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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.
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Nov 11, 2012 22:42
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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.
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Nov 11, 2012 22:44
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FrozenVent posted:Get a bigger bag? Not an option if you aren't checking.
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Nov 11, 2012 22:52
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Tastic posted:What are red-eyes? Like, just being tired? Overnight flights.
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Nov 11, 2012 23:11
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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.
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Nov 12, 2012 15:07
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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.
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Nov 13, 2012 01:39
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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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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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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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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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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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What I learned today in my first trip to Reagan (DCA) since I was 13: just because the nice lady at the desk tells you the rental car shuttle is a blue and white bus doesn't mean you should get on the first blue and white bus that pulls up to the rental car stop. One round trip to long term parking later... I am going back to flying into Baltimore.
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Nov 17, 2012 02:49
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Lyon posted:I think he might have meant, "I didn't think [taking your appropriately sized and stored liquids out of your carry-on bag] was A Thing anymore..." As a frequent traveler: I hate you, people like you make me wait in line longer. You are 'that guy'
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Nov 17, 2012 02:54
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I hit Platinum on Delta for the first time this year and holy poo poo is it a world of difference. I went from getting upgraded only on B and M fares on off days when I was going somewhere obscure to getting upgraded almost every flight. I got it on the outbound leg of a trip to Orange County. On the way out as a Gold I was 26th on the upgrade list. On the way back as a Platinum I was 2nd on the list.
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Nov 17, 2012 18:47
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TouchyMcFeely posted:Ran into a guy on the shuttle to SLC's airport with the Red Oxx Air Boss. Chatted with him about it (and other travel stuff) for a bit on the ride. One note on the Air Boss: You might consider getting a different strap for it. I sometimes have to carry some reasonably heavy stuff when I travel and the first time I did that with the Air Boss it left marks on my shoulder. Their strap grips like a motherfucker and does not let go. Or consider the Sky Train. I have both and while the Sky Train doesn't hold quite as much personally I prefer the convertible backpack style of the Sky Train to the duffel bag Air Boss.
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Nov 29, 2012 03:01
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sellouts posted:But yeah, if you can get away with it, more power to you I guess. I know plenty of travel nerds but i just don't know many people who travel regularly for work either not have enough segments or have that freedom. Maybe I'm just too honest with my work time and my hobby time. I don't feel bad gaming the rules in order to get my travel as close to ideal as possible. When I'm traveling for work I'm giving up a lot of my own personal life and I'm also more or less expected to be on call 24 hours and subject to the whims of the customer I'm working with for when my work day starts/ends. Asking in return that they let me stay at my preferred hotel, fly my preferred airline, and use my preferred rental car company isn't much of a request. For an extra $50-$100 on the expense report I have a much better experience and they get a much happier and more productive employee. Plus one who is willing to travel much more often than I would if they were assholes about expenses.
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Dec 5, 2012 19:07
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The airports I go through generally don't have precheck. So I consider a freedom grope to just be a part of my travel experience. I'm on a first name basis with the TSA guys at my home airport.
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Dec 5, 2012 20:51
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KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:While we're on the subject of Delta, gently caress THE NEW DELTA.COM. I don't understand why they thought it was important to make me a pie chart detailing where my miles have come from this year. Does anybody actually give a poo poo about whether their miles came from a hotel bonus, a promotion, or from a flight? Because I don't single there is a single person that isn't a Delta employee that gives a single gently caress about that. Which pretty much sums up the redesign. They made it look like what somebody who works for Delta would want rather than what somebody who flies on Delta would want. I just wish they'd fix their app so I didn't have to force quit it every time it gets stuck on "downloading itinerary". Thoguh fucked around with this message at 02:52 on Dec 6, 2012 |
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Dec 6, 2012 02:50
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Gail Wynand posted:No idea how it works on DL, but on UA your CC miles do not count towards elite qualifying except under very, very limited circumstances. Same on Delta. But just having the card gives you most of the benefits of Silver anyway.
