Badenoch

While there is difference between business and leisure travel there is usually the opportunity to squeeze in a little sight-seeing. Even if there isn't time you can orient yourself to a new place, find out where the good restaurants are, know how to get in from the airport, what hotels and parts of town are more desirable, etc. And all the time I'm spending in the location that other people scrimp and save to visit I am getting paid and can easily return on my own time if I so desire and be far better informed than the first time visitor.

Explorer789

Most business travelers on my flights are very nice, friendly, and keep to themselves. I'm traveling almost every months these days and have yet to see someone go full elitist and ignorant mode during my travels.

Traveling is frustrating and stressful in general. So, I guess when a biz traveler is booked in biz class and has status, there's some expectation that things go smoother than if traveling with no status and economy. As others have mentioned, airline staff are not without blame either when they do not know their own policies or deviate from them.

mikesyr18

Yes, it's so ridiculous to state sales people work for a commission.

StuckInYYZ

Not all sales people have a commission component in their compensation package. In fact, I would say most do not (especially outsideof the US). That said, the ones that do have commissions are often some of the most stressed out people you will find as they usually have quotas to meet. Most business travelers you will meet are average joes who are trying to make a buck. Some were lucky to get a job that allowed them to see things from a new perspective. Some are opportunists and some are people who think they are all that and want the world to know it. Those are the business travelers that nobody likes and who we call the DYKWIAs.

PaxALotl

I was referred tot he part when you said "so if they aren't making good money, then they aren't a good salesmen."

That's ridiculous. A lot of good people work hard and are good at what they do, but don't make a lot of money - for various reasons.

You seem to have some hatred towards anyone who is flying for work because you seem to think they are some kind of 'elite'. As if you are some kind of wage-earning everyman, who lives in the school of hard knocks and can't get a break. A lot of people work really hard and make just enough to get by, or do jobs where they have to do boring travel and be away from their families to pay the bills. There are plenty of salespeople who are good at it but aren't really making much, and plenty of business travelers who dream of a no-travel job.

With so much enlightened knowledge of the world, and such a keen grasp on what everyone is is making and what their lives look like, we can all learn so much from you.

chrisl137

We fly technicians around to do skilled work on our equipment. 6 times a month is on the high side, but not unheard of, more typical is fly 3-4 RTs and be away from home for 3 weeks. They're often hourly and aren't even allowed flexibility to stop between the airport and hotel check-in for food. My travel varies a lot with project and project stage - Years ago I was sometimes flying an RT transcon every week or two for a few months, with shorter and occasional TATL travel mixed in. Then without much conscious thought it morphed into very little travel for almost a decade, then ramped back up to a lot of local travel, plus a lot of transcons and 30-40 days away from home. I managed to dump that for a while, and now it's creeping back up - some of my management would like to see me traveling much more, but fortunately I get to make most of the travel decisions on what I'm doing.

There are also a lot of specialized equipment repair techs and installers who are basically on the road all the time, but don't have spectacular salaries. I interviewed for one for a scientific equipment manufacturer a few decades ago. The pay wasn't anything special, but at the end of the week they'd fly you anywhere you want for the weekend (home, skiing, the beach, whatever) and then off to some new work site at the start of the next week.

evergrn

+1.

I completely understand the reasons why biz travelers wish to bring on max carry-ons, as I observe many of them to do. But so the fact remains that biz travelers are more guilty of clogging up overhead bins (which was one of the points I made a few posts into the start of this thread). A typical biz traveler will travel solo and will almost invariably put a rollerboard up there. I see many of them putting the second personal item up there also. On the other hand, a family of 4 would typically only take up bin space that's equivalent to maybe 2 rollerboards max.

Yes you sure earned it. But requirement for Diamond is either 30 stays or 60 nights. And I would guess that most biz travelers who "earn" their Diamond status are not staying anywhere near 200 nights a year. While frequent business travelers vary widely in their travel patterns and there are some travel monsters out there, I would think that something around 30 stays/45nights a year (which is in the ballpark of what I used to do in my prior career, mostly category 4ish properties) is closer to the median of everyone in this group than 200 nights a year. 200 hotel nights a year is certainly 'the hard way," but 40-50 not so much. My current career involves minimal work for travel, yet it is time-consuming and takes me away from home/family in different fashion.

