Feb 2nd, 2011 at 11:00AM: There isn't much that's precious to a business traveler (except time off the road) - at least not that you can touch. Maybe that's why road warriors find frequent flier miles to be so important. They are at once a visible reward for suffering the slings and arrows of business travel, an indicator of class in an implicitly hierarchical community and a ticket to leisure travel later. If they ...Click on a label to read posts from that part of the world.
whitecollar posts
Five good reasons to screw up your frequent flier mile strategy
Feb 2nd, 2011 at 11:00AM: There isn't much that's precious to a business traveler (except time off the road) - at least not that you can touch. Maybe that's why road warriors find frequent flier miles to be so important. They are at once a visible reward for suffering the slings and arrows of business travel, an indicator of class in an implicitly hierarchical community and a ticket to leisure travel later. If they ...Hotels gearing up for battle over the business traveler's wallet
Dec 20th, 2010 at 12:00PM: Now that business travelers are coming back into the travel market, everyone can't stop talking about it. Of course, this is great news for airlines and hotels, as business travelers tend to spend more time on the road, have more financial flexibility and are willing to pay more for exactly the flights and locations they need. The occasional leisure traveler who hunts around for bargains, quite ...TSA to impede travel market recovery? Not buyin' it
Nov 29th, 2010 at 8:00AM:
When I finally crawled out of bed and caffeinated Saturday morning, I made the rounds on Twitter and found a bold statement by travel journalist Christopher Elliott: "Thanks to TSA, 2011 could be a flat year for travel". Despite the digging he did, I'm just not buying it. Passenger inconvenience, especially when it comes to leisure trips, isn't likely to have a major effect on the travel ...Hotels and spas use corporate retreats for sweet financial revenge
Oct 21st, 2010 at 4:30PM: It's hard to tell who wants a business travel rebound: business travelers or the hospitality companies that cater to them. Routine road warrior jaunts suck, but there are executive retreats, training programs and other opportunities that do appeal even to the most jaded of the white collar folks.
So, the hotels are fighting to get business travelers back, according to Business Insider, and ...Five business travel factors for Obama and the midterm elections
Sep 8th, 2010 at 12:00PM: Leisure travel is irrelevant during the election season, but the woes of business travelers seem to resonate. With the midterm contests two months away, all eyes are on the White House ... and President Obama's success rate with road, rail and runway repair.
This is the one time business travelers make the presidential agenda, according to Portfolio.com: "Presidents (or people campaigning for ...Business travelers told to be logical with tickets
Aug 3rd, 2010 at 2:30PM: In a move that's shocking because it's sensible, corporate travel managers are pushing business travelers to make decisions that aren't stupid. In the past two years, 75 percent of companies in North America have changed their travel policies, with cost-cutting a major motivation. First and business class have become more and more elite in the white collar set, thanks to more restrictive policies, ...Business travelers poised to take fun out of social media tools
Jul 22nd, 2010 at 3:00PM: Where are you looking for the latest travel information? Well, if you're a business traveler, especially with a mid-sized company, you're probably turning to social media tools. And, that makes more than a little sense, given the reach of platforms such as Facebook and Twitter (the former of which pierced the 500 million-user mark this week).
According to the latest research by American Express ...White Collar Travel: How Important Is That Phone Call?
