays on our expense reports for two weeks now since they audited a few of mine, I guess they wanted ALL of those receipts after all?
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Nov 14, 2012 00:42
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mr_cardholder posted:I'm also one of those weirdos who loves the travel. The best perks of my job are I work on a rotation schedule so I work for five weeks and then get 5 weeks off and I get free air travel anywhere in the world when I'm going to and from a job site. I'm currently not planning on returning to the states until April so I can go gallivanting all over Southeast Asia. No offense, but this isn't really the type of travel that people are commiserating about. 5 weeks off is amazing and I don't think anyone would have a problem with that. Its more of the 'The last 3 days I was literally in the air more than on the ground' type of travel. tbp posted:Any recommendations for career paths for anyone that would be interested in doing this? Do you have any hobbies that require any amount of planning? They are all gone. That stuffed mushroom with crab dish you like to make, not going to make it again when you start travelling. Can't make grandma's 90th birthday this weekend, how many more does she have left? Play any intramural sports? No way, not now. Bought tickets to the game with your friends, now you can't make it. Same for any Superbowl party. A nice saturday morning with your girlfriend, tea on the balcony with homemade omlettes? Sorry, you are too busy cleaning out the crap that builds up in your travel bags on trips, and repacking for next week. Stuff happens that you can't even think is possible, too. My sister broke down emotionally in front of her class she teaches once because I was supposed to be around Sendai when The Earthquake happened. But I was too busy to realize it even happened, and the schedule had changed a month ago but I was too busy to let anyone in my family know. And god help you if you aren't in a relationship, because you aren't gonna start one if you can't schedule any nice dates ever. Basically constant travel has all of the downsides of living abroad without any of the perks. Also, travelling alone sucks. You eat out alone a lot, and sight see alone. You can meet other lonely travellers but its not like tourist destinations, 99% of the time they won't be going the same way as you, and they will be boring as gently caress. You can only talk about airport lounges and hotels for so long before you want to blow your brains out, because that is the only thing these people experience. Then every once in a while you meet the creepy rear end businessman who talks endlessly about loving '18 year olds' in Thailand.
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Nov 14, 2012 01:17
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Uncle Jam posted:Also, travelling alone sucks. You eat out alone a lot, and sight see alone. You can meet other lonely travellers but its not like tourist destinations, 99% of the time they won't be going the same way as you, and they will be boring as gently caress. When I first started traveling I ended up gaining a bunch of weight because I always would go to a bar, since I didn't feel as weird going alone and sitting on a barstool as I would having a booth or table to myself somewhere. So I spent like a year with a diet that consisted mainly of booze and greasy barfood. When you are on the road all the time and everything is on expense it is really, really, really easy to become a disgusting alcoholic. Now I'm all about granola bars as protein shakes. Easy to find anywhere and don't require a fridge or oven. Thoguh fucked around with this message at 03:17 on Nov 14, 2012 |
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Nov 14, 2012 03:08
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Your girlfriend/boyfriend will absolutely hate it, to add to what Uncle Jam said. My expense process is super easy with very few restrictions other than basically "don't be an idiot" so that's quite nice. What's everyone's favorite rental car company?
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Nov 14, 2012 04:39
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Most of the places I worked (and am currently at) that required travel didn't do receipts other than stuff on the corporate card (flight, hotel, rental car). Rest was done on per diem, if we didn't submit receipts for breakfast/lunch/dinner, we were just paid the full amount for what the current per diem rate for the area was. For example the per diem is $65 per day, but if I submit receipts for the day that totaled $50 (whether I used corporate card or personal), they only reimbursed me $50, but if I turn in nothing for the day, I get the full $65 back. I always use my personal cards for meals so I can get points, etc. I always thought this was the standard.i like Ham posted:If you notice pretty much and flight crew will be using TravelPro luggage, so that really helped sell me on their products. That is what got me mainly looking at TravelPro. Everyone on Delta uses it practically.
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Nov 14, 2012 06:18
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KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:What's everyone's favorite rental car company? I use National and it's a bit of a love/hate relationship. Our travel policy gives us less options on rental cars than on flights and hotels so they end up being the lesser of two evils (the other being enterprise). I like the grab and go aspect but car selections can be spotty. As an executive elite the special number that I get clearly goes to the same exact reservation line that you get when googling them. So basically god help you if you've got a problem that you are trying to resolve.
