JillFlorio

There is nothing less fun than getting caught up in someone else’s gridlock when you are on the road for business….

Avoid large metro cities during rush hour. I know this sounds obvious, but it bears mentioning. There is nothing less fun than getting caught up in someone else’s gridlock when you are on the road for business. For example, if you are driving from San Diego to Santa Barbara, you have allll of Los Angeles to traverse. It may seem cumbersome to plan your travel with the sole purpose of avoiding rush hours that seem to last all day, but you will be the better for it, and get more work done, for using your head when planning your trip.

Travelers Commuting Via Washington Ferry Check Email, Internet

On recent ferry trips between Seattle and Bainbridge, Seattle and Bremerton, and Kingston to Everett, I noticed Wi-Fi icons around the ships. Checking into the matter, there are brochures describing the Washington State Ferry high-speed Internet access system. Apparently all state ferries carry Wi-Fi service hot spots.

On-Board and On-Line

The ferry Wi-Fi isn’t free, but a reasonable fee schedule is available by the quarter hour ($2.15), and also by day or month at a subscription rate.

For business travelers who frequently commute in the Puget Sound region this is a great opportunity to sit back and get get some work done while cruising the Seattle waters.

I have not used the ferry Internet connection at this time but will report on speed and useability on my next sojourn across the Sound. I am not sure how useful this is for the occasional commuter - ie, ferry rides tend to be shorter than an hour. I’d rather have Internet access in the car parking lots when waiting for the next ferry.

Keep your Notebook Safe in Hotels, Cafes and Planes:

Your laptop computer cost you a nice chunk of change. There’s probably some precious documents in there, plus photos and links and emails you’d rather not lose. First and foremost remember to back up your data! And then work on travel awareness - an alert traveler has less chance of becoming a target for electronic theft.

• Hotel Laptop Safety -
• Coffeeshop Laptop Safety -

Airplane Laptop Safety -

• Bus and Subway Laptop Safety
• Taxi Laptop Safety
• Laptop Packing Tips
• Prevent Laptop Theft -

Have any tips to share, or any questions on this topic you’d like answered? Ask or share, right in the Business Travel Forum.

Here are some related articles with some Laptop Airport Tips and Hotel Security Basics to get you started.

When I travel, I want to access my email and web work with no fuss, no muss. I am not the most patient person when I don’t get it.

Like the Cheers theme song says, sometimes you just neeeeeed to get awaaaaay. And sometimes you need to have everything just like at home. When I travel, I want to access my email and web work with no fuss, no muss. This is my biggest concern when I plan a trip - will my hotel have WIFI? I will even plan my whole trip around that and not call it geeky. Hotels are starting to wise on up this issue in our interactive media age, but we still have to be loud and clear, so the hotel managers hear when we say, “I want my MTV!…er, I mean WIFI!”

Make SURE you have your hotel Internet connection before you go…it takes some effort but it’s worth your time.

Avoid Flying the Smelly Skies

Don’t just sit there and breathe in the stench of a fragrant seatmate on airplanes. Tips for handling bad smelling passengers.

Could be a problem with body odor, bad breath or stinky farts. Business travelers don’t have to suffer in silence:

• Airlines can prevent a smelly traveler from boarding. MSNBC reports on an actual Contract of Carriage dealing with this distasteful situation. If you clue in before the plane takes off, they might relocate the odoriferous traveler to an empty section of the plane’s cabin, or even better, give him a hotel coupon for taking a shower before catching the next flight.
• Stuck once the plane takes off? Move to another seat. Excuse yourself to the john to look around for empty plane seats. If you see one, simply grab your bag without apology or explanation, and move far, far away.
• Plane too full? Not a single empty seat? Ask your flight attendants, discretely of course, if you can take a jump seat. Explain exactly why you are asking. They might take pity on your flight plight.
• No jump seats for the taking? Ask those same nice flight attendants for an upgrade, enflight, to Business or First Class. It might even be free if you are nice enough and act pitiful. Don’t try to bribe anyone unless you really know what you are doing. And don’t make a fuss. There may be Air Marshalls on board.

Other options include just dealing with the situation at hand. Look for small, incremental improvements in your local climate:

Bad Breath - Offer a breath mint or three. Don’t engage that person in conversation. Look away, out the window or towards the aisles, whereever the air is clearer. Turn your seat’s air vent up full blast. Pretend to be overheating and fan yourself with a magazine (fan away the bad air and fan in the good air).

Body Odor - Don’t remain seated unless you have to be - try chatting up the flight attendants, hang around the rear of the plane with the people in line for the restrooms, make new friends while walking around. Stuck seated? Spray yourself with cologne. Rub scented lotion or even sunscreen on yourself - anything with a scent that doesn’t say, “body odor”. Ask for fresh, hot coffee or tea, nicer scents to keep under your nose. Don’t forget to use that overhead air vent.

Stinky Feet - This one is easier. Take aside a flight attendant and explain the foot odor situation - they will let the offender know they need to keep their shoes on.

Farts - Don’t even think of lighting a match in the cabin (remember where you are). There really isn’t much you can do about this one. Desperate measure - pretend to be nauseous from the flight, grab the barf bag, and breathe through it for the rest of your flight. The bag might act like a filter. Or you might hyperventilate and pass out, which could also be helpful at times like these.

Oops, you’re gassy? Tips for when YOU are the problem.

