Airport Delays

I talk a lot about how weather can cause you a headache when you are arriving or leaving a location. Sometimes inclement weather indirectly effects you like it does for me today.

The flight leaving before mine is still at the gate and waiting another 45 minutes to leave because of high winds in Albuquerque. Due to the delay the incoming flight does not have a gate to deplane and reboard.

So now our flight to Chicago has been moved to the other end of the terminal. Nota huge deal but if you are taking a nap or have headphones on you can very easily miss the announcement.

Just goes to show how good it is to keep an eye on your gate even when you arrive very early.

Until next time I am...
Currently Out of the Office

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Escape from Anne Arbor

A few days back when visiting the University of Michigan, a terrible tornado producing storm rose up out of nowhere. Michigan is not know for tornadoes, but due to an unusually warm winter, spring has arrived early and with it bad weather.

About midway through the event an announcement was made that we were to evacuate the area and head down to the basement. Without time to pack anything up I grabbed my laptop and headed downstairs.

Since it was late afternoon/early evening the union was packed with students showing up for dinner. With nowhere to sit, no cell phone service and being unable to leave, many of us stood for another 2 hours in the basement waiting for the all clear. At least I was in good company with a few other colleagues from other schools.

I had the ability to get over by an outside door to see that it was hailing and raining pretty hard. A tornado did touchdown and destroy around 100 or so homes about 10 miles from us, but fortunately no damage on campus.

Things cleared up and it was a little while longer before we got the all clear. We were all anxious to get out the door since it was another 2 and a half hour drive for most of us to our next stop.

After we were finally allowed to pack up we all rushed out to try to get to our cars before the rain picked back up. 2 of the 6 of us had umbrellas but we still ended up huddled under a street awning for about 10 min to avoid the torrential downpour that resumed about 2 blocks from the parking garage.

With the weather delay many of us got in pretty late that night or had to reschedule our plans. Just goes to show how weather can mess up plans really quick.

Now back to KC for the night and onto Miami tomorrow.

Until next time I'm
Currently out of the Office

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Before everything goes wrong...

How Much Time Do You Need?

The first rule of anything, whether it be sports, building a house, or travel, is that any successful project begins with solid planning.

The biggest pitfall for people who travel is the unexpected. Planes being delayed, traffic, bad weather, lost bags and so on. All of these are things that are out of our control. When you travel, you put a lot of your trust, money and time in the hands of someone else. Someone who doesn't necessarily see you as their biggest priority during your moment of crisis. The best advice I think I can give to anyone planing a trip is to plan for the moment when everything goes wrong. Make sure that you keep as much of your freedom in your hands as possible by always allowing extra time for the hiccups that are sure to come.

Many business travelers have another individual, possibly a secretary or travel agent, book all of their appointments, hotels, flights and so on. I have found that when you leave the planing up to someone else you often find yourself arriving at your destination at 2:30 in the morning the day of your 8 am appointment. Or after completing your meeting at 11:30am you then sitting at the airport for hours only to catch a red eye flight back home. All because someone else planned your travel with little regard for your time or what makes the most logical sense.

Many travelers have to use the companies travel agent or are honestly to busy to book their own travel, but for those that can, it is well worth it. As a business traveler you also have a budget and probably a set number of days you can be gone for a meeting or conference. Your superiors probably are not chill with you taking a week for a 2 day conference. Especially if it is in Vegas. However, I have found that most business professionals are allowed to go out the day before or come back the day after the "work" part of the trip.

I am not a morning person. So being able to plan my own travel to suit my needs is important to me. I am not a fan of  6am flights or 8am meetings when traveling from west to east. Be aware of time changes. My plans usually include going out the afternoon or evening before a meeting or conference. That way I have time when I arrive to get my transportation, get my hotel, get my bags to my hotel, check my email and relax for an hour or two before getting to sleep. Trips where I go out the day of an event usually result in a plane delay, a lost car reservation, lost bag, the presentation materials being lost by FedEx or being unable to drop extra bags at the hotel.

Having the evening before allows the time to take care of all necessities without the time crunch. Also, after wrapping up an event, I allow plenty of time to get to the airport, get my rental dropped off, get through security and get my shoes back on before my flight takes off. Planing ahead and making sure you have time to be well rested and bring your A-game to a meeting is very important. If your company has spent the money to send you out there, make sure you are ready to roll when the time comes. Sometimes the extra night away from home can make the difference in how prepared you are for your meeting.

So when you sit down to plan out that business meeting to Seattle, think ahead about where you might be tight on time and make a plan on what to do if something goes wrong. Until next time I am....

Currently out of the Office

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