Don't know if this is happening at all to any fellow Road Warriors, but in recent weeks, the company I work for has been trying to control travel expenses. Some of this I can understand, but in the past, we billed the customer for T & E, so it was never quite an issue unless the customer got sniffy about it. Now, we've decided to take T & E out of the equation, so all money spent directly affects the bottom line. A mistake, in my opinion, but who listens to me?

What it means to me is that I'm now flying less on United (I live in the Denver area) and more on Frontier, Midway, and Vanguard. I'm staying less at Marriott and more at Best Western. Fortunately, I still get to rent Hertz, but who knows how long that will last?

On the one hand, I am glad to still have a job in the tech sector. Many of my fellow employees got the axe a month ago. I am also discovering that all the previous complaining I did about United (often) and Marriott (sometimes) was perhaps a bit out-of-proportion. Compared to the true cattle-car airlines I am now flying, and the lumpy love-and-roach-motels I'm staying in, United and Marriott are due for a big hug from me if I ever manage to use them again.

I just got back from a DEN-ATL-DEN flight last week on Vanguard. Ugly. They have one counter and two employees in Denver, so even though I got there two hours early, I still was nearly late for my flight. We stopped in Kansas City (MCI) but were NOT ALLOWED off the plane (how weird is that) going both to and fro. No 'economy plus' seating, of course, no first class section at all, water dribbled constantly from the light fixture over the main doorway (737-200), there was no food on any leg of any trip.

The Best Western I stayed at north of Atlanta had phones that had no dial tone for the first night I was there, a toilet that did not flush, and a half-eaten hoagie sandwich in a dresser drawer, left by a considerate previous guest. A large contigent of boom-box carrying patrons arrived the same night I did, and proceeded to 'rock the house' a few doors down from me, complete with mega-bass thumping and shrieking females running up and down the hallways all night. And of course, the desk clerk spoke next to no english and refused to take any action at all.

I am suddenly realizing that a large part of why I have enjoyed my job so much over the years is that I have enjoyed the actual travel (although I thought I didn't). Now that things are a bit more grim, I am not liking my job all that much at all.

Just wondering if anyone else is in a similar situation?

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks