The OFFICIAL business travel whining thread

[Giff]

Yeah I can’t recall the last time Southwest was the cheapest option.

[DSafetyGuy]

Yeah I can’t recall the last time Southwest was the cheapest option.

We're going to fly them to Orlando in February (it was close between them and a slightly cheaper flight Delta had just added), but it's much more my wife's fault for not explaining to me what "free housing" actually meant over the previous nine or so months.

[brian]

It very much depends on the route as some others mentioned, though SW is still usually gonna be cheaper than Delta, United and American. Strangely lately you can usually get cheaper fares connecting through a rando airport like Austin or Kansas City than flying nonstop (on Southwest).

We flew Spirit to New Orleans last month and I vowed never again after they changed two nonstop flights to two flights connecting through LAX. I'd rather pony up the extra money and not have to deal with any of those people every again.

[sancarlos]

Keep in mind that Southwest does give you two free checked bags, unlike the others, if that’s a factor.

[DSafetyGuy]

If at all possible, I kindly request you not give British Airways any business. We had 15 people fly business class through Heathrow and eight of them had some sort of lost baggage issue. Also, while I opted into a nearly five-hour layover at the time of my ticket purchase (the Doha airport is surprisingly active in the wee hours of the morning and a 1:50am departure was appealing in a "see the kids before bed when I get home" kind of way), BA extended it to over eight hours, capped by someone on a cart running into the plane, which enabled me to miss my connection home.

In addition, while they were kind enough to send an email to me with a link to "manage my flight" well before the delayed takeoff, neither their app nor their website (American was in the same boat) could tell me what my re-scheduled flight was going to be. Thankfully, it was on another airline, so I got to lug my bag across a pedestrian bridge, through part of a parking garage, and down a long hallway so I could go through the full American check-in and security process.

All told, hotel-to-home was just under a 33-hour operation. Once I knew my re-scheduled flight, I was able to describe my day as "left yesterday, arriving tomorrow". But, I can now say I slept on four different planes in the same day.

The Doha airport could use some improved signage, such as having a sign to identify the escalator going to the lounge as not being part of the hotel whose elevator is right next to it.

That said, if you are ever in a position to not incur the financial hit from the ticket, I cannot strongly recommend business class on Qatar Airways enough. Service is top-notch and their flight attendants appeared to be made from a magical cloning device.

And, since we were departing in the middle of the night, they gave us pajamas. Oddly, there was no rush to the bathrooms to change into them.

[sancarlos]

Jeebus, what a shitshow! Sorry you had to go through that. Otherwise, how was the trip?

(As in, “other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you enjoy the play?”)

[rass]

Sounds great…

[Brontoburglar]

we are on BA/AA for an upcoming trip and the communication between the two airlines' websites is terrible. I need to call AA this week to get everything figured out since I can't do it on the website and I am dreading it

[DSafetyGuy]

Jeebus, what a shitshow! Sorry you had to go through that. Otherwise, how was the trip?

(As in, “other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you enjoy the play?”)

Eh, it could have been worse (we had a couple people miss connections at Heathrow and spend the night). And my bag showed up the morning after I arrived and was at the hotel before noon.

Regarding the trip, give me a couple days to try to unscramble my brain. I had to tell my wife this morning that I don't trust myself to read anything right now if I have to retain the info. Could hardly keep my eyes open past 9 last night and was wide awake when I woke up about 3:30.

we are on BA/AA for an upcoming trip and the communication between the two airlines' websites is terrible. I need to call AA this week to get everything figured out since I can't do it on the website and I am dreading it

Download both apps before you go, just to be safe. AA's is fine, in general, and I really like the ability to see the details incoming flight of the plane you are going to get on. Once I knew my connection would be close, I wasted my time downloading BA's app. Unsurprisingly, it's terrible.

I don't know your itinerary, but connecting at Heathrow (if you are) can be a real bear, depending on if you are switching terminals. I had 90 minutes on the ground there on the way to Doha and was much closer to missing my connecting flight than that should be because Heathrow is massive and Terminal 5 is apparently on the other side of the country/the shuttle bus there runs a lot less frequently.

[sancarlos]

Related?

[DSafetyGuy]

Otherwise, how was the trip?

Doha was... interesting. I wish we had a different schedule, but once things got rolling after the first few days, work was either 10am-8pm or noon-10pm daily with no days off with catered lunch and dinner, so not a whole lot of tourist stuff or even eating out. Combine that with the jet lag and people in the States reaching out from eight or more hours behind/minimal drinking options, and I didn't have a ton of opportunity to get out and about.

That said, we worked out of Northwestern's campus in Doha. It's one of several US colleges (Georgetown, aTm, Cornell, Carnegie Mellon, VCU) in Education City and they have a student body of 300 in one building, offering only communications programs. From what I was told, Qatar asked US colleges/universities about having programs over there and footed the bill for building the facilities with the academic institution running the academic programs. The Northwestern outpost essentially has a state-of-the-art TV studio that never gets used, so we made sure things were functioning properly.

