Wouldn’t you like to expose your newer readers to some of you earlier posts that they might never have seen? Or remind your long term followers of posts that they might not remember? Each Friday I will publish a post I wrote on this exact date in a previous year.
How about you? Why don’t you reach back into your own archives and highlight a post that you wrote on this very date in a previous year? You can repost your Friday Flashback post on your blog and pingback to this post. Or you can just write a comment below with a link to the post you selected.
If you’ve been blogging for less than a year, go ahead and choose a post that you previously published on this day (the 5th) of any month within the past year and link to that post in a comment.
This was originally published on June 5, 2006 on my very first blog. I retired three and a half years ago and business travel, the subject of this 14 year old post, is no longer anything I need to deal with.
Oh the Joy of Business Travel
Maybe it’s just a run of bad luck, but in the past month, every single flight I’ve taken from one place to another has been delayed. In one case, when thunderstorms and other unnatural acts of Mother Nature took their toll, I had to spend the night near Newark airport after what was to have been a day trip to New Jersey.
I was fortunate enough to secure a hotel room for the night not far from the airport. I had to buy a toothbrush and toothpaste at the hotel’s sundries shop, and the next day I had to dress in the same clothes I had worn the entire day before, including socks and undies (gross), since I hadn’t planned for an overnighter. I was finally able to catch a flight home the next morning, a full 12 hours after my original flight was scheduled to depart.
And while that 12-hour overnight delay was the worst of them, I have not experienced less than a two-hour delay on any flight I’ve taken since early May. And I fly a lot.
Most airlines, in their efforts to generate some profits, have cut back significantly on flights, moved seats closer together, and eliminated all but soda, coffee, and maybe a small bag of peanuts or pretzels. Some airlines have even eliminated the complementary peanuts or pretzels and now sell a snack pack that basically consists of peanuts and pretzels!
Additionally, all of these flights have been filled to capacity. I’m talking every single seat filled, the overhead bins overflowing, and generally big, fat, smelly bodies with bad breath crowding me and making the experience much less than pleasant.
As I write this, I’m trying to get home from a road trip. My flight from Boston to Charlotte last night was delayed by two hours. Now my flight back to Boston from Charlotte is delayed by at least an hour and a half. In fact, I’m sitting on the plane, which is parked on the tarmac waiting the lifting of some sort of “ground hold.”
And, just so you know, this whole air traffic dilemma is not limited to one airline. I’m on US Airways right now, but this past month I’ve flown American, Delta, Continental, and Northwest. Same deal with each of them, although I personally think Northwest wins the award as the absolute worst of the bunch.
Okay, rant over. I might as well make some productive use of this ground hold by getting some work done. I just wish the big, fat, smelly guy sitting right next to me, who is stuffing his face with some fast food he brought on board with him, would stop brushing his crumbs onto my keyboard. And I wish the little kid sitting behind me would stop kicking the back of my seat. And that the infant two rows back would stop crying like a banshee and would shut the fuck up. And that the asshole in front of me wouldn’t have his seatback in the maximum recline position so that he’s invading my personal space. And that — well, you get the idea.
Yup, business travel is really exciting!
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