Furthermore, 45nights a year at HGI type places might be $6000-6500 of the company's money that earns one a Diamond status. Last year, as a leisure traveler, I did ~10 stays / >25 nights at mostly category 6-10 totalling >$6000 of my own money in spending... only good enough for Silver. So I then "buy" myself the Diamond status via credit card. Am I less worthy of my Diamond status than most of those who "earned" it? I don't believe so. I don't begrudge anyone for their status or the fact that they get to sit in business while I sit in Y, btw. I am envious in some ways, but I certainly don't resent them. What I do resent is I'm-better-than-you attitude ("you don't deserve this status" / "you didn't earn it") you come across often on FT.

This is a very good point.

chrisl137

And sometimes biz travel takes people to places that the residents scrimp and save to get out of as fast as they can and never look back.

Gino Troian

Not everyone in sales makes commission... You sure seem to know quite a bit about business travelers and frequent fliers for someone who has taken their first flight alone last year.

NYTA

My view is that any item smaller than a rollaboard should go under the seat. Frankly I have seen just as many leisure travelers putting small bags (and duty free bags!) in the overheads that should be under their seats - taking space in the bins away that could be used for rollaboards. It's all a matter of incentives and priority etc. When I'm traveling for work, they'll have to pry my rollaboard out of my cold, dead hand to get it away from me. On low-cost airlines like Ryanair/Easyjet (which I fly several times a year within Europe), I pay extra for priority boarding and the ability to take a roller + personal item. Having airline status is the equivalent of having "paid extra" by having my butt in one of their seats (instead of those of their competitors) for 50,000+ miles a year. The airlines themselves want the business of "road warriors" much more than they do of the family of four going to Disney World once every few years.

ft101

You're doing something very wrong with all of that. No matter what anyone does, including travel, they should be able to do it in a relaxed stress free manner, letting someone else take the strain where possible, and not be in such a rush. That does not include hanging on to all your bags so you can hurry from one place to another without waiting at a baggage carousel just to make another appointment. It also doesn't include insisting someone who has brought one smaller bag on board puts it at their feet restricting their legroom so you and your colleagues can all get your rollaboards above your head (I accept if you paid extra for it you're OK, it's the ones that don't pay and just expect it that need educated). You lose a bag - so what, buy more stuff and claim it back. Relax, slow down, take it easy and you'll enjoy life more.

If it's "part of the job", then educate (or change) your employer. If more Business Travellers took this approach the OP may never have made his post.

NYTA

Most airlines allow one carry-on and one personal item. On the ones that don't, I pay extra to travel this way. I don't take more than what's allowed by the rules. Perhaps you think I'd enjoy life more if, when I checked bags, I paid $100 extra to send two 25 pound bags instead of one 50 pound bag that I get for free? After all, it's easier to carry, isn't it? Maybe I should just pay $150 to send my clothes to my destination via Fedex so I don't have to make anyone restrict their legroom with their own carry-ons? I'd really enjoy life more that way!

Personally, I think you'd enjoy life more if you stopped being such a busybody, moralizing against people who follow the airline rules just to meet your own arbitrary criteria about how passengers should travel. I'm sure when the speed limit is 65 you would tell people who drive 65 that they should drive 55 just to save gas, slow down and enjoy life more.

Athena53

I was eavesdropping on a conversation between one of these guys and the next person in line while waiting for Immigration at LHR. He'd been in at least countries in the past couple of weeks and had more travel coming up. Didn't envy him whatever FF miles and status he had at all.

Low Roller

I agree with your premise that people should be able to travel in a relaxed stress free manner, but not everyone finds the same things stressful. Checking bags may alleviate your stress, but would add to mine. Not only does it take extra time to check and then pick-up bags, but losing a bag is a big inconvenience (I speak from experience). Yes, you can replace the stuff but I like my stuff and I hate shopping, especially when I have to do it in another city when I have other things that I either have to do (like work) or would rather do (like enjoy my vacation).

Badenoch

Sometimes it does. My work in the resource field has taken me to some of those places but they were always educational and interesting. I wouldn't trade a single business travel experience even the arduous ones for a career in a cubicle or as an office-bound drone who never goes anywhere and hates those of us who do.