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Nov 14, 2012 06:47
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KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:My expense process is super easy with very few restrictions other than basically "don't be an idiot" so that's quite nice. That's basically what ours amounts to, but I've worked with people from other companies that have insanely wierd and restrictive policies. It makes me appreciate how easy our expensing process is. quote:What's everyone's favorite rental car company? I used Hertz when I started and now I stay with them because I have status. Which is pretty much the same reason I always fly Delta and stay and Hilton branded hotels. Because points and upgrades, drat it.
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Nov 14, 2012 13:01
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Out of curiosity, what are people's favorite/least favorite domestic/international airlines? I love love love love love Alaska. I've had nothing but good experiences with them and a combination of legroom and service does it for me and I will fly them whenever I have the chance. I'm seriously not a fan of United or American about equally, when it comes to domestic. Internationally, I'm really fond of partial to Lufthansa. Probably something to do with up-to-date plans and not having to go anywhere near Heathrow, which is just abysmal. Air Canada is utter crap for international due to poo poo service, astronomical fees, and no legroom.
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Nov 14, 2012 14:49
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Alaska is great. I fly a lot of Delta because I have status with them and they have a very good international network for the times when I want to travel internationally for fun. I have used JetBlue a lot in the past for domestic, but I moved and they're not a major presence at my home airport anymore. I don't hate US Airways but that's more of a suck it up because I'm forced to use them for a lot of things type deal.
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Nov 14, 2012 15:21
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I've flown just over 80,000 miles for vacations in the past 2 years and one thing that always strikes me is the massive difference in service/quality between (in order of quality) Asian/Middle Eastern, European and U.S. airlines. This would be easily explained if it was simply a price issue but I generally pay similar per mile prices flying from Europe to the U.S. on American carriers as on the others flying to Asia/the M-E. Do American customers just have lower expectations or whats the deal here? Going from someone like Emirates or Quantas (or even Virgin or B.A.) to United or Delta is unnecessarily painful for long haul flights. Do any of you with extensive international travel experience have any insight into why American airlines are so low quality?
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Nov 14, 2012 16:51
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Blut posted:Do American customers just have lower expectations or whats the deal here? Going from someone like Emirates or Quantas (or even Virgin or B.A.) to United or Delta is unnecessarily painful for long haul flights. Do any of you with extensive international travel experience have any insight into why American airlines are so low quality? Because they can get away with it. We're relatively isolated from international travel on this continent.
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Nov 14, 2012 16:52
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I only fly domestically for work and stick to the majors, and Delta is far and away my (and everyone else's) favorite. United is a distant second, and American an even further distant third. I don't think American has renovated any of their plane interiors or terminal areas in decades. DFW is a dump. United does seem to have the most space in coach though. Also, Delta seems to have wifi on all of their planes, while United and American seem to have wifi on none of their planes. I can't do any work without the internet, so it really annoys me when I get to a hotel at 9 p.m. and have to catch up on a day's worth of e-mail. I'm working my way up the Delta and Marriott ladders. Marriott points are especially easy to get with the Chase Marriott card and convert to SkyMiles at a 125k->50k ratio. I mostly fly to LAX (dump), with plenty of layovers in DEN (nice) and MSP (very nice). Buckhead fucked around with this message at 17:10 on Nov 14, 2012 |
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Nov 14, 2012 17:07
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Blut posted:Do American customers just have lower expectations or whats the deal here? Going from someone like Emirates or Quantas (or even Virgin or B.A.) to United or Delta is unnecessarily painful for long haul flights. Do any of you with extensive international travel experience have any insight into why American airlines are so low quality? Cost structure I think. Domestic carriers have an aging pensioned workforce and need to play for healthcare out of their own pockets. Other countries don't have as many concerns with those things.