Jul 1st, 2010 at 2:00PM: The biggest complaint that non-business travelers have about the white collar folks likely involves cell phones. Our reluctance to turn the off at the appointed time is probably the greatest annoyance to those around us, though the Gordon Gekko-style pacing and posing at the gate tends to ruffle some feathers, too. I've overheard and even been asked countless times the very simple question: "Is it ...White Collar Travel: Stupid things business travelers have done
Jun 24th, 2010 at 2:00PM: Sometimes you lose your mind when you're on the road. You either develop a highly inappropriate sense of entitlement (this is my seat on my plane) or decide that nothing matters, giving you a blank check to behave like an asshole. The combination of professional pressures – in my day, it was the collapse of the dotcom bubble ... a bump in the road compared to the 2008 financial crisis ...White Collar Travel: Five step to healthier road warrior diets
Jun 17th, 2010 at 2:00PM: Sometimes, it seems like the road warrior's diet is relegated to the extremes. When a company executive is in town for a meeting – you're taking your clients out – it's hefty steaks, heavy cabernets and always more appetizers than a third-world country could consume in a lifetime. When there's no occasion to shape the meal, on the other hand, you're looking at suburban Chinese food ...White Collar Travel: Five ways to make Mondays better
May 27th, 2010 at 2:00PM: For business travelers, Mondays are pretty miserable. Take everything you hate about Mondays and add to it a 4 AM wakeup, an hour at the airport and around five hours of transit time, and you'll get a sense of how much Monday blows for the average white collar traveler. Fortunately, there are ways you can make the first day of the week more tolerable, even you have to get up before the break of ...White Collar Travel: Five embarrassing confessions of a business traveler
May 20th, 2010 at 2:00PM:
Business travelers love to look poised, in control and too important for mere words, but there's a dark side to the lifestyle that can be downright comical. Sure, some of it will come across as sad, depressing or simply stupid. When you step back from it, though, it's hard not to let out a chuckle. The trivial becomes incredibly serious, and almost every situation seems like an opportunity to ...White Collar Travel: Four ways a Kindle can improve your productivity
May 13th, 2010 at 2:00PM: I've known several white collar folks who have spent their last hours in the office before a business trip printing off material to read on the plane. Laptop battery lives are never long enough, and nobody wants to waste it on reading. So, killing a few trees can buy a bit more in-flight productivity. This means filling a bag until it's almost to the point of bursting, though, as well as having to ...White Collar Travel: Five reasons to book your hotel stays in blocks
May 6th, 2010 at 2:00PM: Cost-conscious businesses are always looking for ways to reduce travel expenses. So, if you can find a way to cut yours a bit, you'll get some credit for budgetary discipline, which is always a plus when times are tough. Take the right approach, and you may be able to improve your travel experience, too. If you plan to stay at the same hotel for several months, it may make more sense to make a ...White Collar Travel Extra: Abercrombie CEO grounded!
Apr 18th, 2010 at 3:00PM: When you think about it, $71.8 million in total compensation just isn't what it used to be. That's what Abercrombie & Fitch Chairman and CEO Mike Jeffries raked in for 2008. Meanwhile, the company he was skippering showed a profit of $254,000. Basically, A&F as a company – with all the resources available to it – earned the decent salary of a lower-level executive. So, it's no ...White Collar Travel: Hotel Behavior Honed by Habit
Apr 15th, 2010 at 2:00PM: Spend enough time on the road, and your instinct takes over. Soldiers would liken it to their training kicking in. unlike the warriors who protect our way of life, the business traveler's reflex isn't intentional. Rather, it evolves from experience and is honed by habit. After a while, you're "always on" ... which is what you want. When a networking opportunity arises – or you get the chance ...White Collar Travel: Don't judge a business traveler by his mileage account
Apr 8th, 2010 at 2:00PM: There is something incredible about mileage balances that stretch to six digits. The travelers who have them, you suspect, must be the real deal, living entirely on the road. There's another class of business traveler, however, who is both quite valuable to the airline and is frequently overlooked. They fly domestic, but usually less than 2,000 miles a week. They'll get short breaks of a few weeks ...White Collar Travel: Airline reward programs do it wrong
Apr 2nd, 2010 at 2:00PM: It's always amazed me that airlines reward passengers for the distances they go rather than the outlay of dough. Think back to the mileage run made a few months ago by Gadling's esteemed top dog, Grant Martin. He sought the cheapest fare he could find to rack up the miles he needed for the next status level. The upside, of course, was another year of premier treatment, and the dollars he put out ...White Collar Travel: Accelerate your trip to the hotel club-level lounge
Mar 25th, 2010 at 2:00PM: Access to a hotel's club-level lounge is a small perk. It doesn't equate to an ostentatious suite, but does rank higher than bathrobes. The amenities are nice, usually consisting of a mix of free food and liquor, but they won't change your life. For me, at least, the lure of the lounge involved having a place to go that wasn't my room. I could hit the lounge with a book and relax while sipping a ...White Collar Travel: Three perspectives on business travelers and their miles
Mar 18th, 2010 at 2:00PM: What would you do with 300,000 frequent flier miles in your account – not to mention enough hotel points to get you 10 days in the blissful destination of your choice? Your imagination is probably running wild, as mine did when I got my first travel-intensive gig a decade ago. I had visions of southern France: soaking in the Mediterranean sun, roulette in Monte Carlo and smoking Cuban cigars ...