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Dec 6, 2012 23:01
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Barring something unplanned between Christmas and New Years it looks like I'm going to be finishing the year with 93,933 MQM miles over 94 segments on Delta, 87 nights in Hilton Honors hotels over 27 stays, and 24 Hertz rentals. Plus a few odds and ends that weren't on my preferred loyalty programs. I'm an engineer who does integration on DoD projects, so the travel is spread out around the country but 90% of it is to one west coast and one east coast location. I hit Platinum on Delta for the first time, which has made a world of difference on actually getting upgrades on flights. Diamond with Hilton Honors was also huge, the hotels I stay at suddenly all have suites for me rather than normal rooms. I'll lose President's Circle on Hertz next year for the first time since 2009 but that isn't a huge deal. Car upgrades are nice but nothing worth planning a trip around. How about everybody else? Thoguh fucked around with this message at 20:56 on Dec 7, 2012 |
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Dec 7, 2012 20:42
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what is this posted:National Rent-A-Car. National costs a lot more than Hertz with our negotiated rates. So I only use National in situations where Hertz just doesn't have a car available. But I loved their selection and service the few occasions I've used them.
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Dec 9, 2012 19:26
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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? I send my itinerary to an admin assistant and she books it for me. Depending on how much I care/how much time I have I'll usually tell her what flights/hotel I want. When I am in a hurry I just send her the airport and the dates and let her do the rest. If the flight I want is too expensive she'll help me find one that is cheaper that lets me stay with Delta if possible (Unless we have a business need for a specific flight we have to buy a ticket within about $100 of the cheapest non red-eye flight of the day to the location). If I have to change my travel in the middle of a trip I'll call her if its during business hours or call our travel agency directly if not. Thoguh fucked around with this message at 15:17 on Dec 10, 2012 |
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Dec 10, 2012 15:14
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Uncle Jam posted:What is everyone's hotel policy? Hilton/Marriot type hotel or below. I think the official policy is whatever the standard rate is for a 3 star hotel in the area is what you can get away with before they start auditing.
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Dec 11, 2012 06:40
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Lyon posted:In a similar vein, what is everyone else's food/alcohol policy? Basically "don't be a dumbass". Receipts for anything over $50 and you're supposed to break out alcohol costs because that is applied to overhead rather than billed to the customer. Every once in a while they decide they aren't paying for alcohol but that rarely lasts for more than a few months.
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Dec 11, 2012 19:53
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sellouts posted:I would highly recommend getting Pre-check qualified so this is a non issue most of the time. Out of several hundred flights over the past few years I've had exactly one flight where I was able to take advantage of pre-check. It is in all the airports I connect through, but not at any of the airports where I have my first flight.
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Dec 13, 2012 21:59
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Midjack posted:I wouldn't waste the hundred bucks, myself. Precheck will survive right up until the first time one of the "trusted travelers" either brings on something they shouldn't or misbehaves while on board. Meh. The stuff still gets X-rayed and you still go through a metal detector. Pre-check doesn't allow you to skip security. It just allows you to bypass the worst of the theater.
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Dec 14, 2012 04:52
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Midjack posted:We have the stupidass milliwave and backscatter X-rays instead of metal detectors everywhere now. And freedom gropes.
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Dec 14, 2012 15:44
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TouchyMcFeely posted:I fly into Billings MT frequently and they're probably the worst about it. Every time I tell them I'm opting out I get a description of how safe the system is. Yeah, don't give a gently caress. Give me my rubdown. I think its policy, because I get the same speil every single time I opt out. A few flights ago one of the TSA guys in Orange County wanted to have a conversation with me about why I was opting out while he was administrating the rubdown. That was awkward for everyone.