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Nov 14, 2012 18:29
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Uncle Jam posted:No offense, but this isn't really the type of travel that people are commiserating about. 5 weeks off is amazing and I don't think anyone would have a problem with that. Its more of the 'The last 3 days I was literally in the air more than on the ground' type of travel. I know what I do isn't frequent travel per se but it is pretty frequent for international travel and I felt I could answer any questions regarding international travel as it seems most people here are domestic frequent flyers. Also, believe me, even though I may get quite a bit of time off, I still bump into the same problems that all of you guys are talking about. Blut posted:Do American customers just have lower expectations or whats the deal here? Going from someone like Emirates or Quantas (or even Virgin or B.A.) to United or Delta is unnecessarily painful for long haul flights. Do any of you with extensive international travel experience have any insight into why American airlines are so low quality? As wins pointed out, the unions are one source of the problem. When American carriers were really in their heyday, they granted a huge slew of benefits to their employees. Working for the major airlines really was a sweet deal during that time. After 9/11 and the sharp reduction in travel by americans in general, the airlines were still saddled with keeping up employee pension plans, health plans and other benefits which they really couldn't afford. It's one of the reasons so many of the airlines have filed for bankruptcy as it's the only way to discharge a lot of their obligations. Another big reason is that many national air carriers, like Emirates and Singapore airlines, receive a lot of investment from their respective governments as being the "national" carrier for the country. This helps many of these carriers remain in the black because the states are not as demanding about profits while the American carriers don't have this advantage. As such, the American carriers have to reduce their quality of service in order to make a profit and keep their investors happy. The investors are a huge burden for any of the publicly funded carriers. I would also argue that the major american air carries are actually middle of the road in terms of quality. They certainly don't come anywhere close to the middle east/ asia carriers like Emirates, Qatar or Cathay Pacific. However, you haven't known air travel pain unless you've flown on an African carrier. I had a flight from Dar es Salaam in Tanzania to Nairobi, Kenya on board Air Kenya. It was the only flight I have ever seriously hesitated about getting on board. It was an ancient 737 that looked like it was held together with nothing more than duct tape and the collective prayer of the passengers. The seats were absolutely filthy, ridiculously small and rattled like you wouldn't believe. I'm not sure exactly what meat was served for dinner but I felt it may be in my best interest not to ask. After that flight, I don't judge the american carriers as harshly as I used to. They may not be comfortable, but at least you have pretty good assurances you're going to arrive at your destination alive.
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Nov 14, 2012 18:58
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i like Ham posted:Seconding this, expense reports are a royal pain in the rear end and, while I understand that they are a necessary evil, they are a huge waste of time. I've been getting emails from the group that reviews and pays on our expense reports for two weeks now since they audited a few of mine, I guess they wanted ALL of those receipts after all? Thoguh posted:That's basically what ours amounts to, but I've worked with people from other companies that have insanely wierd and restrictive policies. It makes me appreciate how easy our expensing process is. Thankfully my company isn't super restrictive, but the process is still really long and annoying (of course, every department seems to have different rules). I'm just curious to see how standard this process is. In order to do an expense report for our company, you have to make sure you have all the receipts and allocate them to the client in our expense reporting software. Then, you have to tape the receipts to a sheet of paper and fax them to finance and do a client settlement invoice. Your manager signs it and you sign it. Hopefully everything was allocated properly in the software and you signed everything. My last expense report was 20 pages, and I'm probably looking at whopper this month because I was in Mexico for 2 weeks. Do you guys have to split out your transactions, btw? For example, my one hotel transaction is going to be split 4 ways. The room is a separate expense, food is a separate expense, tips are a separate expense, and taxis are a separate expense. Does that seem pretty standard for what you guys see? Even as a non-business traveler, my favorite airlines have been and will always be Delta and British Airways. Air France is a VERY close 3rd. I know they're all technically under the Delta umbrella, but I've always had a good experience with them. Uncle Jam posted:Do you have any hobbies that require any amount of planning? They are all gone. This is all pretty drat true, though, except I don't mind traveling alone and actually prefer it. It allows me to make my own schedule, go where I want to go, and do what I want to do. When I'm hungry, I eat. When I'm tired, I go back to the hotel. I don't have to argue or cajole or whine or whatever with anyone about it. I greatly prefer it that way. It is really hard to get things scheduled because I never know where I'll be from week to week, and following football is really difficult out of the US (side note, ESPN's app is loving terrible). Even gaming is pretty much impossible (or extremely difficult) because hotel Internet is generally atrocious and, if you're a console gamer, forget about it until you get home. Your DVR will get a good workout, though.
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Nov 15, 2012 00:32
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Anyone else done a mileage run for status' sake? I needed four segments at one point so I tried to find the cheapest possible routing I could get. Ended up going out on a Saturday morning and flew to Omaha by way of O'Hare. I got off the plane in Omaha, bought a snack, and got right back in the boarding line. Locked in status and back home in time for dinner.
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Nov 15, 2012 02:43
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I've been known to do that now and again. I don't earn status like most frequent travelers but you can pry my silver delta status from my cold dead hands!
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Nov 15, 2012 04:21
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kitten smoothie posted:Anyone else done a mileage run for status' sake? I needed four segments at one point so I tried to find the cheapest possible routing I could get. Ended up going out on a Saturday morning and flew to Omaha by way of O'Hare. Yes, ended up finding a good fare to St. Thomas to make platinum on AA my first year of travel. drat fine place to go with absolutely zero plan on no notice (found fare on friday, departed saturday).
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Nov 15, 2012 04:24
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One of my colleagues did a Bar Harbor, ME to Boston one way mileage run for his last remaining segment.
