NFT: Anyone else travel a lot for a living?

to be on the road quite a bit within the next couple years. Most of it will be driving from, territory from maine to west virginia. Based in PA

to Hiltons. My family has had a timeshare through them and we generally stay in their hotel brands and have always been treated well by them.

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twice a month travel now, sometimes more, but that's probably what I average.

I have gold status at Starwood and Marriott.

My territory is Maine to Virginia (mostly), so I take the Acela train a lot to NYC or Newark from Boston.

or if I need to the US Air shuttle, US Air sucks, but their shuttle to La Guardia is about as flexible as air travel gets.

Outside of Boston to NY I try and fly Jetblue.

I believe in keeping it with ONE company. Better to be someone with somebody than nobody with everybody.

Was continental and now United due to the merger. Makes sense since I primarily fly out of Newark. Do not like where the company is going but my options are limited.

Hotel is Marriott only. Of my 100+ hotel nights this year, only about 5 were with someone else. They gave me lifetime platinum status two years ago so it is foolish for me to stay elsewhere. Learned about some really good rate codes too.

Auto is National. Have a really good rate with them. You get to choose your vehicle when you get there. All of the Hundai's have Sirus XM radio...NFL network.

There was a time where I did more car travel like some of you guys have mentioned.

if I want to if its over 4-5 hours of driving, but my nearest airport is very small and I'd have to connect to pretty much get anywhere and they routinely cancel the short flight from here to Philly to connect or from Philly to here. Not worth the hassle. I'm comfortable driving

But I was younger and single and it was fucking awesome.

Now it's scaled back, but I still probably average around 80 nights a year. I don't mind it, I'm not confined to a specific territory so I get a lot of variety.

I'm a Marriott guy. I fly Southwest the most b/c it's so damn convenient, but I also like Delta. I loved National for car rentals, but my company moved to Hertz this year and it's not too bad.

30/52.

That could be fly in/fly out same day or a 4 to 6 day trip with multiple segments.

I've sometimes forgotten what city I'm in, what airport I'm in or where I'm supposed to fly.

That said I'm strictly Delta, Hilton and National. I've got an executive membership with the Delta Sky Club, platinum status with the airline, close to Diamond with Hilton and Executive with National. Every little bit helps. And I only flew once internationally last year.

Lots of regionals, segments and connections. Pain in the fuckin ass.

When you've done this 10+ years it becomes a hassle. Still look forward to getting away though.

when I was younger I looked forward to it - especially air travel, now I'm disgusted by human beings, I feel like planes are virus/germ factories, and 90% of the travelers are just disgusting human beings.

hotels aren't clean enough - even the high end hotels I am not super critical and notice every little thing.

And don't get me started on airports.

I am all about convenience now when I travel for work even at the expense of cost when I can get away with it.

In comment 12042226 shepherdsam said:

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What hotel do you frequent?

Stay in Wyndham partner (Wyndham, Days Inn, etc) or IHG partner hotels (Holiday Inns, Intercontinental, Park Plaza, etc).

Rent from Dollar

Its all about the points and status

some of you guys. Just booked American for a trip JFK-LAX in February, though, as I didn't like the Delta options.

Year End - 101 US Air segments - 102 Hilton nights - watch a lot of football in hotel bars.

only the finest safe-houses and flops.

Oh, and I did stay at a Holiday Inn once.

almost exclusively Marriott's (platinum elite, blah blah blah member)

Hertz rental cars

No real Airline loyalty since I travel the whole eastern half of the country (out of EWR) and no one airline goes all the places I need. I'm more a slave to schedules then airlines.

I do have a Marriott rewards Visa which is good and the points add up really fast (I use it for all my travel expenses and get reimbursed)

Used to be a Chairman on USAir but I prefer to fly SW now. Made the companion pass this year in what seemed like a light travel year and have maintained Diamond Status with Hilton and Executive with National for over a decade.

I hate leaving home and I love coming back home but when I'm out there it isn't so bad.

In comment 12042268 johnelmer said:

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I do have a Marriott rewards Visa which is good and the points add up really fast (I use it for all my travel expenses and get reimbursed)

I have that card too. In fact, when I first got it back in the early 90's, I was getting 15 or 20 times the dollars spent (at Marriott) in points. Since then, I was forced to use the corporate Amex which sucks.

lucky my company is fairly small and I'm able to rack up all the points. And equally as important is that I get my expense check a week after I submit!

My business requires me to be away from home for extended periods of time over a usual 7 month period. At times if i am in Australia or New Zealand I am there for at least 2-3 months at a time. Its a bit better in the states but usually i am gone for 3 week stretches

I did 65 nights this year (two more coming up the 22nd and 23rd for good measure), with about 70 flight segments.

My territory is mostly California and I'll drive to anything south of Santa Barbara since I live in Encinitas. I would say half of my nights and flights were to the Bay Area or Sacramento.

