For the über-Road Warriors - those who spend their lives on the road

A few days ago, I posted an open invitation for business bloggers to guest blog.  In addition, I also sent out 3 emails to fellow road gladiators whose business travel account I admire.  Greg Wesson was one of these guys.  I'll let him introduce himself to you...

Back in March of 2004, I was standing at a urinal that, via the rubber urinal cake holder was informing me that I was at Eppley Airfield, the world's cleanest airport. The speaker above me cracked to life, "Attention passengers on American Airlines flight 4276 to Chicago, the inbound aircraft has not yet left Chicago. We expect that the plane should land at approximately 2 o'clock, and that it should take about 15 minutes to turn the flight around, so the flight should now be leaving at 2:15 P.M. There are thunderstorms to the west of O'Hare, and a number of flights in Chicago are delayed. For passengers who are connecting in Chicago, it is quite likely that your connecting flights are delayed, so you could still make your connecting flights." An hour and ten minute delay, looks like it was going to be a long travel day.

My name is Greg Wesson, and I am a seasoned business traveler. Since 1997, I have worked and traveled for three different consulting firms, including two of the "Big Five." The lifestyle of a Big Five Consultant is one of constant travel.  My job is to temporarily go to companies and help them with specific projects in their call center and marketing departments. The projects can last from as short as a couple of weeks to as long as a year. The companies can be anywhere. I fly out Monday morning to the client site and back home on Thursday or Friday, just to turn around and do it all again on Monday morning.  I have spent at least a month in: Detroit, Montreal, Denver, Columbus, San Antonio, St. Louis, San Francisco, Atlanta, Las Vegas, Paris, and small town New Jersey in addition to my home town of Toronto, Ontario and my current location of Omaha, Nebraska, at Eppley Airfield, waiting for my flight to Chicago.  

That day in March was to be a very long travel day.  After more delays in Omaha, a missed connection in Chicago and another 3 hours of delays, we landed in Toronto after 11:00 PM. I cleared Canadian customs, got into a cab and was home just before midnight Eastern Time. I left the office in Omaha just after 11:30 central time (12:30 eastern time), so that means my original 6 and a half hour commute had almost doubled to near twelve hours. I sat down on my couch and popped open a cold beer. In twelve hours I had finished a book, completed the U.S.A. Today crossword puzzle and collected 1000 air miles on my American Airlines AAdvantage program, taking my total to 24,908 miles. That's only 92 miles away from gaining a free flight from my hometown of Toronto to somewhere in Canada or the U.S., like say, Omaha's Eppley Airfield, the world's cleanest airport. That's not a bad deal for 12 hours of my life, is it?

Next articles by Greg Wesson:

(1) Lug light luggage, clean clothes cost effectively

(2) Out Of The Country?  Don't Get Sick!