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Nov 15, 2012 05:15
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http://www.ubergizmo.com/2012/11/brookstone-scanner-mouse/ If need to scan things on the road like I need to scan things on the road, this guy is liquid sex. I've never been so awed by a piece of technology. BTW, we should have meet-ups like goons who live in a single place do. I have to imagine there is a huge overlap in terms of our territory. As for favorite airports, how has John Wayne not gotten enough love? When I was in Kindergarten, I wanted to be a teacher-scientist-astronaut-beekeeper. I've managed to nail two of those on my own and goons are convincing me to make sure my girlfriend can 'help' me knock off the other. But the last one, the astronaut one, that remains elusive. Until I take off from John Wayne. Then I feel like I am an astronaut. It is amazing. Shbobdb fucked around with this message at 09:59 on Nov 15, 2012 |
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Nov 15, 2012 09:54
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My favorite part about John Wayne is that the Hertz people there are always willing to give me a convertible if I ask nicely, even though I'm booked into a mid-sized. I fly between Minneapolis and John Wayne a lot and when they call for the "priority boarding" about 2/3 of the passengers stand up. A few times when I first started traveling and only had Silver status I was 50+ on the upgrade list. I don't have anything against John Wayne, it's a fine smaller airport. Nicer than Ontario or Long Beach and much better than flying into LAX. But I wouldn't consider it to be anything special. Shbobdb posted:Until I take off from John Wayne. Then I feel like I am an astronaut. It is amazing. Pretty much as close to a rocket launch as physics will allow.
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Nov 15, 2012 14:22
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Shbobdb posted:http://www.ubergizmo.com/2012/11/brookstone-scanner-mouse/ Holy poo poo you just made my day. With how much I'm on the road the only time I ever get to scan receipts is the once or twice a month I'm in the office. This obviously occasionally makes the guys who process expenses pretty mad from time to time. I've been looking for a solid compact scanner at a reasonable price for over a year and have not found one. Also seconding the traveling goon meet. God knows if anybody ever passes through DFW or ATL there is a good chance I'm there.
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Nov 15, 2012 14:38
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kitten smoothie posted:Anyone else done a mileage run for status' sake? Yep, mainly on Alaska and once on Air Canada. I have a friend who did a Seattle-Dubai mileage run where he got back on the same flight without staying in Dubai.
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Nov 15, 2012 14:56
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kitten smoothie posted:Anyone else done a mileage run for status' sake? I needed four segments at one point so I tried to find the cheapest possible routing I could get. Ended up going out on a Saturday morning and flew to Omaha by way of O'Hare. Been there, done that, a day trip CLE-BWI to get the last two segments I needed to lock up Platinum. Also, on the luggage side, I'm a big fan of Eagle Creek folders and their two-sided zippered bags. You can fit a week's worth of clothes in a lot less space than a usual bag. The zipper bags work great for unmentionables - one side clean, one side dirty. Bonus - for a short trip, the folder can be its own suitcase. http://www.ebags.com/product/eagle-creek/pack-it-folder-18/147919 Also, I picked up a bag years ago (I think it's by Timberland). Looks like an oversized, black soft-sided briefcase, but it's the same size as a 20" rollaboard. It's got breifcase handles, a shoulder strap, and hidden in the back has backpack straps that can be clipped in. So much lighter than a rollaboard and frankly easier to haul.
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Nov 15, 2012 17:16
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My travel is a little different from most people in this thread - I drive in a 400x400 mile market area between field operations/area offices. I've got two places to stay in that market area, so I'm rarely more than 2-3 nights from a (non-hotel) washing machine. I also don't have a dress code beyond standard PPE, which saves me on clothing related packing. My main bag is a Tom Bihn Brain Bag: http://www.tombihn.com/backpacks/TB0104.html I carry two lenovo T510 laptops and related gear in that bag. A book, toiletries, and a few items of clothing fit as well, but it starts to get tight at that point. Given I'm traveling by car most of the time, I just toss extra stuff in the back seat. I'm pretty satisfied with the bag, but if anyone has other solutions for carrying two laptops please pass it along.
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Nov 15, 2012 17:31
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National is fun to fly in to. Sit A side window and hope you get the River Visual approach. Great view of the Mall.
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Nov 16, 2012 00:28
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KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:National is fun to fly in to. Sit A side window and hope you get the River Visual approach. Great view of the Mall. I have never seen a flight attendant yell so loudly and so quickly at someone, as when a dude a few rows ahead of me unbuckled just before final approach to put something in the overhead.
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Nov 16, 2012 02:15
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No, nobody gives a gently caress anymore.
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Nov 16, 2012 03:23
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