Miscellaneous Monday - Business Travel

[Andy Gladstone]

It's MONDAY. That fateful day that can determine the direction of your week. 

I spent most of my day Sunday preparing for Monday - by waiting in an airport. The story of the day looked a bit like this.

It was one of those days when flights from where I was departing had no good explanation for why they were being cancelled. Until I remembered that the planes need to come from somewhere, and that might be where the problem was.

So instead of being on the ground in Montreal at 4:30PM and having a nice dinner and relaxing night prepping for the week ahead, I was in the wonderful confines of LaGuardia airport approving time cards and completing annual performance reviews. I finally made it to the my hotel in Montreal at 12:30AM on Monday - great way to start the week North of the Border!

So my Miscellaneous Monday request is this. Please share your last BUSINESS travel experience. When was it? Pre-pandemic, mid-Covid or post-Coronavirus? Where were you going, and how was the trip - on-time, early or delayed?

And most of all. HAVE A GREAT MONDAY! I am Serious!

[Fabio Racobaldo _Herzum_]

My last business travel was around one month ago. I went to Milan, from the south of Italy, by airplane. after two years of avoiding covid, this trip was fatal. Result : Covid-19 and 10 days of general malaise. #goodbutnotgreat :)

[Summer Hogan]

Sorry to hear that @Fabio Racobaldo _Herzum_ 

[Andy Gladstone]

Picked up more than you bargained for. Did you at least enjoy the time you had on the ground before becoming ill @Fabio Racobaldo _Herzum_? 

[Peter Van de Voorde]

Great question @Andy Gladstone , also very timely as I just returned from my first business trip in my new role. 

I flew from Belgium all the way to Sydney, Australia for a week of onboarding at Umano and to reconnect with my old friends at Atlassian. 

Although I had 3 flights in every direction (BRU - > AMS, AMS -> SIN, SIN -> SYD) they were boring and uneventful, just extremely long :) I made all the connections (the one in Singapore was just 1 hour) without any problems. 

To be honest: I was pleasantly surprised but also relieved that it all went so well.
 
I did have a 23 hour unplanned layover in Singapore once due to a missed connection. 
And I've also experienced changed, cancelled, and missed flights during my travels for Atlassian.  

But so far I've been saved of any travel problems post-covid.

I always wish people who are flying a boring flight, as it implies that everything went exactly as planned :) 

Cheers,
Peter

[Andy Gladstone]

@Peter Van de Voorde flight from BRU -> AMS? I would have taken the train, probably a quicker trip overall. Schipol is one of my favorite airports. Glad you were able to reconnect during your trip.

[Peter Van de Voorde]

It wasn't my first choice either, but Singapore Airlines didn't give me the option to fly out of Amsterdam, I could only select the flight if I started in Brussels. Don't know why. 

And I needed their flight otherwise it would have taken me 50 hours to get to Sydney instead of the 30 hours it took me now. I booked pretty late and the number of flights are still limited.

[Summer Hogan]

Good question @Andy Gladstone but my answer is a bit boring! Before I joined CSAA I worked for Hawaiian Airlines and during the year of 2020 I went to Hawaii from Arizona, USA 5 times. The last trip I took was in January of 2020. It was nice because I tacked on a weekend to have some beach time and some fun! The flights were great and since I was positive space standby I got first class on the departing flight and extra comfort on the way back. Also, HA has a direct flight to Honolulu from Phoenix and neither flight was delayed or cancelled. Actually, HA has had the best on time performance of all US airlines for over 20 years in a row so when you fly Hawaiian Airlines, you are typically in good hands. 

[Andy Gladstone]

@Summer Hogan sounds nice to fly an airline that you can depend on. I've lost a lot of faith in air travel with my last few trips being full of cancellations and delays.

[Summer Hogan]

Yes, @Andy Gladstone that seems commonplace today! It's very unfortunate! There's nothing like starting off a vacation with a delay or cancellation! It puts a big damper on the trip! 

I will say though my trip to NYC had no delays or cancellations! We got there and back with no issues, but I was SHOCKED! 

[Jonathan V.]

Wow, sounded exhausting.

My last business-trip was pre-pandemic, in December of 2019. I was flying to Geneva for a week to try and finish a global project that was being rolled out across all of our regions, affecting over 300 people.

Thankfully, all of my flights were on time, and had no issues there, but the week itself was murder. Long hours trying to finish on time, and make the best use of being in-person with the support team assisting me on this.

Thankfully, I was able to complete it on time, and was able to hand it over to the person who would be training all super-users across locations.

Waiting to see what my next business trip will look like.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

I'm not sure my "regular commute" really counts as business travel, even though it's sometimes to places other than the office.  Pre-pandemic my commute mostly took me into London, and then from the centre, to see different clients, either on-foot, cab, tube or train.  Nothing more than half-an-hour from my usual London terminus, and nothing remarkable.

The last big trip I did for business was Summit 2019!  And the return trip was a horrific nightmare, that made the news - https://www.thesun.co.uk/travel/8851766/british-airways-passengers-stuck-las-vegas-flight-cancelled/

[Dave Mathijs]

My last business travel was Atlassian Summit 2019 to Las Vegas, what an experience being only 3 months into the ecosystem!

[Johanna Pichotka_APTIS_]

The first and also as of now the last time I was business traveling (it was more of a company trip) was to Sweden in summer this year and it was actually okay. 

Took the train from Nijmegen to Schiphol airport and from there we flew straight to Oslo. 

We didn't get out of Amsterdam at the planned time but no cancellations or larger catastrophes. But the line at the security check-in was sooo long. Even though we arrived two hours earlier that actually stressed us out a little. 

[Jospeh blessing]

Haven’t been on a business trip 

[Max Foerster - K15t]

I'm happy to share my last business travel with you, @Andy Gladstone! 😄

It was mid-November to Amsterdam, just for a day. Flying from Munich to Amsterdam Schiphol went smoothly. There was quite a bit of train chaos at Schiphol for that, but luckily that still allowed me to get to my lunch appointment on time.

But flying back the next day to Munich, a Friday, I should add, was a bit more difficult. An overbooked flight, more than a one-hour delay, and various cranky children and babies on board were a bit more challenging. 😄

[Houssein Barkallah]

My last business trip included using public transportation, which actually means that I have to be prepared for 2-3 hours of delays; 
I'm glad that I went out early to be able to manage all delays and respect my client's RDV

[Ronald Hipol]

Last weekend's biz travel...to the mall to buy groceries. On a serious note, all travels so far were for leisure but 2023 could be my first, either to Morocco or Dubai.

[Heydi Menéndez]

Last bussines travel I had was in 2017. I went to Peru to the World Software Quality Congress. Had a great time then.

[Tommy Augustine]

My Last Travel was February of 2020. Right before the Pandemic

[Alexander Pappert]

So happy that I can connect via VPN to our customers and needed only 1 business trip in the last 7 years.

[Manoj Gangwar]

Haven’t been on a business trip