My company is based outside of DC so I have to go there about 6 times a year, the only direct flight from San Diego is Southwest. So I usually fly with them. I like being able to stream Dish Network on my iPad...but that's about it.

My rental car company is Hertz. The check-in, check-out process is easy but I've heard good things about National.

My hotel chain is Marriott. Again, company based in DC so we're kind of forced to use them and get great rates. But I don't mind it. Kind of weird to think I've probably stayed in 30+ Courtyards this year.

I have the Marriott card too but company makes us use the corp AMEX and we get to keep the points.

While the travel sucks, I've been able to see cities I'd otherwise never go to (Eureka, Boise, Coeur d'Alene, most of Washington State, San Luis Obispo)

About 50% cheaper than a cab in San Diego.

Some other musts for a business traveler, good headphones (I hate bluetooth), favorite podcasts and reliable luggage.

I hate travel airlines suck so bad, enterprise is best car value, and Westin hotels are the best of the bunch.

Air: United and Alaska
Hotel: Marriott if I'm not in some odd, remote location
Car: Enterprise or Hertz

Unfortunately, most of my recent travel requires me to stay on oceanographic or work vessels and remote camps where even the most flea-bitten hotels seem like luxury. On the other hand, I've seen most of the Alaska coast this year as well as fished for salmon, halibut and king crab on the job. Strikes and gutters.....

he was able to make platinum on Delta on his last trip this year. We are lucky because we live outside of Atlanta, which is Delta's hub. He even flew to Charlotte, which is only 3 hours away by car, to get the miles. Unfortunately that day his flight home was delayed and he was 5 hours late, LOL.

He had enough miles to get me a ticket to London when he was there and also a ticket home to NYC for Christmas. Also, with his Hilton Diamond points, we had a hotel in London for 4 days (he was staying outside of London for his job).

The points/miles do add up. Delta is changing the way they reward miles in 2015 and is also redoing all it's classes. I don't know how that is going to be for him this year.

I traveled 5 days a week, leave monday morning, back by Friday afternoon. Different city every day, and yes, I often forgot where I was supposed to be going and confused where I was, especially when getting to bed at 1 in the morning and getting up at 3:30 to catch a 6:00am flight.

Stayed mostly at Marriott properties and flew mostly US Air. Now I always try to go Jet Blue.

I was in the same boat with travel - 90 plus segments a year - 125 + nights in hotel

Changed positions to cover less territory. Now only have to fly to corporate HQ or trade shows. Do not miss flying at all. Still on the road often but driving is much easier

Used only US Air for flying

Stay in Hilton properties

whole thread reminds me of "Up in the Air," and Willy Loman in "Death of a Salesman."

It is for me.

to exotic locations courtesy of the Department of Defense. I'd give anything to sleep on a bed in a Hilton.

I only travel for leisure, but I really love air travel and have since I was a kid. I could see how the constant travel would wear on someone though. It's gotta be rough if you have a family or young kids.

This is the most travel I've done in a year. I had platinum status with AA, falling short of it this year and being kicked back to Gold. I flew too much DL and regret it. I am Gold with Delta through next year. The problem is that while NY is a "focus city" for AA, they have limited routes because there is a lot of competition from the Jetblues and Deltas of the world. I gave up on making the extra connections to try and maintain AA status. Flew to Tampa in September and had to connect in Charlotte on the way out and in PHL on the way in. Flew to Santo Domingo and flew Delta direct on the way in and flew to MIA then LGA on the way back on AA for the miles. Same with Jamaica over 4th of July weekend.

Jamaica was a nightmare. We had to fly from LGA to PHL to MBJ but the LGA-PHL was cancelled and screwed up the outbound international leg. I ended up convincing them to keep me on the PHL-MBJ leg and I used an Amtrak from Grand Central to get us to Philly.

It's lame. I just want the easiest most direct way after that. Less chances for delays, no missed connections, less boarding and deboarding BS.

I have Gold status with Hilton and Starwood through credit cards.

That shit is for the birds.

this year.(Diamond)
Most of it was done the first half of the year.
Flights are Southwest and United.
I am done with the travelling for a while and could not be happier.

hate flying. I'm not afraid of it. I just hate it.

When I was younger and single I worked as a management consultant and was on the road all year. It was cool for a year and then it sucked. All the airports and hotels and office parks and even the cities started to be the same. Me and the people I worked with would tell travel stories and compare frequent flier miles and programs. I thought it sucked and wouldn't want to do it again but some people I worked with loved the road warrior lifestyle. A lot of the married people would joke "its not cheating if you're more than a thousand miles from home". Again, not my cup of tea but someof the men and women I worked with really liked it.