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Dec 15, 2012 17:57
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TouchyMcFeely posted:I'll usually chat with the guy giving me the pat down a bit while it's going on. I'd love to give them a heap of poo poo but it really doesn't do any good. They can't change the policy but they can certainly ruin my day. The best I can do is ensure that there's an additional mark in their "number of opt outs" book every time I go through security. That sums up my approach exactly. The TSA guys at my home airport all know me on sight by now and we chat about the weather or where I am headed that week. I don't gain anything by being a dick to them personally. I just don't particularly want to have a conversation with them about my feeling about the TSA in general. Thoguh fucked around with this message at 02:57 on Jul 11, 2014 |
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Dec 16, 2012 01:03
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TouchyMcFeely posted:My beef is more that it's a complete waste of time and if they're going to waste my time I'm going to waste theirs. I'm pleasant and cordial but it's the best way I know of that I allows me to say, "This poo poo sucks, please change it" that won't get me on a no fly list. Basically this.
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Dec 17, 2012 16:59
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what is this posted:I'm PM on DL with 100K+ MQM this year. 80 or so segments. Please don't pull the "I'm a frequent flyer, you don't understand how it is" argument. People have different opinions, news at 11. Can you stop trying to turn this into a D&D thread on the TSA? Thoguh fucked around with this message at 17:16 on Dec 17, 2012 |
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Dec 17, 2012 17:13
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Bastards and your lounges. I bet you don't have to mostly fly on regional jets either.
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Dec 19, 2012 15:32
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Uncle Jam posted:Nope, 90% of my flights are 4+ hours. 90% of my flights are 1-2 hours and I intentionally plan my itineraries around getting a mainline jet rather than an RJ for my hub to destination flights. No choice but an RJ for my home city to hub flights. My only longer flights are Minneapolis or Atlanta to Orange County and back. I try to do Atlanta when possible because it's a longer flight so more miles plus the planes Delta uses for that route have inflight TV, the Minneapolis route doesn't.
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Dec 20, 2012 05:01
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Just got an upside of all this travel. I was able to do a Diamond "force" with Hilton so I could book 4 nights in Munich during Oktoberfest next year using only points. Super cheap too, only 136,000 points for all four nights when the best available rate for the room was 399 Euro a night.
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Dec 26, 2012 22:54
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Morby posted:What do you guys use to charge your phones/laptops on planes? The battery? Most domestic planes on Delta are woefully short on plugs. Occasionally I'll luck out and they'll be some in first class if I get an upgrade. But even that is rare. I carry a spare battery for my phone and have an extended battery in my laptop's CD Drive slot.
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Dec 28, 2012 00:54
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Nifty posted:Hilton raised the points required to book a bunch of their hotels. I have been loyal to Hilton but am considering switching. At times I go to middle of nowhere towns, and Hyatt etc do not have enough locations for me to regularly book at, so the only other option is Marriott. I'm using my accumulation of Hilton points to cover most of a trip to Germany this fall. Good thing I've already got most of it booked. Hopefully I can get the rest set before this hits.
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Feb 20, 2013 20:21
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Meta Ridley posted:I am definitely a special case right now (this is first time they've done a trip like this. Honestly you'd think they would just hire me on at this point but the way this Corporation works that is not a possibility, positions are opened independently by some other higher-up). This still might be the better way to do it. Hopefully nothing sketchy is going on but I think it is very reasonable for you to want to know quickly and in writing what they expect you to do.
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Mar 15, 2013 15:51
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The closest comparison I can make to that is the drive to the airport for me. My company will allow you to expense the mileage between the building you work in and the airport parking lot, which works out to about $15 round trip. But if you don't put it down on the expense report they won't add it. $15 doesn't sound like much but as much as I was traveling the past few years that added $300-$400 a year. Hell yes was I going to write that down every time. Otherwise you are just taking a small pay cut via the mileage you are putting on your car. I live 30 miles away from work and don't expect them to pay for my commute, because that drive is my decision. The drive to the airport is theirs.
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Mar 22, 2013 15:59
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Belldandy posted:P.S. How is everyone doing with their miles? I just hit 75,000 this past week and have no travel (!) planned this week, which is a nice change. Hoping I can hit EXP again by the end of April. 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.
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Mar 26, 2013 03:24
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