Ha, I loved this: Survive your Holiday Office Party, at Suite101.com’s Workplace Culture. I am not a huge partier in any meaning of the word, but holiday parties can be the worst. Why?

• You are with people you may not really like so much.
• There might free booze, which is great, but also a bad thing…
• Because people who have control over your life will see you acting like a moron,
• And loose lips sink ships (again with the booze).
• You also might end up kissing your secretary (this is more of a New Year’s thing but can still get you in trouble).
• There are so many ways you can screw the pooch when you mix work, play and possibly dirty dancing to “Come On Eileen.”

Plan your Party Attack

Being a no show isn’t such a great idea. You’ll be called a Grinch, a Scrooge or worst of all be labeled: “Not a Team Player.”

Arriving fashionably late and ducking out early are good bets. Remember, if you get in later, everyone else might already be smashed, putting you in the control seat. Leaving early also means you’ll never have to be kicked out at the end of the night.

Drinking only a glass or two of the liquor is your next tactic, and saying less than you want to the boss is the best strategy of all. “Merry Christmas Mr. Sprockets,” is a good start, followed with, “Your wife looks stunning in that red dress…you’re a lucky man.”

Say enough happy things to leave a good feeling in people’s minds and slip out before you are tempted to have a really, really good time.

Scoot on home or head to a REAL party with actual friends…people who aren’t going to remind you every day next month about your copy machine capers in the mail room.

With gas prices dipping up and down around the $2.00 mark, it’s good idea to make the gas you buy last longer. Here are a few tips from Consumer Reports:

1. Don’t let your car idle. Turning off your car when the wait is shorter than 30 seconds is more efficient. So in those traffic jams, or at railroad crossings, you might consider switching yourself off.

2. Decrease road rage. Hard acceleration wastes fuel. Driving evenly can save you 33% on highways and 5% in the cities.

3. Drive 60 mph on highways. Each 5 mph over 60 costs 10 cents a gallon.

4. Regular tuneups can save at least 6 cents on the gallon.

5. Test your tire PSI once a month. A slight underinflation of just 2 psi can increase fuel use by 1%.

Of course, you can always buy a hybrid car (that’s pretty expensive), or at least switch to a more efficient gas user (which I recently did, trading my Ford F150 pickup for a Ford Escort). It’s not that extreme an option, and many people are doing just this. The day of the SUV is over. Look for Geos, Hondas, and Subarus to make a comeback.

If you do decide to trade in your gas-guzzler, this Consumer Reports guide can help you choose something more fuel efficient: Used Car Buying Guide.

You could also simply ride your bike more. But in the meantime, I’m saving up for that hybid car!

DAN WRITES: I found this useful article full of helpful hints for preventing and dealing with lost luggage.

I can’t think of a more irritating way to spoil the tone of a trip than to know your stuff is…somewhere…out there…lost. And you are stuck with whatever you had on your back or in your carry-on.

I haven’t had to deal with this yet, but then, I travel light. I am what you might call a ‘carry-on’ person. I don’t check anything and I have no worries. I highly recommend traveling this way, if you have the self-restraint to travel light.

If you don’t, or if your wife forces you to carry extra luggage and check it, you’ll need to review this helpful article on How to Prevent Lost Luggage.

I always travel with my own pillow. I am very pillow-oriented and can’t sleep properly with a substandard pillow. Hotels often offer these mile-high uncomfortable ones…or too-thin nonexistant limp things that you can only pile up into the semblance of a pillow if they give you enough of them.

My own travel pillow is a small, portable, but perfectly proportioned affair. I have two different kinds, actually, depending on how much extra room I have in my luggage. One is an actual real standard-sized pillow with my luxurious, silky Pima Cotton pillowcase that I bought at Goodwill. It goes on road trips, bus/train trips, when staying at a friend’s house overnight and whenever I am not traveling light.

The other thing I use is a little neck pillow that has several comfortable positions for various uses - one for propping up my head to read, or for sleeping lying down, or for trying to sleep on planes. I found this at Goodwill too (I am an unashamed scavenger).

Since all pillows attributes are a personal choice, you will just need to try different travel pillows to find the right one for you. You don’t even have to feel embarrassed at your pickiness, since as this blog shares, you are not alone in your pillow woes.

I like to travel with a lavendar linen spray too. I use it at home and have a small size for traveling. Dan even likes the spray and will obligingly sit up to let me scent his pillow before lights-out. It does help us sleep better and through the night, no matter the condition of the available pillow.

Quick reviews of the RCA Lyra and SanDisk Sansa MP3 players, with a fervent wish I’d picked up the iPod instead.

A good MP3 Player is a must for the serious Business Traveler. I have an RCA Lyra that serves me well enough, but I’d rather I had an iPod. I use iTunes and that would’ve made the interface darned easy.

My Lyra uses a Media Player interface, which I do have, but its just another step to move my music there from its storage in iTunes.

Plus, I like the options iPod is coming out with, like the music dock for the home, office and car. I am not normally an Apple fan, but I have to admit iPod is a superior product.

But, hey! Oh well. For now I have my convenient, portable and even rather attractive (it’s red and ergonomic-looking) Lyra. Fine for today; that’s my new motto.

I’ll have to get my hands on a few more MP3 players to review. Terri L Griffin, BellaOnline editor for West Coast Travel, reviews the SanDisk Sansa MP3 Player. BellaOnline has honest reviews, so I feel safe sending you to a review there. I will try to add more, myself, from my own point of view, when I get my mitts on more MP3 players.