The city is a mesh of traditional and Western cultures. English is a widely-spoken second language, although not everyone is fluent, but major street signs are all written in Arabic and English. Our hotel was downtown, very close to the Souq Waqif, a traditional marketplace with restaurants offering just about every cuisine, markets, coffee shops, pet stores (a lot of these), tourist shops, fabric stores, and a movie theater. The first Thursday night we were there, I was walking around there with some co-workers and the first place we could find where we could get a table for four was... an Italian restaurant. Turkish, Greek, Mediterranean, Thai, and on and on and we got Italian. The market also had camel rides available, as well as a falcon trainer.

Flying in after sunset was very cool, as a lot of the modern buildings have LED technology built into their exterior, so many of them have changing lights/giant video screens on them. I think a nighttime helicopter tour business could be very lucrative there.

My boss and I recommend the following South African dry cider, served over ice with a slice of lemon:

image.jpeg (4.36 KiB) Viewed 364 times

Our hotel had a permit to sell alcohol. This was far better than a Corona, Heineken, Asahi, or the other couple varieties of beer on hand and their cocktails started around $20 each. We are debating opening an import-export business just to bring Savanna to the States.

[rass]

Truth in advertising, not too much whining in this post (I think, let's see how it goes).

I'm headed to Philly next week for a conference hosted by my company. The local NNJ place where we usually held the event the past two decades shuttered up during Covid (really too bad because we moved our HQ this spring and are now right across the street) and the other local place we tried last year proved to be too small. So Philly (our President is from there, I think that was a factor). They left travel arrangements up to us but strongly suggested we travel by train so I'm heading down via Amtrak from Newark on Monday afternoon. My first significant travel by rail since college, when I headed from North NJ to Pittsburgh for my grandfather's funeral. And I think only my third overall - in HS we traveled from Delaware (via 30th Street Station in Philly, which is my destination on Monday) to Florida and our train hit a car somewhere in GA.

What little time I'm going to have to myself will probably be early morning runs. They are throwing a staff-only party at Iron Hill Brewing one of the nights. Heading back via train on Thursday afternoon.

Then I'm traveling back to Philly at least twice in June. Once for a concert by a band that my youngest loves that I never heard of before February. We ended up paying through the arse for the tickets (or one of them, she's paying for her own). That's the first weekend of the month at the TLA, still debating whether we're staying over or driving home. Then Father's Day weekend I'm driving the oldest down that Friday, doing a tour at UPenn, seeing Billy Joel/Stevie Nicks at the Linc (this will be her first real concert, and was her idea - also paid through the arse though again she's paying for hers), then touring La Salle on Saturday morning. Track nationals are that weekend at Franklin Field and she has already qualified to run with one of her relay teams, but I think that is Sunday so we may end up driving back to NJ on Saturday and then back to Philly on Sunday. Unless she qualifies for an individual event over the course of the spring that takes place on Saturday. But my wife would want to see her run. Maybe she can take the train down and I'll pick her up...

[mister d]

It takes me longer to get to the train in Newark (<10 miles) than it does to get from Newark to 30th Street. Definitely better than driving.

[rass]

Yeah, only about an hour of travel time by train. I was pleasantly surprised.

[A_B]

Yeah, only about an hour of travel time by train. I was pleasantly surprised.

No I think this could be a GEICO commercial, a la "we have aunts" and "there's an animal in the attic"

"Hey where you guys heading?"

"This is not a drive by"

"Yeah yeah we are on Amtrak. You traveling alone?"

"Meet virginia"

"Oh nice to meet you. I like your pantsuit, but maybe run a comb through your hair?"

"She doesn't own a dress. Hair is always a mess."

"You know what? I'm gonna get a rideshare at the next stop. hard to find a taxi these days!"

"Sometimes I feel like I'm the only cab on the road."

[rass]

Pat Monahan is available

[mister d]

Yeah, only about an hour of travel time by train. I was pleasantly surprised.

Just don't have your headphones on and not realize the regional is late and you're getting on the Acela. It costs more.

[rass]

Yeah, only about an hour of travel time by train. I was pleasantly surprised.

Just don't have your headphones on and not realize the regional is late and you're getting on the Acela. It costs more.

I know! Enough more that I didn't spring for it even on the company's dime.

[mister d]

Its not even that much quicker.

[The Sybian]

Yeah, only about an hour of travel time by train. I was pleasantly surprised.

Just don't have your headphones on and not realize the regional is late and you're getting on the Acela. It costs more.

I know! Enough more that I didn't spring for it even on the company's dime.

