Surviving Business Air Travel

This post is dedicated to my daughter Pulisha who for about the fourth time in a row was raked over the coals in the course of business travel as she documented in this post.

I've been traveling for business for over 3 decades. Some periods less, some scads. If you travel a lot you are going to run into problems...sooner or later. I've developed a list of rules that have held me in good stead and which I cleave unto without alteration.

Rule One - Never Check Your Bags

As in never, never, never, never. I mean never. And if I wasn't clear never. If you are flying for business (I don't mean a long international trip when you may not have a choice) in the U.S. you are rarely flying more than 3 to 5 days. Figure out how to get it all in the carry-on. With creativity, using wash and wear cloths, etc. It is doable. This eliminates one of the biggest problems of screwed up travel; the loss of bags. If you are on business you need your cloths. End of story. If you carry out it may be a pain but you always have your stuff. Plus if you get caught in flight cancellations it is much harder to get rebooked when you have baggage checked on a flight

Rule Two - Don't be Cheap, Concentrate Your Flying So You Get Frequent Flyer Status

This has nothing to do with gaining free flights. It has everything to do with preferential treatment. When flights start getting canceled and there are limited seats available, all airlines have a pecking order of they give those to and at the top of lists are their very frequent fliers. I can't tell you the number of times I've been at some airport disaster when the lines are beyond belief and passenger after passenger is being told that it will be days before they get rebooked and I find that I am already booked on a flight that leaves the next morning. Or my only option for getting the hell out of Dodge is a standby, there are 20 people ahead of me for 4 seats and I get one because my status puts me to the top of the list. You may pay more in your travel budget overall but how much to you value not getting stranded somewhere? Plus there are other benefits like preferential seating, boarding first (important if you are carrying on bags all the time), and upgrades which make business travel more bearable.

Rule Three - Study Your Airline's Patterns

One things start falling apart like when terrible weather hits and there is a cascade effect of cancellations, if you know which airlines fly where and when, you can often figure out your own route to freedom. I've done this when I've been cancelled in Chicago and because I know of a direct flight from Washington Dulles to Albuquerque, I've had them rebook me there even though it seems out of the way. Another time I was in LA where there are four different airports when I was notified that a flight I was taking was canceled. Knowing there were alternatives from the other airports, I was able to rebook from one of those.

Rule Four - Have All the Airline Numbers in Your Cell Phone

If you need to rebook because of any reason, don't just sit there in line. Make phone calls. Typically, I will be on the phone and in line at the same time (since in bad situation there may be a long wait on the phone). I book through whichever one I get through first.

Rule Five - Take Advantage of Airlines' Automated Messaging Services

I always sign up for these. I like getting them as text messages best. These inform you if a flight is running late or getting canceled. The earlier you get this information the more time you have to plot alternative strategies. We used this right after my kidney donation surgery. We were saying good by to my sister, taking our time, when I got a text about our flight from CT to DC being late. Looking at the rescheduled time, it was clear we would miss our connection. We got this with a number of hours to spare. We hightailed it to the airport where we were one of the few people to be able rebook to a Chicago flight that got us home ok.

Rule Six - Study the Weather and Escape Hubs that get Socked In

When a hub like Chicago, Dallas, Minneapolis, Atlanta, etc. goes through a major weather meltdown, get somewhere else. This happened to me last year in Chicago. I was on an evening flight back home. Huge thunderstorms and tornado warnings came through screwing things up. They were going to schedule me the next day on the same flight. I had been watching the weather and knew that this pattern was suppose to hold for days. I arranged to go to Denver early the next morning. Even though they couldn't guarantee me a seat until late that day from Denver to ABQ, I was able (using my status) to snatch up the earliest connection on standby.

Rule Seven - Avoid Flying Late in the Day if You Can

Things always get worse and get more backed up as the day goes on. Plus there are fewer alternatives for you to take if things get screwed up. And in the summer, thunderstorm activity, a major headache for air travel, is always worse as the day heats up.

Rule Eight - Carry Emergency Rations

Always have some nuts, bars, something that you can eat if you get trapped on a plane waiting to either take off or get back to a gate.

Hope this is helpful Pu. If you're going to be a road warrior, be armed like one :)