bitterproffit

I love biz travelers and sometimes I feel sorry for them. I was them for so many years. I even recognize myself in some of the OP's original comments. I often was that dude with the Jabra headset (before bluetooth) answering calls on the rental car bus, or the shuttle bus, etc, imposing my conversation on others.

OP's post brings up some interesting points about behavior, and my international travels with groups of coworkers ended up a lot like what the OP was describing.

But I also recognize how difficult it was to sometimes travel for work especially when you didn't want to. There is a lot of powerlessness in business travel as well. You are going where you have to go, not where you want to go. And I think that powerlessness makes most of us want to then try to control what we can, and that is our personal space, or our temporary domicile, or our seat. That might be what is often behind the DYKWIA attitude; a need to control what you can, because you are not in control of so much else.

Now, when I travel, its for choice. And I look at the people around me who are acting in the way to OP describes, I usually just feel sorry for them. Oh, you are going to Berlin for a meeting? Nice. While you are in that meeting, I might be practicing FKK in the Tiergarten. So enjoy your high powered business meeting. I'm going to enjoy this book, a bottle of beer, and a nice ham sandwich in the sun.

When I overhear the bar talk, I just wistfully remember the good times of my old biz life and then just remind myself that I don't miss most of it.

I have reread the OP's post a few times and, while hate is too strong of a word, I recognize a lot of the behavior, and remember when that was me. Now, I'm that guy strolling on the plane last, with a little buzz from the lounge, ready to start my latest dream vacation. I sometimes envy the biz travelers because they remind me of the fun parts of my previous life (travel with coworkers can sometimes be fun), and sometimes I feel sorry for them. But mostly, they treat me with respect and I do likewise.

vanaema78

The OP is weirdly poetic.

bitterproffit

Yes, and I will not forget what a 'puke' is.

KDS777

I was a bizz traveller for a decade, and frankly if I had a choice I'd rather a plane full of them than having to be mixed in with the "Kettles".

Hipplewm

As a counterpoint, I luckily don't work or fly Jun/Jul/Aug, cause a bunch of crazy people toting kids thru security, no idea of TSA rules. Mom whines because she wore flip flops and doesn't want to walk barefoot thru the metal detector (I can't blame her the floor is literally disgusting) but she didn't plan for it and now everyone has to hear her whine. Kids out of control, yelling when they don't get their way. Trying to board, finding their seat, one kid ate his boarding pass on a flight I was on, watching his mom trying to scan the soggy leftover card was funny, before the GA just processed him manually.

I'll take a whole plane full of people that generally know where their seat is, know how to get thru TSA efficiently, know where they are going in airports and don't stop randomly in the middle of a passage way full of moving people etc... If they talk loud, I just put on my noise cancelling headphones and watch a movie....

chrisl137

Yeah, I have to agree. And despite it really being a rant and most of my travel being for work, I agree it's pretty accurate.

I don't like to travel with other people from work - one of the things that makes work travel tolerable is that I track down old friends wherever I'm going and we go hang out and do things entirely unrelated to work. It makes the travel a lot more pleasant

The previous big project I was on was in relatively late stages and when we'd send multiple people somewhere, everybody would travel on their own schedule and arrive at the right time as necessary. Everybody had their own favorite hotel in the area (often in different cities), so we wouldn't normally have dinner together - some people don't like to go out and would stay close to the work site at a place with a lounge floor, while I'd stay 20 minutes away at a hotel in a walkable city center and hang out there or head out with local friends.

Now I'm on a project where if we're going for a review, a bunch of people want be on the same flight, share a car and stay at the same hotel and have extra meetings to feel like they're getting something done. It gets in the way of stopping to hang out with friends between the airport and the hotel (and vice versa). I'd much rather spend the evening playing board games with some friends and their kids than driving straight out to the middle of nowhere after a transcon and eating at a TGIFriday's knockoff. Worse is if I'm going for a technical visit, there are often management types who want to tag along who don't realize that their mere presence will turn the visit into a dog and pony show and remove most of the technical value on top of making the travel part a drag, too.

dulciusexasperis

A well balanced and thoughtful response bitterproffit. I agree that 'hate' is too strong a word obviously and as someone who also used to travel for work but now travels only for leisure, I see it differently from the OP. Business travellers have no monopoly on poor behaviour. There are pain in the butt travellers who travel for business and pain in the butt travellers who travel only for leisure. While their may be differences in what they do that is a pain in the butt for others, I would not say that one is worse than the other.