I've used Amtrak a bunch for business travel and love it. It was great when I lived in Iselin, as we were walking distance to the Metro Park Acela stop. Took it into Philly once, and it's such a short trip. Took a bunch of trips to DC, and I had an annual trip to Boston that'd I use Acela. So much easier than driving or flying. Boston was great, as my client was a few blocks from South Station. I could leave the office and be on the train in 5 minutes.

[sancarlos]

Pat Monahan is available

I have a friend who has met him a few times. Says he is a world-class douchebag.

[Nonlinear FC]

At the small non-profit I worked at, we had board meetings in NYC 2x's a year and we booked those on Amtrak (DC-Union Station.) Parking is cheap and convenient and I just love being able to work, look out the window, walk down to the dining car, etc etc. Such a relaxing way to travel.

I also used to take the train from Ann Arbor to Kalamazoo for weekends with my Dad when I was little. Loved the freedom of that, but the shit they let little kids do in the late 70s and early 80s was bonkers.

Can you imagine putting a 10 year old on a train by themselves these days? I also used to fly to see my grandparents (Atlanta and Chicago) but that was when your parent could walk you to the gate and someone could meet you on the other side. And the stewardesses would dote on me and I always got those cool ass wings from the pilot. (My dad was a pilot, so I was extremely comfortable flying, which they probably found nice... I'm sure some kids got on their freaking the fuck out, which is totally understandable.)

/tangent

[rass]

Can you imagine putting a 10 year old on a train by themselves these days? I also used to fly to see my grandparents (Atlanta and Chicago) but that was when your parent could walk you to the gate and someone could meet you on the other side. And the stewardesses would dote on me and I always got those cool ass wings from the pilot. (My dad was a pilot, so I was extremely comfortable flying, which they probably found nice... I'm sure some kids got on their freaking the fuck out, which is totally understandable.)

/tangent

We’re having our 14 year old (she’ll turn 15 while she’s over there) fly to Dublin by herself this summer. My wife’s cousin Is going to meet her on the other side. My wife time with a travel agent over the weekend working out the unaccompanied minor logistics.

My wife and oldest are heading over for a couple of days at the end of the trip and they’ll all fly home together.

[Gunpowder]

Who can forget their first pair of ass wings

[The Sybian]

Can you imagine putting a 10 year old on a train by themselves these days? I also used to fly to see my grandparents (Atlanta and Chicago) but that was when your parent could walk you to the gate and someone could meet you on the other side. And the stewardesses would dote on me and I always got those cool ass wings from the pilot. (My dad was a pilot, so I was extremely comfortable flying, which they probably found nice... I'm sure some kids got on their freaking the fuck out, which is totally understandable.)

/tangent

We’re having our 14 year old (she’ll turn 15 while she’s over there) fly to Dublin by herself this summer. My wife’s cousin Is going to meet her on the other side. My wife time with a travel agent over the weekend working out the unaccompanied minor logistics.

My wife and oldest are heading over for a couple of days at the end of the trip and they’ll all fly home together.

Swamp meetup at Rass’ house!

[rass]

Think of it as a celebration of my recovery from my thumb infection (assuming I make it). Pencil in 7/22?

[Nonlinear FC]

Who can forget their first pair of ass wings

Yeah, the 70s were wild, man!

[mister d]

Think of it as a celebration of my recovery from my thumb infection (assuming I make it). Pencil in 7/22?

That might hurt worse than the dried pasta!

[rass]

What little time I'm going to have to myself will probably be early morning runs. They are throwing a staff-only party at Iron Hill Brewing one of the nights. Heading back via train on Thursday afternoon.

So I think I mentioned that one of my coworkers is close friend with Matt Patricia and he just showed up at the brewery and he’s much smaller in every dimension that I imagined*.




except his dick it’s huge

[mister d]

Which one?



Which dick, not which New Jersey brewery.

[The Sybian]

Which one?



Which dick, not which New Jersey brewery.

I was assuming Iron Hill since that's what it says in his quote. Beer sucks, but the food is pretty good.

[rass]

Which one?



Which dick, not which New Jersey brewery.

I was assuming Iron Hill since that's what it says in his quote. Beer sucks, but the food is pretty good.

We were stuck with a not great buffet so beer ended up better than food. And like center city across the street from the convention center.

[mister d]

Ah, missed that. Way back in the day, when their beer was still bad, their turkey burger was good. I think it’s off the menu now.

[rass]

bout to wander three or four blocks away from the hotel to find a halal truck wish me luck

[rass]

Made it there and back worth it

[mister d]

Are all the federal donuts already closed? Name is a misnomer since the fried chicken sandwiches are the real draw. Or go (left, if you’re facing iron hill) to glory beer bar which is the last non-brewery there that consistently has a good list.

[mister d]

Well fuck, nevermind.

[rass]

They brought a (insert famous Philly donut place but not federal) in for one of our breaks.

[rass]

And we’re headed back out to look for an open bar

[mister d]

It’s less than a mile!