|
minya posted:Great thread. 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).
|
#
¿
Nov 12, 2012 00:04
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 27, 2024 22:14 |
|
|
routenull0 posted:Suggestions for carry on luggage manufactures? 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.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 12, 2012 19:42
|
|
|
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.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 13, 2012 17:16
|
|
|
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.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 14, 2012 00:40
|
|
|
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.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 15, 2012 00:32
|
|
|
Bloodnose posted:How is all of this travel booked for you paywise? Are you compensated extra for the time spent traveling? Is it like 'time and a half' overtime? Or are most of you on a sales commission scheme rather than salary anyway? In my case, I'm salaried, thus no overtime. Also, I'm not on the sales team, thankfully. However, if we travel on weekends, we get a comp day in my department. Our department philosophy is "This was a day that you would be resting or doing whatever you normally would on a Saturday or Sunday. This is our way of giving it back to you. Take it within 30 days". Not all departments in our company get that day back, though. Because my department travels so much, our management is very flexible about time. If you come into town on Thursday night and have to come into the office on Friday, they don't care if you're not there right at 8:30. If you're headed out the next day, they don't care if you need to leave before 5:30. If you need to run errands before you leave (pickup/drop off dry cleaning, pay bills, whatever) on lunch and need to be a bit late, it's fine. For the most part, we try not to take advantage of their good will.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 22, 2012 06:01
|
|
|
Lyon posted:In a similar vein, what are everyone else's engagements like? Are you typically going to the same client for several months at a time or always somewhere different for sales meetings? Are you guys primarily working with external customers/clients or traveling for internal meetings/reasons? The sessions I go to are always external, but sometimes it feels like I'm married to a particular client and other times it's just a fly in/fly out one time session. It just depends on what the need is. For example, I went to Mexico 10 times this year for one client. I went to Calgary once for a few days for another client. I went to see another twice within 5 weeks. The travel all depends on the training need at the time.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 27, 2012 14:59
|
|
|
Yeah, they should have put more time into making sure their app isn't a broken piece of poo poo.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 6, 2012 04:31
|
|
|
Thoguh posted:How about everybody else? I finally hit Delta Silver in October. I have 41,644 miles with them. I have Hilton Silver (which seems to do exactly jack and poo poo) with 59,757 total points. I have ~28,000 points with Westin/Starwood preferred. What killed me this year was that I spent the first quarter of it going back and forth to Birmingham. We drove the company car up and, while I got a ton of Hilton points, I didn't get very many Skymiles until the latter half of the year. I also won't get any European trips, so I'll be trying to dink and dunk my way to status from here on out. How many of you guys are still on the road? I had my last trip for the year this week. I went Minneapolis for the second time this year and my wallet got stolen. It's been a ton of fun working things out with various banks! I'm slated to head to Puerto Rico the first part of January. Are you guys already scheduling for next year? Do your companies do a "freeze" period?
|
|
#
¿
Dec 8, 2012 05:15
|
|
|
Spookyblack posted:I don't think you answered this question yet but how does your travel/hotels get booked? Do you have an assistant/travel agent that does this all for you, do you do it yourself? My company has a corporate travel department. The project managers give them the dates for the travel, and they book the trips. Every employee that travels frequently has to fill out a travel profile and give their name, passport number, photocopy of passport, emergency contact information, and your frequent flyer/hotel membership number. They do the rest, and will also try to accommodate your preferences (like you can say that you prefer window seats or that you want to stay in a hotel room with two beds). This group also came in handy once when I was flying to Ottawa. We had to make a layover in Detroit, and there was about 2 hours between our arrival in Detroit and our departure. Within that 2 hour window, a tornado touched down and all flights were cancelled. We called corporate travel, and they booked us a hotel for the night with no problem. They also got us an early morning flight to Ottawa so that we could support the client the next day as planned. ...Except that two of us didn't have proper attire to wear to the client site because our luggage was lost between Detroit and Ottawa for an entire day.  Uncle Jam posted:What is everyone's hotel policy? My company's preferred airline is Delta and the preferred hotel chain is Hilton. If a client has a better deal with another hotel, we go there. In Toronto we got a "VIP rate" because the client had a deal with the Marriott by their site. I couldn't tell a difference, but whatever. We aren't strict about adhering to the preferred hotel, though. Delta is pretty standard for us, though, because we fly out of ATL. Also, yeah, gently caress finance departments and being nitpicked about expense reports. Unless you want me to go to McDonald's everyday, forget about the corporate meal guidelines. Thankfully I've never had any trouble, but I know people in my group who have had expense reports rejected because there were 5 beers on a tab for 4 people. Finance acted like that was the worst poo poo ever, but then another group went to dinner and just really tied one on. They had a $400 bill and I think only $80 of it was actual food. That expense report was approved with no problem. 
