Business Travel Tips

[Speed 3]

fat80b said:

My favourite tip to people though is this:

Don't be one of those people that say they "can't sleep on planes" - These people are idiots - you can sleep anywhere with a bit of planning. With that attitude, you wont be able to sleep on a plane and it is a self fulfilling prophecy. If you don't sleep on a long hall flight, you'll be screwed and that's no good for your health.

I have a sleep routine on a plane and it works every time. As soon as you board, get an eye mask, earplugs / headphones, blanket etc all ready to use. Put them on, even though you are not ready to go to sleep straight away. I often have the eye mask already perched on my head at take off - it may look a little daft, but I am ready to go.

I would love to agree with you but I get cramp when I'm anything other than perfectly horizontal with kIng sized space (BA J you know you're guilty as hell, let alone W or Y). I have done 10 hr trips many, many times and never slept more than 30-60 minutes on any of them. My only solution is to get pissed and watch endless TV.

[AndrewCrown]

Speed 3 said:

fat80b said:

My favourite tip to people though is this:

Don't be one of those people that say they "can't sleep on planes" - These people are idiots - you can sleep anywhere with a bit of planning. With that attitude, you wont be able to sleep on a plane and it is a self fulfilling prophecy. If you don't sleep on a long hall flight, you'll be screwed and that's no good for your health.

I have a sleep routine on a plane and it works every time. As soon as you board, get an eye mask, earplugs / headphones, blanket etc all ready to use. Put them on, even though you are not ready to go to sleep straight away. I often have the eye mask already perched on my head at take off - it may look a little daft, but I am ready to go.

I would love to agree with you but I get cramp when I'm anything other than perfectly horizontal with kIng sized space (BA J you know you're guilty as hell, let alone W or Y). I have done 10 hr trips many, many times and never slept more than 30-60 minutes on any of them. My only solution is to get pissed and watch endless TV.

And so would I, my dear chap (Fat80b) if one is 6' 4" with wide shoulders ....all business class feels like a Nissan micra seat..I can only sleep in First...and even then only after a bottle or two.. economy would cause so much damage to me I'd rather drive...

[mr_spock]

I don't travel that much nowadays, but FWIW:

Gate8 bags - great things. I have one which will easily work for 3 days, up to 5 if need be. Best part is that the laptop and liquids bag are in their own pocket, so very easy through airport security. Even better, the front part unzips to become a laptop bag which I can use during my trip without taking the full roll on everywhere. Oh, and I can split it so the roll on part meets the smallest airline sizes plus a laptop bag!

Get a second toothbrush and hairbrush, leave in the travel bag.

Dentists have free small tubes of toothpaste, great for travel. I pick up a couple of handfuls each visit (with permission, of course)

Hotels without room service are a pain in the backside for me, I often arrive late and hungry for European travel. Same with a lack of coffee facilities, a common thing in Spain for example. I check this where I can, also check Tripadvisor. Wifi is also very important!

Get a large cellphone battery pack. Mine can charge my iPhone at least 3 times from empty. Nothing more annoying than listening to music or playing games on a flight to arrive and not be able to call the office, book a taxi etc.

I have Panasonic noise cancelling headphones, much less expensive than Bose, smaller too.

Book airport parking through Quidco if possible. Also flights and hotels with Expedia can get Quidco cashback and Nectar points, and the prices are good too.

[schmalex]

Oh. Get a long charging lead for your phone. Many hotels don't have plugs near the bed and many aircraft have the USB charging port in the front of the seat pod

[warp9]

Second a previous post. Melatonin for jet lag. Acts as a sedative to help sleep on the flight and helps quickly regulate the body clock over a couple of nights when back. Not available in the UK....

[AndrewCrown]

warp9 said:

Second a previous post. Melatonin for jet lag. Acts as a sedative to help sleep on the flight and helps quickly regulate the body clock over a couple of nights when back. Not available in the UK....

Warp...it is on Prescription

[pushthebutton]

schmalex said:

I have QC20 in ear headphones. They may not isolate quite as much noise as the over ear cans but I find them infinitely more comfortable and I can lie on my side with them in. They are, without fail, the first thing that I put in my hand luggage.

I owned the QC25s and QC20s at the same time and so tried them side-by-side on a flight: there was so little difference that I sold the 25s and have stuck with the 20s ever since.

[Kermit power]

55palfers said:

A bit of advice given to me many years ago when I started business travelling.

Expenses.

Don't take the pi55.

A related bit of advice from my first boss, though, was "show me a man who has claimed back everything he has spent on expenses, and I'll show you a man who thinks he is scamming his expenses!"

In other words, you'll always end up a bit out of pocket at times, so don't feel bad about claiming things like individual Metro tickets. An individual claim of £1 might seem petty, but if you're failing to claim 15 individual £1 fares a month, you've just missed out on a nice meal out with your other half over the course of the year.

[RC1807]

AndrewCrown said:

warp9 said:

Second a previous post. Melatonin for jet lag. Acts as a sedative to help sleep on the flight and helps quickly regulate the body clock over a couple of nights when back. Not available in the UK....

