June 29, 2009
Traveling for work - how do you make it fun?
This is my second time in Yong In for work. The first time, I came up with a question about rural or urban vacations.
This time it's a question about traveling for work in general: how do you make it fun?
I know I'm supposed to be working and shouldn't be trying too hard to have fun but then again you only live once and should enjoy as much of life as you can, right?
Yet here I am with work to do, and no friends, family, or pets to distract me. I had a little fun when I arrived because I had time to go to the gym and get in a quick workout. The gym here isn't great, but it does have a punching bag and this is only the second time in my life I've fooled with one of those.
I suppose I could go for a walk, but I am in the country so while trees are nice and everything I don't know if that will make this 3 day trip really fun....
May 9, 2009
Business travel changes as companies try to cut expenses
Interesting New York Times article here on how the economy has changed the corporate idea of business travel. Fewer trips and cheaper trips are hurting companies like Continental:
It blamed the downgrades, as well as travelers' decisions to forgo trips altogether, for its loss of $136 million during the first three months of 2009. Overall passenger revenue for the quarter fell 18.8 percent, compared with the first quarter of 2008.Apparently hotels like Red Lion are now attracting some business travelers. I have never tried a Red Lion but I like that they are pet friendly.
It makes this old question seem pretty obvious now.
June 22, 2008
What happens when airlines reduce capacity?
I don't have too much to say about this article but I did think it was a fairly interesting look at which airports could be affected when airlines reduce capacity in the fall as well as how that might impact business flyers.
April 17, 2008
Getting away from work
As usual Forbes talks about some vacations most of us can't afford. They mention something about a 1-week vacation for $21,000. I think that's about 3-5 months worth of vacation for me...
Anyway, I enjoyed reading about places with little cell service:
Gobi Desert
Alaskan wilderness
Mongolia
Morocco
Rocky Mountains
Of course even in these places you have to be careful since parts of each do have service...
August 28, 2007
How are the foreign transaction fees on your credit card?
I just noticed that mine are pretty steep (I use an MBNA turned Bank of America NCL cruise rewards card) - a $600 charge = an $18 foreign transaction fee. A $9 charge is more like 25 cents. Is that normal?
May 24, 2007
Corporations trying to reduce travel expenses
I liked this article but let me warn you that it's not the type I usually recommend. It discusses business travel from the corporate point of view, how Mike Hall has lowered costs for Johnson Controls travel program. He has:
reduced the number of preferred suppliersSounds like a tough job but if he's saving the company millions of dollars I'd think he has more job security than most of us...driven down costs through integrated reporting tools
delivered online booking solutions on a market-specific basis to efficiently manage the corporation's 20,000 travelers.
October 4, 2006
Talk to the person sitting next to you
In this article aimed at business travelers the author recommends learning something about whoever you end up sitting next to. Sometimes you get lucky enough to sit next to a gorgeous Argentinian doctor or a biologist with videos of mating mokeys on his laptop.
My wife and I sometimes follow this advice and did meet an interesting lady from Japan, an office worker who was crazy about Def Leopard. She was flying to New York to see them for the 27th and 28th times if memory serves.
There's also something about a contest where you enter by emailing a business travel tip to bizcontest@bostonherald.com.
June 3, 2006
Tethered vacations and negotiating for more vacation time
I read an interesting article about what it really means to go on vacation because it varies from company to company. There's also some good advice about negotiating:
Find out what's expected. Does your manager expect you to call in once a day, check e-mails regularly and be available for conference calls? If that's the case, you might be able to negotiate for extra days or more frequent vacations.That does sound like a good bargaining chip and fair too. If it's not really a vacation it should be longer, right?