|
|
#
¿
Dec 11, 2012 06:30
|
|
|
Lyon posted:In a similar vein, what is everyone else's food/alcohol policy? Ours is $40/day for food and no alcohol at all unless you're "entertaining" customers which also grants you the ability to spend whatever you want within common sense levels. Generally though as long as your food expenses aren't way overboard (and your manager approves them) we're fine even if we have a beer or two with dinner. My company has a similar policy to yours, but they also included a clause stating that they'd take into account general cost of living. Obviously a steak dinner in Birmingham and a steak dinner in Toronto will have a pretty big price difference, and that's ok. Alcohol is supposed to be only one drink per meal, but some departments have gotten away with way more than that like I posted about earlier. I think it just depends on who looks at the expense report, honestly. Edit: My department is also not really consistent about how expense reports should be done. One manager says "YOU NEED ITEMIZED RECEIPTS OMG" and then another says "Why did you give me the itemized receipt?". I just play it safe and give itemized as often as possible.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 11, 2012 19:17
|
|
|
What do you guys use to charge your phones/laptops on planes?
|
|
#
¿
Dec 28, 2012 00:46
|
|
|
I'm in San Juan for my first trip this year.  The weather was beautiful, but now it's very windy with intermittent rain. I just saw the new Delta safety video on the way here. They're trying to be funny.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 11, 2013 02:30
|
|
|
I'm 646 miles short of Silver status on Delta this year, but I've been to Puerto Rico twice and NYC once this year. Really hoping that changes soon. I need status!
|
|
#
¿
Mar 13, 2013 21:21
|
|
|
Thoguh posted:Not well. My travel has been very stunted this year. Which has some very positive impacts to things like my home life, my health, and my ability to keep up with my friends. But it is almost the end of March and I only have 23,000 miles with no trips planned. drat it, I need at least 50k to get Gold! I got Platinum on Delta last year and now I'm barely using it. Yeah, I haven't been anywhere on a month and I'm getting antsy so I'm taking on new topics that will get me on the road more. Plus there's some potential stuff coming down the pipeline so hopefully this will resolve itself for me.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 26, 2013 20:58
|
|
|
I'm headed to Vancouver, BC in about two weeks. There are no direct flights there, so we'll be doing a layover both ways. I've been to MSP several times and it's fine enough, but does anybody have experience with SLC? Just trying to decide which airport is best for the connecting flight. There were a couple layovers in LAX, too, but there was only 45 mins between flights and that just seems like a bad idea.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 30, 2013 18:41
|
|
|
FISHMANPET posted:Which Terminal in MSP? Terminal 2 (Humphrey) is a barren wasteland, Terminal 1 (Lindbergh) is enormous and has a shitload of stuff. And what airline? When I was travelling from Vancouver to MSP the only flights had a bunch of connections. What we did is take the train (Amtrak Cascades) from Vancouver to Seattle and then flew out of Seattle. If you can get a direct flight to Seattle that might be something to look at. We're taking Delta. Seems like we'll land in terminal 1 if we go to MSP. How long is the train ride from Seattle?
|
|
#
¿
Apr 30, 2013 20:02
|
|
|
I finally hit Delta Silver again this year ! Vancouver is awesome, by the way. I also had a cat as a seat mate for the first time. The couple next to me had brought their cat with them. Best seat mate ever!
|
|
#
¿
May 22, 2013 17:36
|
|
|
Lyon posted:Hah never flown with an animal. I know it must have been in a carrier but I'm imagining this very laid back cat with the buckle fastened around its waist working on a crossword puzzle or playing Sudoku. Actually, because it was listed as a service animal, they were able to bring the cat out of his carrier and put him on their laps. Their cat did a great job with it, too, and was perfectly content that way. My cat would have been tearing the plane apart, so kudos to him for that.
