Many frequent travelers I know have certain rituals or routines that punctuate their trips. Two different friends have each amassed a large collection of Starbucks city mugs. Others collect snowglobes or Hard Rock Café pins. I collect Alexander Calder. Its not (for the most part) a physical collection – although I do own two handsigned epreuve d’artist…
I have a loose agreement with my family. We can be flexible on when or if I celebrate holidays (birthdays, national celebrations, and religious ones). This allows me to take long weekends (like Thanksgiving) to travel without cutting into my personal leave balance. My mom has no issue putting a leftover turkey dinner in my…
Agnostic ag·nos·tic /aɡˈnästik/ – having a doubtful or noncommittal attitude toward something. I used to care about loyalty. I was a slave to the loyalty programs I had chosen – sleeping in inferior hotels (sometimes changing properties in close proximity to increase my stay count), doing an occasional mileage run to top off my account…
True confession – I love Instagram. For me, it is a great easy way to share random snaps from what may be going on my life on any particular day. I am particularly fond of airplane window seat views (particularly sunrises and sunsets, as well as takeoffs and landings), food porn, and an occasional selfie. I…
Some people are the worst travelers. Ever. The reality is that anyone can be among the worst travelers on a bad day. I’ve encountered plenty in my day. There are all those folks featured on passenger shaming sites. There is that guy who threw trash at me in the airport that one time. There is that…
I am I used to be a raving fan girl for American Airlines. But that has not been the case in 2016. For the last 24 months, my patience with my hometown airline has been wearing thin. Its time to make American great again. First it was the short-lived changes to inflight service that cut out food…
As I prepare to leave for Europe next week, my to do list seems to be growing longer rather than shorter. I’m leaving DFW in a little more than 48 hours. I’ll be making a 2 day pit stop in Seattle to visit a client and teach at my firm’s new consultant boot camp. Then I’ll…
This is a critical week to check your frequent travel accounts. With less than 13 weeks to go before the end of the year, it is important to check on how you are pacing towards your 2016 status goals. At this point in the year, you should be at the 75% mark or ahead –…
I have a good excuse for why I only recently discovered the amazing town of Stars Hollow, Connecticut. Yes, I’m 16 years late to the party. I have a good excuse though. When Gilmore Girls debuted in 2000, I was just out of grad school. I was transitioning full time into the world of management consulting. Traveling…
This week I believe I may have sunk to a new low in work/life balance – I was blow-drying my hair while on a conference call. Seriously. Fear not, the phone was on mute and also on speaker – and I was following every word. I finished packing while on the next call, paid the gardener, and got…
Crafting the perfect out of office reply is an art form. Take basic information, mix with corporate culture (or policy), sprinkle in a bit of advanced email programming, and perhaps just a dash of “I’m on vacation and you aren’t” and you may have the perfect out of office reply. I struggle always with how much…
As we edge into the first full week of July, it is officially the 2016 travel halfway point. If you are chasing status, today is an important day to do a quick check on how you are pacing towards those goals as there is still plenty of time to catch up. I have several goals…