I do find some of the responses amusing. Like the inferred suggestion that perhaps the OP is jealous because he doesn't get upgrades etc. An example being, "Has elite status on the airline and gets perks and upgrades he can only dream of and are permanently beyond his grasp.
Is probably sitting in the front in a comfortable seat that was paid for by someone else while he paid out of his own pocket to be crammed into tiny seat in the back."

Maybe some who think that way should try this shoe on for size. I do not travel in economy and I pay for my seat every time. I do not collect points to save a few dollars, I can afford to pay for what I want without counting the pennies. Those who have to rely on points to fly in an upgraded class, have my sympathy. It must not be much fun being unable to afford to pay for your seat.

The DYKWIA attitude of some business travellers, based on their 'status' may be driven by their lack of control as you suggest bitterproffit but it may also be based on their seeing things only from their own perspective. For someone who doesn't need to collect points, collecting them can be seen as similar to being able to buy a Mercedes S class for cash and then bothering to notice the price of gas.

swingaling

zeebanker

+1

What I cannot countenance is (a) the "I'm better than you because....." or (b) the "I don't care how I/my kids behave in public...." attitudes that entitled business travelers and leisure travelers respectively display. What happened to civility, common sense and courtesy, irrespective of our reason for getting on a plane?

Reminds me of the saying "those who have it don't feel the need to show it and those who feel the need to show it don't really have it".

DavidDTW

As someone who books flights for business travelers, I have to agree with a lot of OP comments. That attitude isn't reserved for just the airport/hotel. I frequently hear about a must attend meeting at 10am, but uh oh, the early morning flight doesn't have any open F. The 9am flight has F? Ok, book that and I will be late to my meeting.

Or from an admin: "He has to be on the 6pm flight to Paris. No business class? Oh, just call Global Services....they will book him on it and bump someone else."

Or: "Is there a C+ aisle seat on flight xxx? No? I will have to check my schedule and call back. Not flying in economy!"

DCP2016

As always there are two types of business travelers and leisure travelers. Those who keep to themselves and follow the rules and those who think they are the only people on the plane/at the airport/at the hotel. I try to be like the former and appreciate those who are as well.

skywardhunter

It's interesting seeing who's liking which posts esoeiespec early on in this thread...

Athena53

Yeah, I've been there/done that, too, minus the Jabra/Bluetooth devices. I occasionally feel a little twinge of nostalgia when a former coworker posts from one of the more desirable places I traveled on the company dime, but then I remember trying to stay awake while jet-lagged with a PowerPoint presentation on the screen. It passes quickly. Last May I went to a meeting of my professional society in Toronto just because I liked Toronto. Didn't have to find potential clients, didn't have to go to any sessions I didn't want to. Nice. Planning to do the same in November, 2019 in Honolulu.

I had a good job. My long-hauls are still in Business Class and if I'm flying domestic in Coach but have a long layover I buy a day pass to a lounge. I have no loyalty to any particular airline- have Lifetime Gold on AA that's worth a little, but I take the airline that has the best schedule and pricing for where I want to go. Paid Business Class will get you most of the perks even if you've never flown them before. I just spent 3 weeks in India and Nepal (as a tourist) and don't have to worry about whether or not I have enough vacation days left for my trip to Scotland in early September, or my bicycling trip through Missouri wine country in late September.

While I find some of the industry chatter of business travelers grating, for the most part they're civilized. They know what they can/can't bring through the TSA line and, as mentioned, they're not dealing with a pile of kids or babies whose ears hurt from the altitude change. The ones I've encountered drink in moderation on planes and in airports. I'm happy to share a flight and a lounge with them. I'm just glad I'm retired and no longer one of them. Life is good.

jmj9905

trajanc:
I just feel sorry for you.

kubrick

For the most part, I stay away from business travellers for this reason. And they're easy to stay away from.

Unlike an unruly toddler who won't stop screaming in the plane/lounge/at the hotel. You can stay away from them, but you'll still hear them from miles away.

Also, if a business traveller is shouting into their phone, I can complain to the cabin crew and they usually get reprimanded. Crying babies? Nobody can stop them.

Not saying I love business travellers. Just that they're the lesser of two evils.