Going to miss all expenses paid traveling for work

coinop

Four times a year the boss would send me to New York to take care of some business that could have honestly been done over skype. He didn't care though as he wasn't personally paying for the gravy train. The company would fly me DUB to JFK business class with a driver waiting at arrivals to take me to my hotel. It got to the stage that the flight attendants knew me on a first name basis. I liked to try out a different hotel each time. Sometimes I'd stay in Midtown, sometimes Lower Manhattan, sometimes right on Central Park. A typical trip would last about 5 days although I only worked for one of those. The rest of the time was mine to enjoy. No expense was spared when it came to dining. Everything was put on the company credit card and I tipped generously. There is nothing like waking up on a king size bed on the 60th floor, breakfast in bed, watching the sun rise over the Midtown skyline.

Sad thing is I don't think those days are coming back. It's getting more and more difficult for the boss to justify business travel when the company has been surviving just fine without it during the pandemic. I'm sure there will be belt tightening too with the oncoming recession. Do you think we'll look back on approx 2000-2020 as the Golden Age of business travel that we tell our grandkids about? Anyone else here travel regularly for work all expenses paid?

Fiction needs more exaggeration.

Deeper Blue

I'm guessing you actually clean toilets for a living OP?

Vic_08

coinop wrote: »

Four times a year... It got to the stage that the flight attendants knew me on a first name basis.

Even though that post is clearly fictional this bit made me laugh.

Cabin crew will not get to know someone travelling that infrequently unless there is something really distinctive about them; horrific BO for example.

However it is policy on some airlines for CC to use the manifest to refer to premium cabin passengers by name, it makes dumb corporate drones feel like Billy Big Balls while being served their mass produced microwave meals.

CageWager

I went on an all expenses paid work trip to Barack Obama Plaza last year. Forget Central Park or the Champs Elysee, Moneygall in the autumn is like a dreamland. Mile after mile of petrol pumps and car washes as far as the eye could see. Inside I was greeted by chicken fillet rolls and supermacs burgers, it was almost too much to handle. I suppose it’s all a distant memory now, post covid I’ll have to make do with a breakfast roll from Circle K across the road. I may never see the promised land again.

Zascar

I've done plenty of business travel in my time but never once has it been business class. You have to be VP level in my company and the flight time has to be over 10 hours. Companies are saving fortunes on Travel and Expenses since Covid, its unlikely to ever go back to pre covid levels for most.

bobbyy gee

an Irish person that likes to tip big
sure

hynesie08

The only way you'd see the sun rise over the manhattan skyline would be if you stayed in new jersey......

Nicetrustedcup

Myself I do miss my business travel, like I was very lucky to get on a plane and be able to travel to a another country for a few days to meet people and do business. I never got the fancy hotels or fancy flights for my trips, just the nice flights and hotels and I always enjoyed being away. I always felt getting to travel was a bonus, any time my manager said do you won’t to visit that site I jumped at it.

I don’t think the travel will ever return myself, I would love for it to return but I don’t think it will happen , but if it does I would be great full for it.

There is just something about getting out of the office for a few days and working in another office for a few days that is amazing and putting a face to the random photos you speak to online

smurfjed

Welcome to my life :) But we would use a corporate jet for at least one leg of the journey, stay in a hotel suite and have on-call drivers to take us wherever and First Class on the way back if available, otherwise business. Luckily for me, this will continue for the foreseeable future.

Written as I sit at a 6 person dining table in a hotel suite

Abel Ruiz

Do you like Phil Collins?

road_high

Somewhat miss it but not overly as it’s mainly a pain in the arse- we have to keep receipts for all expenses and submit them with a valid explanation. These can be audited by revenue.
I doubt any company would do what the op describes. They’re saving a solid fortune in expenses and the bottom line is sales performance is comparable to any other year without all the travel expenses

Chinasea

Not sure what is true or not, but imo I can't see how it is right to gloat and abuse sheer waste regardless of who is paying.

Were you really that desperate for some free stuff.

If and when we get through this, there will be payback. Some of us come from a very low baseline as is, but are happy to pay our way and live within our means accordingly, perfectly ok without the need to abuse or waste.

Errashareesh

https://youtu.be/h75AIEIS1rE

Gregor Samsa

Used to do an average of 4 trips a year, which isn't a frequent business flyer by any stretch of the imagination. There's people I know in sales that would have been travelling abroad literally every week, sometimes two tips in a week. Even at that rate, the airline staff wouldn't know them by name.

Midwest US, Prague, Cologne and London were the most common destinations, but got to go to Belarus and Bulgaria last year too. Expenses paid, you get to eat in nice restaurants (one night is usually us treating a client, or a supplier treating us), but there's reasonable rules and limits. Having a diver pick you up at the airport isn't a big deal, any taxi service will do that. My trips were usually to deliver training, or to meet up with teams to discuss future projects. Both can be done virtually, but they tend to work better in person (especially when you're dealing with a language barrier), so once restrictions are lifted, I see no reason why I won't be doing it again.

One thing I've learned is that on business trips, a hotel is a hotel is a hotel. I've stayed in executive suites on the top floor with a dedicated lift and access to a private dining area, and I've stayed in Marriott Courtyards that are little more than motels, where I've had to order takeaways to my room because they don't serve food in the evenings. It really matters little once you're in your room, once there's a bed, a bathroom, internet and a TV (I usually don't even watch the TV). Although one girl I work with had to spend a night in a hotel in New York that had a jacuzzi in the room right beside her bed - not in the bathroom, which seemed well dodgy.