|
|
#
¿
May 22, 2013 22:05
|
|
|
For me, it's Delta or bust. We fly out of Atlanta all the time because it's only an hour and a half north, and that's a Delta hub. We can fly out of our small, regional airport to Atlanta for an extra $200 ($100 each way), but for me it's not a huge perk to do that when the regional shuttle is $70 round trip and I can drive myself for $40 round trip. I've never had an issue with Delta or any of their affiliates (though British Airways and Air France are way better in some ways).
|
|
#
¿
May 25, 2013 22:38
|
|
|
Lyon posted:How is everyone doing mileage wise? I probably could have hit Delta Gold for this year if they went to Barbados. Apparently they don't. We tried to do the ATL to MIA legs on Delta and then take American Airlines to Barbados, but that was too expensive. We still ended up being booked first class because the client didn't decide until the last minute and first class was all that was left on the plane (not that I complained).
|
|
#
¿
Jul 16, 2013 21:06
|
|
|
I'm sure there will be some sort of corporate guideline. For example, our food rule says that we should spend no more than $5 for breakfast (if not free at the hotel/provided by the client), $15 for lunch (same caveat as breakfast), and $25 for dinner. Even in the guide it says there are obviously going to be exceptions to this depending on where you go. Just use your best judgement and do what the other people on the team do.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 15, 2013 23:49
|
|
|
We were providing onsite support for a client when they switched from their old system to ours a few years ago, and there were several consultants milling about. We got to talking, and it turned out that they had been paying their own expenses for the bulk of the conversion process (this had been going on for nearly 24 months at this time). Basically the firm that they were with wanted them to front the costs and they would be reimbursed. It turned out that some of these guys hadn't been paid in 4 months. One guy was in the hole $8k! Never before was I so glad to have a corporate card.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 18, 2013 16:47
|
|
|
I might actually hit Hilton and Delta Gold this year. I have 87K Sky Miles and 60K Hilton Honors points. Headed to LA this week and then to Puerto Rico next week. I didn't go anywhere in July, and they're making up for it this month. It just sucks that it happens to coincide with football season and a bunch of game releases I'd been anticipating for a while. So, in light of that, what do you guys do for gaming on the road? 3DS/Vita? Gaming laptop? Bring the console with you?
|
|
#
¿
Sep 7, 2013 03:42
|
|
|
Midjack posted:I'd been using a PSP with custom firmware that I ripped my UMDs onto and had some emulators and movies too. I recently switched to a Vita; no emulators but games are available as downloads and movies look great on the screen. I wouldn't take a console because it's big and I don't want to risk damage plus you can't play it on the airplane. Gaming laptop is another computer I'm dragging around in addition to the work computer. Agreed on the laptop. I have a personal laptop and a work laptop, too. Carrying both of them for 3 weeks through different airports made me finally bite the bullet and get a tablet. Much better overall, minus the lack of deeper games. I think I will explore the 3DS or Vita route. Thanks!
|
|
#
¿
Sep 7, 2013 04:05
|
|
|
I'm 5000 SkyMiles short of Gold this year with no travel scheduled for the rest of the calendar year. Goddammit! I normally wouldn't care, but that is maddeningly close.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 2, 2013 00:00
|
|
|
So we had a sudden death in the family, had to buy an emergency airline ticket for another family member and I haven't flown without status for a long time. With the price of your ticket, that DOES include one free checked bag, one carry on, and one personal item (i.e. purse) right? I'm questioning myself.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 4, 2014 23:00
|
|
|
FrozenVent posted:Depends on the airline. sellouts posted:Also depends on the fare class booked. Yeah, should have mentioned that it's Delta and I didn't think to use SkyMiles in my haste to book the ticket. At worst, it'll be $25, but the ticket isn't for me, it's for my aunt coming from FL.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 4, 2014 23:11
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 27, 2024 22:14 |
|
|
sellouts posted:I don't know if there is a better city than NYC to be stuck in on someone else's dime. San Francisco has to be at least on par. I was there for 2 weeks. Loved the city.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 25, 2014 22:54
|
|