My Dad traveled a lot on business for about 5 years when I was young- I remember my mother driving us to the airport (Canton-Akron) and being able to stand behind the chicken-wire fence and watch his plane take off or land. I always wanted to travel to Europe- I can't explain it since my 4 siblings had no interest in it whatsoever.

I studied Math in college and got into the actuarial field- not something that seemed like a path to international business travel in 1975. As soon as I had a little spare money I made my first trip to Europe at the age of 25. I made another one 3 years later but was sidelined after that by motherhood.

In the meantime, I'd managed to find a branch of the insurance business that was more international (reinsurance) and joined a company with branch offices in London and Brussels. Now I work for a large reinsurer headquartered in Zurich, my boss is in London and I'm in charge of a small staff in Bangalore. There are plenty of opportunities to get on a plane, and I think they appreciate the fact that I'm more willing than most to do it. On top of that, my dear husband whom I married in 2003 is always up for travel to Europe. We've been known to take 4-day weekends in Scotland and Brussels, as well as longer trips.

Coach travel has definitely gotten more miserable in the last 30 years and I get by mostly by thinking of it as what I have to put up with to get someplace interesting. I have my occasional good moments when I'm sitting in a wondow seat sipping a glass of wine, admiring the clouds and listening to good music, but it's mostly a hassle now. Fortunately, my employer pays for Business for long hauls.