Can't say I miss the travel as such, as it wasn't frequent enough to notice that I'm not doing it, but I do lament the idea that I won't get to visit these places in a good while.

jimgoose

I did a fair bit of business-class travel to the USA, Puerto Rico and Canada between 1995 and 2005 or so. That craic has been pretty much worn out for the last ten years, though. Considered uncool. That's fine with me, I consider the whole rigmarole little more than hard work these days.

And I've stayed in some decent hotels but never had breakfast in bed, nor been addressed by my first name by flight crew. Obviously my corporate balls aren't Billy Big enough.

jimgoose

Gregor Samsa wrote: »

...a hotel in New York that had a jacuzzi in the room right beside her bed - not in the bathroom, which seemed well dodgy...

Oh yeah, classic knocking-shop stuff, there. :pac:

Motivator

I lived with a guy that worked as a troubleshooter and trainer for a big software company. When one of the foreign offices had issues that their IT dept couldn’t fix, he would have to go and sort out the problem, then spend a couple of days training the IT guys so that they’d know what to do in the future.

He was miserable. He was on call 7 days a week and could get a call in the middle of the night to say there was a problem in Canada, there’s a flight that leaves in 4 hours - get your stuff and be on it. He could be gone 3 weeks out of 4 and one week he was in London, Salzburg and Budapest. He was only home from London a couple of hours and had to go back to the airport. His relationship had broken up over it because his girlfriend never saw him. He was totally burned out but as he was earning an absolute tonne of money that he never got the opportunity to spend, he kept it going.

BrianD3

There is a low brow version of all of this in the public sector - not many junkets to New York but plenty to some hotel in Mullingar where a free chicken dinner awaits. Mileage claimed for the diesel Passat, overnight sub claimed, din dins handed to you and actual work avoided. Rinse and repeat.

There are some who have spent much of their careers going to various "things" and shying away from anything that doesn't involve travel. No cost benefit analysis is carried out on any of this. What have they been doing to fill the time since all this stopped, who knows. No doubt they are gagging to get back to the "circuit" now.

coinop

The "knowing" nod with other business travelers in the 51st & Green Lounge in Terminal 2. It's like being part of a secret brotherhood Who else can relate?

NSAman

I travelled for many years 9 months of the year globally.

Up to this year I took 4 flights a year with Aer Lingus to ORD each year. Never did I have the same cabin crew except for once, that was the daughter of an old flame from times past.

I gave up the 9 months away a year three years ago, I didn’t miss it.

I am lucky in that all international flights are business class or first, most are long haul 7+ hours. Within the states I travel economy same in Europe.. no point in business unless it is a transfer.

I have to admit I DO miss travel for the past 9 months.

Someone said a hotel is a hotel... I absolutely agree. I have stayed at the best all over the world and simply can not justify the costs for myself or others anymore. For the amount of time you spend in the room, it simply is only a bed to sleep in. If it is clean and comfortable that is all I care about now.

For me, travel was exciting and a chance to step outside the norm of work, not to mention a chance to grab that new deal / contacts / opportunities. Now, it seems like a chore..spending years away from family makes you re-evaluate what’s important .

hynesie08

coinop wrote: »

The "knowing" nod with other business travelers in the 51st & Green Lounge in Terminal 2. It's like being part of a secret brotherhood Who else can relate?

Well, he knows the name of the lounge...... I'm convinced he's an international businessman now......

TinCanMan

coinop wrote: »

Four times a year the boss would send me to New York to take care of some business that could have honestly been done over skype. He didn't care though as he wasn't personally paying for the gravy train. The company would fly me DUB to JFK business class with a driver waiting at arrivals to take me to my hotel. It got to the stage that the flight attendants knew me on a first name basis. I liked to try out a different hotel each time. Sometimes I'd stay in Midtown, sometimes Lower Manhattan, sometimes right on Central Park. A typical trip would last about 5 days although I only worked for one of those. The rest of the time was mine to enjoy. No expense was spared when it came to dining. Everything was put on the company credit card and I tipped generously. There is nothing like waking up on a king size bed on the 60th floor, breakfast in bed, watching the sun rise over the Midtown skyline.

Sad thing is I don't think those days are coming back. It's getting more and more difficult for the boss to justify business travel when the company has been surviving just fine without it during the pandemic. I'm sure there will be belt tightening too with the oncoming recession. Do you think we'll look back on approx 2000-2020 as the Golden Age of business travel that we tell our grandkids about? Anyone else here travel regularly for work all expenses paid?

Is that you Jay[inbetweeners]?

griffdaddy

BrianD3 wrote: »

There is a low brow version of all of this in the public sector - not many junkets to New York but plenty to some hotel in Mullingar where a free chicken dinner awaits. Mileage claimed for the diesel Passat, overnight sub claimed, din dins handed to you and actual work avoided. Rinse and repeat.

There are some who have spent much of their careers going to various "things" and shying away from anything that doesn't involve travel. No cost benefit analysis is carried out on any of this. What have they been doing to fill the time since all this stopped, who knows. No doubt they are gagging to get back to the "circuit" now.

Do you think public servants don't engage in meaningful foreign business travel as well?

smurfjed

Chinasea wrote: »

Not sure what is true or not, but imo I can't see how it is right to gloat and abuse sheer waste regardless of who is paying.

I guess that we differ on our interpretation of sheer waste, the higher one goes in a company, the terms and conditions improve.

Why would you or anyone turn them down?