Now I travel to home office in Texas once or sometimes twice a month. Its okay, I stay in the Four Seasons and fly JetBlue. Still, there's no place like home and there's a reason I tolerate the ridiculous cost of living in NYC area.

it for a few years now and I'm sure there will come a time when it will get old. Hell, there are plenty of times now when it get's old (...missing a connection and staying it some shitty airport hotel, getting 3 hours sleep and trying to get the first flight out, cancelled flights, etc, etc) but for the most part I still enjoy it.

One of the things I try to do is get into or out of a city I've never been to, or haven't spent much time in, with a few extra hours padded into the trip. Be it going to the R&R Hall of Fame, going to a Minor league Baseball game, visit a museum or presidential library, whatever, makes the trips much more entertaining. I'm fortunate that I book all my own travel and have a lot of independence so it might not work for everyone but just a thought.

And yes Mstyles22, headphones (Bose noise cancelling for me) and good luggage (I love my Tumi carry-on to an almost unhealthy degree) make a world of difference!

We should be sharing the rate codes that we know about.. don't you think?

have anything to add to the party as far as codes go (again, I'm pretty lucky. As far as budget goes - my expense budget is literally "don't be a dick". meaning don't stay at the Ritz but don't stay at Motel 6 either) so I don't really pay too much attention to codes. That being said, I'd love to hear them if anyone wants to share!!! :-)

94 segments on United this year. 137K miles flown. 187 nights in Marriotts.

Done for the year now though. Looking forward to not going anywhere for a couple of weeks. My travel tends to be pretty constant as far as location. I go to the same place for several months before moving to a different location. Been in Dallas for 2 years now though.

I traveled maybe 4 times in my career for work, and always wanted to travel more say once a month. But now reading this I may change my mind, God bless you guys hope you are all home for the holidays with your family. 300 days a year! wow, they asked me at the new company I just got hired at if I wanted to travel i said YES sure. Probably a bad move

is making my agoraphobic nature cringe.

Fly United mostly, have GS status with them, that alone keeps me coming back while the rest of the product deteriorates (though I think they have turned a corner, some aspects of the experience are getting better). If I'm not on UAL/Star Alliance I'm on AA.

I rent mostly with Hertz so I am Presidents Circle there, but Hertz is garbage. I have Avis Presidents Club (came with an old Continental credit card) which is routinely better than Hertz PC, but you can't beat the Hertz discount codes/cheats for rates, especially personal rentals.

For hotels, my go-to is Hyatt (Diamond), but just there aren't enough full-service Hyatts around outside of major cities/metro areas. I get comped Gold status annually at Hilton, Marriott and Starwood through various means, so my hotel strategy is Hyatt if possible, if not, then whichever big box is closest to where I need to go. I don't do enough hotel nights to make top tier in two programs and I find Hyatt treats its Diamonds extraordinarily well.

Air New Zealand, Lufthansa, Virgin, British Air. Stay in Le Meridians, AKAs, Four Seasons when in Europe, US, Pacific; Budapest, Prague, Frankfurt, London, Paris, Brisbane, Wellington.

Another story when staying Kuala Lumpur, Nampula, Accra, Tonga, Almaty, Chennai, Pondicherry, a whole lot of 3rd world.

One thing, watching NFL on Game Pass a couple days after the games with commercials edited out reinforces the notion that the NFL product has been homogenized for the worse.

In comment 12042235 MookGiants said:

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if I want to if its over 4-5 hours of driving, but my nearest airport is very small and I'd have to connect to pretty much get anywhere and they routinely cancel the short flight from here to Philly to connect or from Philly to here. Not worth the hassle. I'm comfortable driving

Try Allentown.

had to pay $100 for it. It allows you to zip through customs but also I was finger printed and backround checked so that I would always get the TSA pre-check. I had this the day Newark got pre-check.

Now, they let anyone through pre-check it seems. Some people dont even know why or how they got it. Meanwhile, I had the full background check. Makes you wonder how people can easily get something through security.

That ID was paid off though. Quite a few times I booked the gov't rate with Marriott. Sometimes you save at least $100 per night. They ALWAYS ask for ID when you book that rate. I show that ID and they have never seen it before. Looks official.

EricJ. I've had the Global Entry ID for a few years now and it was fantastic (and well worth Going to Newark to get fingerprinted and watch the video!). Took six months to get it and blew right through security every time. Now I don't know what the hell is going on. A couple months ago there were 5 or 6 senior citizens in front of me who had no idea what the hell the drill was. No offense to the older folks, hell I'm near 50 so I'm well on my way but, the whole idea is to make it faster and reduce the bottleneck I would assume. They were taking their shoes off, not sure what to do with belts, shoes, jackets, etc, etc, it took forever. I'm not trying to sound whiney but, that system worked great (unlike most of the rest of the TSA) so why did they mess with it. Most of the people in that line now don't get it!!!

Not sure why. But I love not having to take off my shoes.