Warp...it is on Prescription

Buy it in supermarkets in the U.S. That's what I do. Cheap too.

[surveyor]

Tripit. An app that I use to track all of my travel/reservations. Need a confirmation number - it will be there. It will also automatically update on delays, and at some airports gates... (Gates don't work at my local airport - put there are only 4).

Hotels - As said stick to one. I travel a lot in the UK - and also to Ireland and Netherlands. Mostly I stick with Premier Inn as I know what I'm getting. The lack of loyalty reward is annoying me though. I may switch.

I don't eat at the hotels - but usually get a picnic from a supermarket. I'd prefer to catch up with my backlog while away rather than be sat in a bar, and means more family time at home.

Take a step back when travelling with the family. Just because you/I do it all the time means it ain't special... They may want to go and have a drink at the stupidly busy and expensive bar whereas I have my secret places to pass the time...

Be nice to airline staff when flight is delayed. They are late getting home too... Oh and always pay attention to safety demo's. You never know....

[BenjiS]

schmalex said:

^^^ This. In spades.

We get up to £25 for breakfast, £55 for lunch and £100 for dinner. More if entertaining. I've never got anywhere near any of those as I simply don't need to, yet those in our company who only travel occasionally always try to max out "because they can". They soon do t get invited back

Wow, those are serious sums.

We can claim up to IR pre-approved amounts, so I think it's 8 quid for breakfast, nowt for lunch, and up to £30 for evening meal. So I will max it out without any qualms.

[RBH58]

fat80b said:

Don't be one of those people that say they "can't sleep on planes" - These people are idiots - you can sleep anywhere with a bit of planning. With that attitude, you wont be able to sleep on a plane and it is a self fulfilling prophecy. If you don't sleep on a long hall flight, you'll be screwed and that's no good for your health.

I have a sleep routine on a plane and it works every time. As soon as you board, get an eye mask, earplugs / headphones, blanket etc all ready to use. Put them on, even though you are not ready to go to sleep straight away. I often have the eye mask already perched on my head at take off - it may look a little daft, but I am ready to go.

I've been racking up 250-500,000 miles every year for 14 years and the only way I sleep "properly" on a plane is with meds. I guess you can consider that "planning", but even with a fully flat bed I don't quickly drift off into a peaceful sleep. If you can then you can truly sleep anywhere.

I do believe in adopting the timezone of my destination the moment I get on board the plane though, and try to take meals and sleep in line with that.

[GT03ROB]

RBH58 said:

fat80b said:

Don't be one of those people that say they "can't sleep on planes" - These people are idiots - you can sleep anywhere with a bit of planning. With that attitude, you wont be able to sleep on a plane and it is a self fulfilling prophecy. If you don't sleep on a long hall flight, you'll be screwed and that's no good for your health.

I have a sleep routine on a plane and it works every time. As soon as you board, get an eye mask, earplugs / headphones, blanket etc all ready to use. Put them on, even though you are not ready to go to sleep straight away. I often have the eye mask already perched on my head at take off - it may look a little daft, but I am ready to go.

I've been racking up 250-500,000 miles every year for 14 years and the only way I sleep "properly" on a plane is with meds. I guess you can consider that "planning", but even with a fully flat bed I don't quickly drift off into a peaceful sleep. If you can then you can truly sleep anywhere.

I do believe in adopting the timezone of my destination the moment I get on board the plane though, and try to take meals and sleep in line with that.

Few glasses of plonk.... seat flat.... I'm gone til just before landing!!

[oyster]

Some good advice on this thread.

Here's mine:

1. Maximise family/home time and minimise travel time. Use the fastest, most direct routing anywhere. Whether plane, taxi, train whatever. I've even used helicopter transfers in the past to speed up connections (they can be cheaper than you expect).
2. Travel first/business (unless it's not the quickest of course).
3. Travel in your most comfortable clothes and carry your suit with you. I see people sleeping in their suits on places - WTF?
4. Forget packing secrets, just use hotel laundry and ironing services - it's a minor cost.
5. Toughest of all - stay on UK time. Sometimes you can do it, sometimes you can't. Perhaps find a compromise somewhere.


Remember, business travel is a just a tool for the job. If you use crap tools, you'll get less quality results. And if your company provides crap tools, then let them know that.

[Sheepshanks]

Kermit power said:

55palfers said:

A bit of advice given to me many years ago when I started business travelling.

Expenses.

Don't take the pi55.

A related bit of advice from my first boss, though, was "show me a man who has claimed back everything he has spent on expenses, and I'll show you a man who thinks he is scamming his expenses!"

In other words, you'll always end up a bit out of pocket at times, so don't feel bad about claiming things like individual Metro tickets. An individual claim of £1 might seem petty, but if you're failing to claim 15 individual £1 fares a month, you've just missed out on a nice meal out with your other half over the course of the year.

In both my last big corporate job, and now in a smaller company, nobody has ever queried me adding a couple of hundred dollars on US trips for incidentals, so it saves claiming little amounts plus anything that might be questionable if it was itemised.

[Sheepshanks]

BenjiS said:

schmalex said:

^^^ This. In spades.

We get up to £25 for breakfast, £55 for lunch and £100 for dinner. More if entertaining. I've never got anywhere near any of those as I simply don't need to, yet those in our company who only travel occasionally always try to max out "because they can". They soon do t get invited back

Wow, those are serious sums.

We can claim up to IR pre-approved amounts, so I think it's 8 quid for breakfast, nowt for lunch, and up to £30 for evening meal. So I will max it out without any qualms.

Yours are probably UK limits. Generally with foreign travel, all bets are off. £100 would be good going - although I bet my boss regularly does that in alcohol.

[schmalex]

I've just had scallops to start, wagyu beef main, cheese board and a bottle of (albeit Aussie) Sauvignon Blanc at the Riverside restaurant, Royal Orchid Sheraton, Bangkok all for the princely dum of £19.

Tomorrow, we're going to Jack's Bar which will more than halve that cost

[VxDuncan]

Couple from me:

Never push the limits of transfer times in the bigger airports. Particularly Charles De Gaulle. You can transfer between terminals in under an hour by running but your bag won't. Play it safe.

Related - wear sports style t-shirts if possible, more comfortable afterwards if you have to do a long run between flights...

If you bag doesn't make it most of the airlines will give you an emergency kit with toothpaste, deodorant etc which saves a trip to walmart. Take a change of clothes if going through Charles De Gaulle as they will loose your bag most of the time.

Book a hire car with Sat Nav, there's more chance of a bigger car. In Europe it can also help to ask for an auto. Don't accept a small car reservation if you have miles and miles to do, it will be miserable. Push for a larger car, even if against policy. In the US desert states also go for a larger car which will need to have better aircon.

When delayed you can usually figure out which incoming plane is yours through the gate number and the various plane tracker/status apps. Go can get far more information on what is happening than through the displays, plus you can watch your plane approach and plan for it.

Don't sit near the back of an Airbus A330/A340. I do 30+ flights a year without incident but was one of 4 people who passed out on a flight last year. They ran out of oxygen tanks. This is quite well documented in Norway. Long haul I take a bottle of proper coke now in case I start to feel a bit giddy.

[//j17]

mcbook said:

My current trips are very much domestic (Edinburgh-Heathrow)

For Edinburgh, and assuming you've using either the drop-off or tram to get to the airport:
- Go in via the tram entrance.
- Save a few steps by short cutting through the M&S rather than walking around the outside of it.
- Next to M&S is WH Smiths, then some doors then some stairs. If you're flying carry-on take these up to the first floor rather than walking along to the escalator, then walking back past the top of the stairs.
- Still to find a real short-cut for Duty Free but now we're in to tourist season Duty Free tends to be full of people with no sense of direction or purpose in their lives and who you'd think had never seen a shop before. Rather than fighting through the slow, randomly direction-changing and stopping bags often if you cut right to the non-whiskey side there's a parallel path that's near empty and gets you up to perfume, and half way through Duty Free hell.

Trying to find shortcuts is just one of those mental games I play when traveling for work to try and keep myself sane.

mcbook said:

Frustratingly, a lot of the good advice about getting out and about in the evenings is also lost on me as I'm working near the airport and opportunities are limited to say the least.

For me your expenses should cover reasonable personal expenses, not just directly business related ones. If your company put you in the sticks expensing cabs/buses one or two evening a week so you can go to the cinema or just eat somewhere other than the hotel is valid. From out by the airport the tram gets you in/out of town easily - and hotels near the airport will often have free airport transfer buses and you can use these to get to the airport for free at any time, not just to catch a flight.

You've got the Festival coming up next month (unless like your Edinburgh clients who say they need you on-site every other month suddenly see how much your hotel expenses are going to go up for August and suddenly decide it's NOT that important for you to be there...until Sept.). Certainly worth going in and catching a show.

[TheGuru]

55palfers said:

A bit of advice given to me many years ago when I started business travelling.

Expenses.

Don't take the pi55.

I take the opposite view, maximise the benefits to yourself, it is you that is being inconvenienced and made to stay away from family for the benefit of the company.

Don't take the lowest logical airfare, take the one that suits you the best. Similarly with hotels. Learn to play your booking system, the windows for valid fares etc. Our policy was lowest logical airfare within 6 hours of desired flight time, adjusting the flight time could get the better flights on the carriers you want.

Pay as much as possible on personal cards so you get the points (learn how to maximise reimbursements with the exchange rate on your expense system)

Don't do cheap things, like taking buses instead of taxis to save your company money. (unless you have a no receipt policy for purchases under £15, then you say you take taxis but take the bus instead)

I've traveled for massive tech companies for the last 9 years - the expenses all get submitted online and processed in the Philippines - as long as they are in policy nobody ever looks at them